Organization!

I have four weeks left until the official start of the new school year. My mind is on so many things, and I know I have a whole lot of planning to do (one old prep and one new prep). Instead, I have decided to whip out my colored pencils and decorate.

Who says that secondary teachers can't have pretty binders too?

[Sorry, I'm not sure why the individual images are showing up sideways.]

I have had many coworkers who have put all of there materials from a year/semester into one big binder. The idea always seemed kind of restricted to me before, but I get it now. I have taught biology a total of 6 times, including twice as a long term sub. Naturally I kept EVERYTHING. I am finding now that I don't ever use half of the really awesome materials that I spent so long trying to save. They are only dust collectors on my bookshelf.

Here's how I plan to change that. As I use materials, I will print them out and/or pull them off of the dusty shelf. They go straight into the big binder, in order. Then, when next summer comes around, I can clean out whatever I didn't use. As a bonus, I'll already have a nice, neat binder ready for the next time I teach these classes. In case you were wondering, I already had the big binders sitting on my shelf (another dust collector). But, sometimes you can find them for cheep at yard sales and such. Don't buy those big binders if you can prevent it - they can be very pricey. The covers I made with some colored pencils, some white card stock, and a lot of free time.

 Well, now that that's done, I suppose I have to go plan...

 Cheers!
- S