My Teacher Notebook

One of the things I do every summer is tweak, edit, and modify resources for next year. I'm sure this is a universal teacher hobby over the summer. This past year I began using an all-in-one-place teacher notebook and I'm expanding it for next year. Here's your own personal tour :)

my cover

when you flip open the cover you are greeted with wonderful little tabs 

custom made by yours truly.

these make my heart happy. :)

section one: Important Information.

This includes my contact, school map, master schedule, etc. 

 section two: Year at a Glance

 this section includes monthly calendars with topics for each day.

I LOVE having my year completely planned out before the kiddos ever arrive.

Of course some tweaking will take place along the way, but this helps ensure that I will get to all the glorious info my students need to learn. It also makes weekly lesson planning much easier.

section three: Unit Outlines

 this section includes general topics per 9-weeks...

 

(this page is nowhere near completed yet. it will be complete after my summer CCSS work)

 ...and the standards that are included in each section for quick reference.

section four: Lesson Plans

this section is currently empty since it's summer.

I'll do a post and show you my personal lesson planning template some other time.

section five: Cooperative Grouping

 this is my go-to section for my Kagan grouping info.

This page is how I group students by level before I create cooperative teams. Their names and assessment scores go in the first two columns, I then decide which category they fall into for our current content (high, high medium, low medium, low). 

This second page is how I keep track of my groupings throughout the year. Next to the #1-7 I write down the team names that my students come up with. This is an entire activity that helps promote unity, team pride, and interdependence within teams. I then list out which H, HM, LM, and L students are in each team. 

I generally rotate groups every 6 weeks, or three times per semester. I use one page per class period per semester. It helps me make sure students are not in the exact same groupings. I also record notes about which students should or should not be grouped together in the future.

 section six: PLC Notes

this is pretty self-explanatory

You probably noticed that I don't have a section for grades or parent contact, two very popular sections in most teacher binders. Since I teach at the secondary level, I have anywhere between 120-150 students each year. I also take a LOT of grades throughout the year to continually monitor learning and development. Therefore, my grades get their very own gradebook. Here is my cover for next year :)

This gradebook is often stuck inside my notebook and carried around that way, but I love having it separate.

My parent contacts also get their very own binder. Maybe I'll do a post about that some other time.

Do you have a teacher binder? What are you favorite parts?