How to use Trello in the Classroom: 3 Easy Steps
Trello is a useful online organizational tool that will help you organize your ideas for lessons and unit plans in a flexible way. Teachers can use Trello on their desktop or download the app for mobile use. Once you give unit planning with Trello a try you won’t turn back.
How to use Trello
I love my day planner that sits on my teacher desk. I use it to plan out my weeks and months and it keeps me super organized… but it does NOTHING to help me get my unit or year plans organized.
I used to use a giant piece of paper that was divided into columns and rows to plan out my year and units but then when I came up with ideas on the spot I didn’t have that paper with me. It's so much more convenient to be able to plan these things on my phone or computer. Who’s with me?
Trello is extremely user-friendly and you can use it even if you aren’t tech savvy. Once your units are planned out in Trello you can still use your cute day planner to plan out your days and weeks.
Trello makes brainstorming ideas and organizing your thoughts a breeze (and I love anything that makes my busy life easier!). I do my thinking and working at home in my self-care space and it feel GOOD.
I’ll show you how it works.
How to use Trello in the Classroom
In my post about using trello to plan for distance learning, I wrote about how Trello is like a giant posterboard filled with sticky notes. Imagine you can write on the sticky notes, add new ones, remove some and move them all around the wall. In Trello the sticky notes are called cards. You can organize them into themes and add and remove cards as you please. Genius!
Within each card, you can add descriptions, add links, colour-coded labels and attach files. Trust me, you’ll get the hang of it so quickly!
The best part is that the FREE version of Trello is all I use and it does everything I need it to. You’ll want to snag these Free French Flashcards if you’re teaching French Immersion as well.
Trello can help teachers collaborate
Once you have your ideas organized in Trello, you can share your board with others who can then add their own ideas, notes and make changes. This is amazing for team teaching!
If you send your board to another teacher, they can duplicate the board and make changes for themselves as well. In September we may still be teaching by distance and trying to do a lot more outdoor education. It that’s the case, school will look different which means a lot more planning and thinking for teachers. Here’s a fun nature crown craft and a mermaid sensory bin idea you might want to add to your plans.
Another bonus feature is that is that there’s a calendar Power-up which means if you want to ditch your paper planner you can plan certain lessons to be on specific days.
Trello has some amazing demo and tutorial videos that can hlep you get started ASAP.
Steps to use Trello for unit and year planning
Brainstorm activities for your unit. You can link websites and files right in the card. You can also add what materials you will need to gather right into the card description.
Sort the activities into what subject they fall into (math, literacy etc.)
(Optional) Use the Power-up function to assign lessons to days of the week
Do you use a paper or a digital planner or a hybrid? Let me know in the comments! Let me know if you give Trello and try and what you think!
-Breyen
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