Organizing Resources

Do you ever have those days where one or all classes make you feel like What the heck am I even accomplishing here?!?!?! Yeah... today was one of those days... Anyway, on to something positive, right?! :)

As I become more and more active in my online PLN, I am constantly amazed and thankful for the wonderful resources being shared. Now, how do I keep up with and make these things useful?! Isn't that the million dollar question. I know we all have our own system, but I wanted to given an overview of what is currently working for me in case anyone needs a starting place.

Up until about a month ago I wasn't a big Diigo fan. Boy was I missing out!! If you haven't played around with Diigo I definitely encourage you to do so! I had been finding resources through blogs I follow and twitter. Those are my two main sources. I was then creating Pinterest pins of everything I wanted to save. Now, this system is not horrible, it just wasn't working well as I collected more and more resources. My pinterest boards are getting very large and searching for a particular document/activity/foldable was becoming cumbersome. You know what dreaded feeling I've seen something awesome for this... now where did I put it??????

I have a FANTASTIC principal who is very knowledgeable and is helping our staff become more intentional with our PLN time and how we find/organize all our resources. He introduced me to Diigo back in the fall but I didn't fall in love with it then - I am now a Diigo lover. Here's what I'm doing and loving with Diigo...

I find a resource anywhere on the internet and save it to my Diigo library. I tag everything I save by the content, ie: quadratics, linear function, point-slope, residuals, etc. I also use the tags "inb" and "activity" to signify which things are more useful for interactive notebook pages and which are more classroom activities. As I'm finding things online I'm saving and tagging everything useful to Diigo. I may not need it now but I'll probably need it soon. For example, when planning this last unit for Math-8, I went to my Diigo library and filtered by the tag "pythagorean." It looked like this...

I can click on any of those links and quickly access the the resources. I can also quickly see I have three things that might be good class activities, one that might be fun in a challenge packet, and one that relates the Pythagorean Theorem to the distance formula. Score!!

Like I said, I've only really be using and loving Diigo for about a month. My library and tagging system is growing quickly. There will probably be many more resources than just 4 in this area soon. :)

Now, no judging as I'm getting ready to be transparent and share :) Here is the link to my Diigo library in case you want to poke around and see how I've set mine up. https://www.diigo.com/user/jhester I'd love if you left a link in the comments below to your Diigo library if you use one. Or, please let me know how you organize and manage all your resources. I'd love to learn a few tricks from you!

Also, here's my principal's library in case you need to see how the masters use Diigo :) https://www.diigo.com/user/timsparacino Now, don't be overwhelmed or intimidated like I first was; he'll be the first to tell you his is 10 years in the making!

Alright, time to go play with the pup for the evening. How can you resist this sweet face?!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Keep Me Sane!

We as teachers have all kinds of tricks to keep ourselves sane and maximize time in our classes. I thought I'd share a few of mine with you today. I know these are fairly common tricks among teachers, but here's my take on them.

#1. I don't pass out anything out. Almost ever.
As kids enter my room I always have my projector set to a "First Things First" list. This tells them exactly what they need to pick up and do before the tardy bell rings. This usually includes things like ruler, 3 markers, scissors, papers from the counter, etc.

#2. I don't pass out anything out. Almost ever.
Sounds familiar?! Ha! Right next to their supplies area is their mailbox crates, as they have been named. My school has block scheduling so I teach three classes each day. These are my "b day" class numbers. If you spin the crates around 180 degrees the signs then read "2, 3, 4" for my "a day" classes. Every student has a hanging file with their name. After I have graded any work it goes in their file. It is their responsibility to check their files. Some students also store their INBs in their files if they don't need them that night. This is rare though.

#3. Welcome Back forms.
Whenever a student is absent I fill out one of these forms. I usually do this at the beginning of class while I take roll and students are working on their warm up. It is a wonderful little form! All the stuff for the day gets stapled to it, I often staple a seminar pass to it so students can come and get extra help on what they missed. The whole stapled package then goes in their files from #2. Here's an example from a recent absence.

When they return, they grab it and know exactly what they need to turn in and complete. No more asking the blood-boiling question "what did I miss?" Or even better "did we do anything when I was absent?" What is that question, by the way?!?! No, we all just sat around the mourned the loss of you. HA! Anyway...

#4. Turn in numbers.
These might be my favorite part of my classroom. seriously. They should probably have been #1, oh well. Save the best for last? Anyway...
These are pockets like these and these that I ordered my first year of teaching. They have held up wonderfully!!! Including through four classroom moves.

Mine are four separate organizers with nine pockets each. I have the pockets labeled #1-28, class periods for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and then two empty pockets. My students are each assigned a number alphabetically and that's how they turn in all homework. You can see very slightly in the top right corner of the picture a piece of paper taped to the wall. This is a class list for each class with students' number, just in case they forget. When I tell students to turn in their work they walk over, put it in their pocket, and sit back down. I can instantly see who turned in their work and who didn't and *best part* it's alphabetized! I grab the papers out in order and I'm ready to go straight to my grade book. After my grade book, I head to the student mailboxes (#2) which are also in alphabetical order and quickly drop the work in the appropriate file. Easy!

Also, the class period pockets on the bottom two rows are for late/absent/redo work. Anything that my students turn in as a class goes in their personal numbers #1-28. Anything that isn't being turned in as a group goes in the class period numbers. This is confusing to them a little at first, but after a couple weeks of training during the start of the year they've got it. As I mentioned in my retesting post, my students are continuously fixing and correcting assignments. My pocket system really helps me manage. Throughout the day students are putting things in their class period numbers. Some even run in real quick from the hallway between other classes to drop work off. They never even have to find me - just drop their papers! At the end of each day this is typically what it looks like...

I just grab all the work for each class period. I then know which class period to go to grade book and which mailbox crate to head to. Yay for saving time!

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?

Paper Gradebook

Do you use a paper gradebook? I do! I love it and wouldn't give it up for $20. $100 maybe, but definitely not $20. Do you want to give me some grief for it? I'm okay with that. I love my gradebook that much! I also make my own gradebook every year. I just haven't found one I like as much as my own version. 

My cover from this past year looked like this:

p.s. our school mascot is the Leopard

and my inside pages look like this

your pdf version!
your editable excel version!

I run copies of my inside pages front and back for the entire year. I then take all these copies and my cover (printed on cardstock to make it a little thicker) to my local Office Depot. They laminate the cover, add a thick plastic back cover, and spiral bind the entire thing for $2.50. Perfection!

Here are just a few of the reasons that I LOVE my paper gradebook:

• I divide my pages by unit and not by 9-weeks, what typically comes in store-bought books
• I print my students' names for each new unit and just paste them into my book. They fit perfectly since I made the original template myself :)
• I color code my gradebook and make lots of little notes to myself about my students' learning during that unit, this just doesn't work as well digital (at least for me)
• we employ Mastery Math at my school, meaning my students take two unit tests and keep their best scores on each section of the test. A paper gradebook allows me to reference all of their scores quickly and easily.

Okay, I said a few reasons, I'll stop now.

Here's a quick and blurry pic of one page from last year. :)

 Please let me know if you use a paper gradebook and have any wonderful modification ideas for mine.