Organization at its....best?

I decided it sounded like fun to participate in a linky party!  Thank you Fun in Room 4B for hosting and giving us teachers the opportunity to share what we know and to gain new ideas from others.

I've had fun this year trying out new ideas and techniques.  I hope you enjoy seeing some of what I did and maybe pass it along.  I had trouble getting some of the pictures to be up right, I apologize.  At some point I will try and go in to fix it but let's be honest: it's the end of the school year and things are crazy; it'll take a while.

 This is a system I started using this year as I've, for the first time, had specific items the students had to turn in every Friday no matter what.  Every week students had to turn in Practice Sheets that were tailored to their needs.  I go in to more detail about that process here.  

The unmarked box is for the alternating assignments due on Fridays.  Every other week the students turn in either a Non-Fiction report, or a Lit Study.

The boxes have helped me to keep everything together and have helped the students know where to turn things in.

This may seem silly (mostly because the picture is sideways) but it's come in handy.  Each of my students work on individualized Lit Studies.  It gets to be confusing when students finish books and need new packets because they are all working at a different pace.  The only way I could find to save my sanity (or what's left of it) was for them to write down what I'm supposed to copy.  It stays on the board until I've copied it and then I give it to the appropriate student.

The snack list is used to make sure students to take each other's snack. You'd think it wouldn't be an issue in 7th grade, but good gracious!  It seems none of them ever want the school provided snack until they realize it's a really good one.  Then the poor kid who asked for it doesn't get one.  With their name on the board, I can quickly make sure the kid who signed up for snack gets one before the piranhas attack.

The date isn't anything new or fancy, it just helps keep things central so students know where to find the date.  This is the most extensive calendar I keep for them.  (ignore the sloppy day, apparently the student who changed the date wasn't quite sure if it was the 20th or the 21st)

The part I liked the most this year was the list under the date.  When students walk into my room they know where to look to see what I want out on their desk.  They Get out what it is I want to see, and they get started on the bell work.  It helps to keep the chaos to a minimum during transition.

Again, sorry about the un-rotated pictures.  Your neck needed a good workout anyway from all of the blog reading.  This is my filing cabinet, super exciting I know.  This year, to take lunch count, I put magnets I bought from Wal-Mart with each of my students' numbers on them.  When the student walks in they stop by and put their magnet either on 'Lunch From Home' or 'Lunch From School'.  This allows me to easily get a lunch count to send up to the office.

Back on my individualized Lit Studies, this is where I store the ones I've printed.  This allows me to easily find the story that was requested and make copies of it.  I also keep copies of the answer key in each folder, but I tend to use the electronic copy for grading so that it's easier and quicker.

Finally, my teacher binder.  I hope you don't mind that I've whited out some of the information that may be too personal for inter-web usage.  If you do mind, such is life.

Inside the front cover I keep a copy of what day each teacher has duties.  This helps us to keep track of each other and to figure out who needs covered on days that we're absent.  As my school is quite tiny, our middle school team (a grand total of 4 of us) tends to take care of ourselves.

On the inside cover I keep the weekly schedule for all three grades.  I love having this quick reference here so that I know where the kids are supposed to be and more importantly where I'm supposed to be.

When you open my cover AGAIN (coolest binder ever and I can't find it anymore!) I have their Galileo scores and post-it notes.  You never know when you'll need either of those things!

Behind the schedules I keep my curriculum maps.  As we have new books for LA this year, it's come in hand as I'm planning my lessons.

I have three dividers; one for each grade.  I keep a class list with places to record grades and other things on there.  This helps me to return papers faster because frankly, getting it into the computer takes time for me as each assignment generally goes into three different grades.  Long story, not a fan of it, but it is what it is and this helps.

That being said, right after the maps I keep my lesson plans.  I prefer to use the same agenda format that the students use.  I find it much easier.  I keep the whole year all in one spot and use a binder clip to help figure out where I am.

I have dividers to separate each of the class and each divider has pockets.  I keep the rubrics I use most often in these clear pockets for easy access.

Finally, I keep loose leaf paper in the very back of my binder.  Whenever a student misses a vocabulary test I quickly put the test on the paper and keep it there.  This has helped a lot because I was getting to the point where I wasn't exactly sure which words the student needed to make up!

This year I utilized Language Arts Binders to help the students keep their work organized.  It worked for the most part; I'll be changing some things for next year.  I did like how I grabbed a bunch of milk crates in order for them to neatly be stored on my shelf.

I do not use Mail Boxes in the same way most teachers do.  Rather than each student having a box that they never check, I use it for absent work.  I have each box labeled 1-31 (plus a couple extras).  When a student is absent on a particular date, they go to that numbered box and grab what has their name on it.  It could be a worksheet, notes, whatever we did that day.  I clean out the boxes at the end of the month; this helps me see which slacker didn't get their make-up work. 

Yeah yea, I know, the orientation again.  It's hard to see but these are picture frames number 6, 7, 8.  I use these to write their homework down rather than waste my precious whiteboard space.  I color coded them so that it was easier for each class to know where to look for their homework.