A system built for the job you actually have.
Created for school leaders by a school leader, The Elephant Planner gives you one place to plan for instruction, culture, operations, and families, so your thinking stops living on sticky notes.
$26.99 Buying for your admin team? Adjust the quantity at checkout.
To process it all, you have to write it down.
There is something about paper that lets you process information in a way a screen never will. It also feels awkward to open a laptop in the middle of a parent meeting or a sensitive teacher conversation. A notebook is friendlier, more present, and more respectful.
But when you open a planner from a stationery company, it is obvious that whoever designed it has no idea what happens in the day to day of an assistant principal. So your thinking ends up scrambled across sticky notes that vanish before you make it back to your desk. Been there before?
Start organizing your thoughts, your meetings, and your school year one page at a time.
Let's Get Started
Tools to help you align your vision, set your targets, and start the school year off strong.
Instruction
Systems for observation and feedback processing, responding to data, tracking MTSS, and prepping for weekly coaching cycles.
People
Frameworks to support a healthy school culture, strategize building trust, and deliberately track individual teacher needs.
Operations & Family
Tactical templates for daily schedules, enrollment strategies, community partnerships, meeting agendas, and 36 weeks of communication planning.
Personal Leadership
Intentional tools designed to help you manage up, prepare for performance reviews, and build a concrete plan for self-care.
Pages made for the way you actually work.
Parent Meeting Log
Curriculum Overview
Leader Schedule
Immediate access, one flat price.
Single-user license for the 2026 to 2027 school year
Your purchase includes the complete 300+ page system, ready to print.
Get the Planner →Why we built this.
My best years in school leadership have not been my busiest years. They have been my most organized ones. That is when I could leave the building on time without guilt, knowing the work was handled.
Tended Collective exists to make this job sustainable. This system operationalizes your day to day work, so you can lead exceptionally well and still have a life outside the school walls.
Sharon Michaels, Ed.D.Founder, Tended Collective
Everything you might be wondering.
Is this a physical product?
What are the file and printing specifications?
What makes this planner different from others?
Most planners are built for a generic professional and then relabeled for educators. This one starts from how adults actually learn and how school leaders actually manage, so every page is a working tool rather than a place to store dates.
- Adult learning. Following Malcolm Knowles on andragogy, adults engage when learning is immediately useful and tied to a real problem. That is why each section gives you something to do this week, not something to read.
- Instructional leadership. The planning and data meeting worksheets are inspired by the research popularized by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, built around short, recurring routines that use real student work.
- Goal setting. Following Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, specific goals paired with regular feedback outperform goals alone, so no goal page here exists without baseline, target, and checkpoints.
- People and trust. The appreciation pages draw on Gary Chapman and Paul White, and the trust pages on Zaretta Hammond's trust generators.
- Reflection and sustainability. The reflection questions follow Donald Schon on reflective practice, and the wellness pages take Christina Maslach's finding that burnout responds to job conditions rather than personal weakness.
Is the planner dated, and can I get a refund?
The Elephant Planner is an independent product. It is inspired by publicly available instructional leadership research and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, licensed by, or sponsored by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Relay Graduate School of Education, or any other author or organization named here.
The work gets better because of how we manage it.
One week, one page, and one decision at a time.
Instant download · 2026 to 2027 license · Grayscale and print ready
The Elephant Planner for Assistant Principals is a digital product of Tended Collective. Licensed for use by one person for the 2026 to 2027 school year from the date of purchase. Files may not be shared, resold, redistributed, or posted publicly. All sales are final. This product is independently created and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any author, publisher, or organization referenced on this page.
© 2026 Tended Collective · tendedcollective.com