IB Planner Review

City High has planners! Well, to be fair, City has had planners for a while, but now they have their own planners. I received my planner a few weeks ago, and I have a lot of thoughts about it, so I’m going to give it a full review. Let’s start with the best part: it’s free! If you need a good way to organize your homework assignments, and you don’t want to spend any money, then this is your planner. I know that the previous sentence basically sums up the entire debate for many of you, but believe me, this planner has so much more to it.

For one, it isn’t based around a calendar system. It has pages with the days of the week that do not include dates, which makes it usable across different school years, and still makes each page relevant even if you miss a week. This is especially important because the planners were released so late in the school year, and it would really be a shame if they were only useful for one marking period. But don’t worry, if you are someone who likes to plan things out around dates, there are plenty of places on the planner to write the date. That covers all the information about how the planner helps you plan your homework assignments, which is usually where most planners end. But this is no ordinary planner.

The City Planner includes several different elements that are designed to help you enrich your life. One of them is a goal check in. This is a system within the planner that asks you to write down your goals, then write down steps you are taking to achieve those goals. That may sound like an unnecessary feature for a planner, but even if you choose not to fill it out, it still has the potential to make you consider what your goals really are, which I think we can all agree is a positive thing. Another element that was added into this planner is the Creative Expression Section. In this section, there are pages with color-in pictures that you can use for a relaxing art-break. Now, this may seem like a bit of an elementary feature for a highschool planner, but there are also blank pages where you can sketch your own art without being confined to a predetermined picture. Another element is the Cultural Learning Section. This section provides information about how to be more open-minded in your approach to different cultures and ideas, which can help you grow as a person. There is also a Social-Emotional Learning Section where you can learn more about your connection to the world around you and become more engaged with yourself.

These are just a few of the many features within this new planner, which should give you some idea about the thought that went into creating it. So overall, this planner is pretty great. It has a great system for tracking your homework assignments that is not affected by the date, and it has plenty of extra features that can help you become a more well-rounded student. There also isn’t much stopping you, because as I mentioned, it’s free! I suggest that you all pick one up as soon as you get a chance.