Organize Your Teaching Resources!

I'm all about making things better for me and more efficient! And let me tell you, I've tried almost everything you can think of when it comes to organizing my curriculum. I just haven't been too good at this...ever!

I've tried file folders... only to have the paper falling out all over the place!

I've tried putting all my resources in binders... only to have so many that I didn't know which one to look through!

I've tried storing everything digitally... but the folders became too overwhelming!

I've tried folders... again! This time in a file cabinet, but I quickly figured out that by standard was not the way to go!

Finally... I came up with a solution that I think is going to work for me! After I created my year-long curriculum/pacing guide, it became clear that I needed something! It's still the binder method, but it's more organized! My first step was to pace out my school year based on my county's curriculum map. When I finished, it looked like this!

I LOVE IT! It's so easy to glance over and see what's coming up. It's also super easy to see exactly what I'm teaching each quarter. If you would like me to upload the template on TpT, please let me know. This idea lead me to my new binder system. So, Quarterly Binders were born!! If you want the cover template, please let me know! You can now download the template in my shop by clicking here.

The first thing I did was go down my pacing guide and create a tab for each skill in reading, LA, and writing. Then, I divided the tabs into 4 different binders.

Then, I went through my go-to resources and pulled out things I *KNOW* I will use and placed them in the correct binder and then tab.

When it's time for planning, I just grab my quarterly binder and find what I want to use. It's sitting right on my table right beside my desk.

It's so easy! Why didn't I think of this like 3 years ago???? What's your favorite way to organize your resources?

Here's an image for pinning!

Focus Board.. YAY!

Hi guys!  I'm so impressed that I'm going to have more than one post this week... say what??  I wanted to share my new focus board with you.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with it.  I have moved all of my things into one central location at the front of the room.  Here's what it looks like.

It may be difficult to see, but the top left are our "We Can" statements.  In the past, my district required us to post "I Can" statements with the standard.  I have decided that I like "We" because it instills a sense of community in the classroom.  I *just* realized that I forgot my subject area labels for this block. Oh well, guess I'll fix that tomorrow.

In the bottom left, I have our EQs for each subject I teach.  These are directly related to the standard or "We Can" statement that we are focusing on for each day.  To the right of that you will see our weekly skills area.  Again, this is correlated to both the EQs and the "We Can" statements.  I love that the students have one place on Monday where they can come and check what we are studying that week.

Above it are our 'no excuse' words.  These are words that our district has identified for 5th grade students to know how to spell.  They should have "no excuse" for not knowing them.  I have 20 each week and then we add them to our word wall.  I highly encourage the use of our word wall during writing.

In the {ugly} green pocket chart are our prefix, suffix, and root words.  I'll go into that tomorrow :)  They are color-coded to match what we are doing in class.

 Here's what that area of my board looked like at the beginning of the year... blah!  I rarely used it even though I knew I should.  To be honest, I don't even think the students looked at it much.

You may remember how *unhappy* I was about this focus wall.  This is where it use to be.  Now, I have both places (and purposes) combined into one!

I just love my new focus wall.  I was so excited to talk to the students about it today!