When I started my TPT business, I knew that I wanted to focus on creating resources that teachers NEEDED. Resources that would save them time, help them get or stay organized, and support learners in their spaces.
It didn’t take a day-long brainstorm for me to figure out that Daily Agenda Slides were high on that list.
When I was teaching, there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t use these slides to keep myself organized and support the learning that was happening in my space. They were ESPECIALLY vital when we were thrown into teaching remotely during COVID.
I was super thankful that it was already a practice I had in place. Instead of scrambling, I was able to continue with a routine that I was already quite familiar with. It also made it easier for me to be a resource for my fellow professionals who hadn’t hopped on the Daily Agenda Slides train yet 🙂
So, let’s cut to the chase.
The rest of this blog will be filled with at least ten (with maybe a bonus or two) ways that I regularly used Daily Agenda slides in my classroom.
1. The Weekly Overview
The weekly overview can take several different formats. The main goal is for students (and you) to be able to see exactly what the entire week will look like.
It doesn’t have to be super in depth, but instead just a short summary of the MAIN activities you will be working on each day. This is a GREAT place for any upcoming events, major tests or quizzes, or school-wide notices that students should be aware of.
2. The Daily Plan
The daily plan is flexible also as far as formatting goes. The main goal of the daily plan is to give students a focused view of exactly what they will be doing that day.
This is a great slide to display as they enter the room or have up in the background while you move from activity to activity. It gives students an idea of what is coming up next.
3. Classroom Routines
One way an efficient classroom is created is through structure and routines. Often teaching these routines can be a challenge. Using slides to display the routines serves as a visual reminder AND student support.
Having a slide display the routine when it is first being taught will help students understand and apply the routine more quickly and usually more effectively. Plus, when a ROUTINE REFRESHER is needed (and we know it will be!), just pull out that slide again.
Some routines you may choose to make slides for are: start-of-class, bell-ringers, using certain spaces around the room (pencil sharpener, book shelf, safe space, etc.), exit tickets, end-of-class, assignment turn-in, etc.
PLUS – – the slides you make could always be printed and displayed around the room for PERMANENT visual reminders!
4. Norms and/or Expectations
The beginning of the school year is FULL OF NEW things – new people, new classes, new routines, new, new, new. Having slides that display the norms and expectations for your space or even a specific activity can REALLY help students with the information overload of a new year.
Plus, you can use these again as new students are added to your class or students need to review or practice them again.
5. Activity or Assignment Instructions
This one is one of my favorites. As a teacher, we know how often we end up repeating ourselves. So 👏🏼 Many 👏🏼 Times 👏🏼
Having a slide that is displaying the directions for the current activity means that students can build more autonomy. If they have a question, look at the slide. If they weren’t paying attention when directions were given, look at the slide. If they can’t remember what the next step is…yup…look at the slide.
This is especially great for middle school as we are trying to build their learner autonomy!
6. Groups, Stations, or Rotations
If you’ve ever tried to run small groups, stations, or rotations, you know what cluster… it can turn into ;).
People in the wrong groups, students moving to the wrong station, rotations ending up out of order, shouts of, “Wait, where am I supposed to be.” or “What do we do now?!” resounding through the room. Eek. Hopefully you weren’t being observed on those days!
Thankfully, posting the groups, stations, or rotation schedule on your display screen can clear up a lot of confusion!!
PLUS – you can use the slides to make the individual group, station, or rotation directions to print out or display where they are needed.
7. Learning Targets
Often times it is a district policy that the learning targets, learning goals, or standards we are targeting in our lesson are displayed before, during, or after (or all three) the lesson itself. Daily agenda slides are a FANTASTIC way to present this information.
I especially like using a slide like the ones above to discuss our learning targets BEFORE the lesson and review the targets AFTER our lesson.
These same slides can be posted in Seesaw, Schoology, Google Classroom, or whatever learning platform your school uses. This makes it easy super easy for parents and guardians to stay up to date on what their kiddos are learning too!
8. Student Supports
Differentiation, differentiation, differentiation. I don’t know about you, but differentiation was the name of the game in my classrooms. We had so many learners with varying educational backgrounds, language abilities, and learning needs, that it was rarely possible or equitable to use a one-size-fits-all approach to our lesson.
Slides can be used to display a variety of student supports: word banks, sentence frames or sentence starters, background knowledge, graphs, charts, diagrams and other visual supports, examples or models, and so many more.
9. Student Recognition
Who doesn’t love a SHOUT-OUT?! You could make slides into a classroom display, print-out certificate or simply just a little side note on one of your weekly or daily agenda slides.
Student of the Week, Student of the Month, Student Spotlight, Star Student…the list goes on. All of these can be created with a daily slide set that provides you with some flexibility.
PS: All of the daily slides resources I create I design with this in mind. I want teachers to be able to use my Daily Agenda Slides for WAY MORE than simply what’s just going on that day!
10. School-Wide Announcements
Keeping up with what is going on in the classroom can be a difficult task. Keeping up with what is going on across the school can be even more difficult – – especially for our middle schoolers who have just transitioned from Elementary School where all they needed was in one spot!
Display the newest or most important announcements on one slide to really capture their attention. Have them add it to their notes or their agendas or print them out to send home.
BONUS #1: Assignment Templates
Student projects, bell-ringers, exit tickets, routine assignments, daily journaling…all of these could be done using daily slides. You would simply create your templates using the blank or template slides that are given.
Build on these templates to incorporate all the things you need for each of these types of assignments. Add instructions, examples, images, timelines, outlines, rubrics, and whatever else you need to support your students.
BONUS #2: Parent/Teacher Conferences Display
Edit a couple of slides to create a display for your parent teacher conferences. This could be displayed in the room or posted on the student platform you use in your district.
To wrap things up,
It’s clear that daily agenda slides can be very versatile. The beautiful thing is the more often you display information on your screen and post it on your classroom platform, the more frequently and consistently students will start using this tool on their own!
As students begin to realize where the information is, they will start to seek it out even without asking you for the millionth time 😉
If you’ve liked the look of any of the images on this post, all of these are part of the resources I have created.
Click on any of the images in the gallery below to purchase the product from my TPT storefront.
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