Thoroughly dissatisfied with my level of disorder (if you're a former student, you know that piles are my thing, for better or for worse). So, I have been searching online for a complete binder that satisfies my high school needs. Unfortunately, most teacher binders cater to elementary folks, so I endeavored to make my own.
Here's what I did. (Also, if you want my files I will totally send then to you, just comment below!)
1. Use a heavy duty binder, and put in a super cute cover sheet. Mine is 1.5" which at first I thought was too big, now I'm wondering if it will all fit. And, of course, use command strips to cover your name.
2. Buy some tab dividers, becasue you will create tons of sections. I have one for each month, behind which I placed a month view calendar and my weekly view lesson plans. I also have one for grades and one for attendance, the pages for which I'll print off from my gradebook once the semester is underway. I'll have one for SOLs also. I'm thinking behind that will go my IEP and 504 paperwork for my SpEd students, divided by block.
Here's a look at my monthly planning page
3. For each month, you'll have a view like this for important dates and to space out your pacing guide. I don't have a calendar or a pack g guide for my new school, so my months are blank for now.
Weekly lesson view. I need color in my life, and I broke it into 4 sections left to right with the dark colors denoting M-F and the column on the right denoting the dates, handwritten.
4. In each month, you'll also want the weeks lesson pages. There are tons of lesson pages online. My lesson pages are designed for a 4x4 block. This gives me 3 courses per day, plus a planning block. I leave a block for planning each day because I like to jot down, "make copies of" or "call soandso". Thats whah I struggle to find, because most are aimed at elementary teachers with 1 class covering all the subjects. I learned a lesson here about spacing when you print, so I have to print some more. I am definitely willing to send directions for others. If they want.
5. Wait until the semester begins to get the grade sheets, attendance pages, etc. I plan to print out a blank one for each course with my students names already typed in. I can use that for checking off HW, etc. Then, as grades are entered in, I'll also print off an updated paper copy of the grades in case the system crashes.
As the year progresses, I'm looking forward to adapting my teacher binder for how I've been using it.
How about you? What type of system do you use to plan and keep everything organized? Do you write anything down? Are you even asked to have lessons to show ever? Or are you at a school where you must submit lesson plans every so often?
