Planners more than meets the eye

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to carry around a calendar, a world map, a periodic table of elements, common mathematical equations and a place to write down the daily homework? Well, the student planner has all of these useful items and even more.

Every year a new planner comes out and even though there are many additional features located toward the back of it, many students only use the planner part, ignoring the rest of it. Other students, like sophomore Kyle Schulz, believe that some of the extra features are unnecessary.
“I find it inconvenient to take out the planner and search for the information that I need, when there are usually more practical places to find the information like in my notes or worksheets,” said Schulz.
Finding information in one’s planner may be a hassle for some students but, for others, it’s easy.
“I never really used the information in the planner because I didn’t know that it was there until after I became accustomed to using other sources to find the same information,” said sophomore Brady Horn. “But, with the amount of information that it contains, the planner is a very valuable resource for a high school student.”
There are also students, such as junior Vijay Menon, who never use the planners to keep track of their work, as there other methods to remember homework, such as websites used by teachers.
The planner has information not only valuable to freshmen and sophomores, with algebraic equations and units of measurement, but to juniors and seniors as well, with equations from trigonometry and physics. It also refers to proper citation methods and complex parts of speech and punctuation, for those pesky English essays—not to mention the fact that it also lists every U.S. president and has a world map naming the capital cities for every country.
“In some cases, I feel as though I could do all of my homework based off the information in the planner, and still do as well as if I used my notes from class,” said Horn.
Not only do the students at SHS believe in the utility of planners, but also some of the teachers as well.
“Now that students have school, sports, and extracurricular activities, students have to be organized,” said social studies teacher Kirk Abe. “A planner allows them to be organized.”
Planners can be purchased along with the yearbook in an ASB package, a total cost of roughly $108.
It may be in most backpacks at SHS yet, for many students like Schulz, the only purpose for the planner is to write down homework, making it one of the hidden treasures at school. Although it contains a lot of useful information, the primary uses for the planner are still the best ones—getting organized and planning ahead.
“It may have great value for other students, but I only use it to remember what my homework is. But the fun facts every week give me also something to look forward to,” said Schulz with a grin.