School Year Resolutions and Some Organizational Freebies!

I'm linking up with Teaching Madness today to share some new school year resolutions.

I've been known to make resolutions, and then not stick to them. Maybe if I write them down I can help keep myself accountable.

1.  Don't be afraid to do something different, even if your entire team does something a certain way. When I first started teaching I copied everything my fellow teachers did. I needed that support. Now I've found new things that work for me, and I've found out some stuff doesn't work. That's okay, It's time to be my own teacher :-)

2. Keep my desk clean! I want to make sure my desk is clean everyday before I leave so things don't pile up.

3. Don't spend so much money. Plan ahead and get the things you need with the schools money first. I don't need to buy glue sticks at rite aid on the way to work anymore.

4. Eat on your lunch break. I know this sounds silly, but I usually work through my lunch break and then I'm starving and cranky by the end of the day. I know I can't be the best teacher I can be if I'm starving. Eating and working at the same time is acceptable though :-)

5. organization, organization, organization! Think through how you want everything stored and follow through. Everything needs a home and the kids need to know where that home is. This is my biggest weakness.

Now I've been working hard at thinking through my plans for being a more organized teacher, and I've decided to share what I've made with you all! Feel free to grab anything you think might work for you!

First thing is the students need to be able to keep their work organized.

I got these two pocket folders at Target. I can't remember how much they were, but they were under a dollar. They are plastic which I love! Those paper ones just don't hold up. 

The red will hold my kiddos daily five work, and the green is sort of a unfinished work folder. I know many of you use those take home binders, but at my school we use a different system for parent communication. So these will be just for school. I still wanted to use the catchy acronym, so I did. 

In the right pocket kids will keep things they need to refer to weekly. The picture is of my weekly goal setting program I plan on using. You can read about this system and how I plan to use it here. If you have super eye sight you might notice that underneath the goal sheet is a boggle response sheet. I'm going to have the kids keep it here throughout the week so they can work on it when they have time. In the left pocket they will keep any unfinished work they have. 

If you think you can use the labels I created for the folders you can get them on google docs. They print on Avery labels, the kind with 10 stickers to a page. 

W.O.W folder labels

Daily 5 labels

 I need to be organized as well. And that means keeping everything in binders!

Here's the binder cover for my back to school resources. Ignore the pink goo on the folder, it's old and I have no clue how it got there. lol. 

Inside I keep each units cover page in a page protector, and then put the other pages behind it. This is the back to school pack I have in my shop. If the unit includes any small pieces,

like my procedure cards, I can keep them inside the page protector until I need them. I think this system is really going to work for me. 

Click here to view my back to school pack!

I have all my binder covers in my TPT store. I'm going to update the file soon with spine labels. I'll send out a revised message when those are up if anyone take these. I have covers for daily 5, science, holiday's, writing units, and a few others. 

Check them out here! If you download please rate!

So I'm hoping this will help me and my students stay organized this year. Maybe other teachers will start coming to me asking for organization tips. HA, maybe in a few years!