Time management is my biggest challenge as a teacher. I used to stay after school every single day for 2 hours or more, as well as grade and lesson plan at home. I burned out. Work consumed my life.

I have done everything I can to make myself never feel like that again. A huge part of this career is managing your time. I have a very strict after school policy, as well as a personal philosophy about taking work home.

But come the end of the quarter, I STILL end up with a million last minute things to do. Enter my latest idea.

Kanban Boards

Kanban is extremely popular in the business world right now, especially in software development. This method helps to visualize the steps of a process. Generally, the process is categorized into, “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done” or something similar. This can be virtual or a physical board displayed in the workplace. Tasks are moved through the stages until they are completed. It provides evidence and visualization for productivity.

 Why Use Kanban Boards? Here is an overview of Kanban boards and software, LeanKit, that is geared towards business solutions.

Last year, I had the idea that Kanban boards can be used for teachers. I decided to do lesson planning on the virtual platform, Trello. Trello is one of the most versatile productivity tools I have ever used – I have boards for my website, lesson plans, cooking, and home to-dos. I love my lesson planning board, but I also like to hand write my lesson plans. I enjoy having physically to-do lists. Additionally, I wanted students to be able to contribute to-dos. Like I said in an earlier post, I want my classroom to be student-driven.

My personal lesson planning Trello board. I love being able to drag and drop the days if I need to adjust my lesson plans.

My New Board


I came up with a solution in a fit of frustration as my grading pile got larger and students kept reminding me of more to do. I made a physical Kanban board, put everything I needed to do on sticky notes, and invited students to add to it. Simple.

Excuse the messiness and unwashed board – I do not joke when I say I had the idea and implemented it within about 10 minutes.

It is messy – I will clean my board until it’s white again and redo the title cards. However, within minutes of setting this up, I felt my stress level decrease. If a student asked me to do something, I handed them a sticky note and put it in the to-do section. As I graded, I felt gratified as I got to move each sticky note to the “done” section.

What do you think? Are you as unorganized as I was? Do you think this method will help keep you on track? I hope the idea of Kanban boards for teachers will help get you thinking on how to organize your teaching!