Customizing the Lesson Plan Template

Internal committees, early beta users, and our first pilot group of users all asked for the same thing, “Can we customize the template for the lesson plan?”  So we put our technical staff to work and they delivered.  In essence, Planbook Plus provides a great framework for planning, by day, by week, or by unit.  But the details of the lesson plan are all left up to you.

Planbook Plus has a built-in template that you can use to get you started, but in the end, it’s all up to you.  You can change the name of any element in the template.  You can add an unlimited number of fields.  You are not limited to text narrative fields; you can define choice fields, number fields, and date fields as well.  Once you define your template you can use that same template for other planbooks.  Why would I create other planbooks?  Well that’s another article.

What’s great about this feature is that when you update your template, all lesson plans in the planbook are aligned with the new template.  If you are currently using a word processor, I cringe at the thought of opening up that many files and trying to realign each file to the new template.

Custom template fields are also reflected in the custom views feature.  Two views which display lesson plans, the Calendar view and the Weekly Planner, allow you to define which elements are visible on the screen (and in printed reports).  Both allow you to add and remove specific elements from the screen so that you see the information you require at that time giving you more control.  Once you set it, Planbook Plus remembers these settings.

Custom templates make Planbook Plus an incredibly flexible online lesson planning tool.  Couple that with the benefits of a true lesson plan management system and you will soon realize the power of Planbook Plus!