Purple Malden - One year on.

It is about a year ago that I bought a pink Finsbury A5 Filofax to use for work but if I am really honest it was the Purple Malden that I was really after.  I still have the Finsbury and wondering if I should sell it as it was only used for three months.

Anyway, I looked at how to set it up over the next few months then as work too off with exams etc I put it to one side with the view to really using it last September.

Over the summer holidays I worked out the layout for the day to day pages that would work for me as I had always been given a teacher planner in the past, but that was now stopping in favour of an ipad but I like to have information on paper and the process of writing things down helps me to start to remember things.  Well not always ...............

The picture above shows that perhaps I am a "stuffer" but that is mainly due to what I need all the time more than anything.

The inside flap is always in use with post-it notes, colour coded stickers, memory sticks etc.  Plus pieces of paper to write on.

Opposite is my dashboard which I have just cleared as we are starting a school break for a week.  I made my own and laminated it so that it would last for at least a school year.  

I like using different sized paper so that i can see past sections and these are large post-it note agenda sheets from Asda. Due to the paper being quite thin I could fold them in half and use both sides. Ideal for note taking at meetings and slotting them into my diary later.

Colour coded stickers for groups.  I put these in place within my diary to see at a glance if a meeting or occasion is related to a specific year.

I also like clear dashboards so this is a piece of thick acetate sheet which I cut down and punched holes to add some smaller post-it notes.  It has a tab so that I can find it and I just add the stickers using a strip of double sided.

In case I need to make any changes next year, rather than laminating the tab titles in I have added them on top with stickers.

Last year I used the diary that came with the Filofax but found it was too bulky and there were several days each month when I did not write anything in.  So for 2014 I decided to print off the month to a page from Philofaxy and it has been working really well.

I also printed off a week to a page for more detailed and busy weeks.  I only put in a couple of months at a time to save space.
These are working so much better than the diary that came with it.  I like the fact that the page is split and there are no unnecessary extra calendars or months written in several languages getting in the way.  I use my colour coded stickers on these pages to show which meetings are linked to which year group or for which training session it might be.  The colour stickers are not very big but do show up clearly on the lilac paper that I have chosen to print the pages on.

The above picture is of my own layout which Hubby helped me to draw on Autocad so that I can change it to suit my needs at work.  This is the page which starts each week and I can write in items to remember and forth coming events etc.

The front page is then followed with these daily pages which divides my day up with the three lesson sessions of 100 minutes each.  I then just need to slot in the date etc at the very top.  they have been set up to print two on an A4 page and double sided.  This take a bit of working out but I have been printing them for a few months and I do a batch at a time to see me through a term.
I also have a few grid pages for monitoring class progress etc.
All in all it is working really well and the A5 is definitely the size I need and I intend on using my Malden for many years to come.
If you have stuck with me this far well done! and I hope it has been useful to see what I have done with my work/teaching Filofax.  Any questions just leave a comment.
Take care
xx