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Organizational nightmare; Me, that is
Topic Started: Dec 20 2006, 03:58 PM (193 Views)
dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
Ok, I need serious help.

I am NOT an organized person. How I keep my classroom running is beyond me, because I'm a disaster. I'm NOT good with paper. At the end of each day, I go through all the piles on my desk and try to put stuff away, but I'm constantly looking for WHERE I ended up putting it. I run a lot of individual programs in my classroom, and keeping track of the individual pieces, the marking, etc etc is just killing me. I KNOW it's because I don't have a system set up. The problem is, I can see exactly how to organize stuff AFTER I've started using whatever it is. But by then, it's overwhelming and time consuming to overhaul the current (bad) system. I'm constantly buying things to help me stay organized, but I think because I don't know how to organize things, I don't use them effectively.

I'm also the type who needs to see things to know that they're there. As far as I'm concerned, if it's in a binder, it doesn't exist. I'm better with file folders, but I'm finding myself overwhelmed with the things.

How do I become better at this?
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

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***musical princess***
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HOLY CARP!!!
Get a filling cabinet. Colour co-ordinate andlabel all your folders and order them alphabetically.

It will take a long time to set up but once it is done, it is done froever and you will have efficient and organised filling for life. You will know where everything is and it will be easily accessible.

:smile:

x
x Caroline x
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
In theory, that works, MP. My problem is trying to figure out how to label everything so I can find it later.

For example, I have 4 strands I have to teach: Reading, Writing, Oral Communication, and Media. In the Reading Strand, I have to do Shared Reading, Read Alouds, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading/Novel Studies. In writing, I have to cover many genres, basic writing formats, word study, editing, and grammar. And writing is also Modelled/Shared/Guided or Indpendent. Plus I have certain units of study that I do things under. Things like Decision Making, Self Esteem, Bullying, etc. Plus the reading strategies that I cover: Inferencing, Making Connections, Questioning the Text, etc etc.

So what happens is I do a lesson, and then I try to file it, but I never know where to put it. Do I put that poem about decision making I did during shared reading to practise the inferencing skill under Shared Reading, Inferencing, Deceision Making, Poetry OR do I put it under the Modelled Writing section because I then had them do a writing assignment based on the format of that poem?

See what I'm getting at?
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

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***musical princess***
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HOLY CARP!!!
First off, you get a filing cabinet with 4 drawers. One for Reading, Writing, Oral Communication, and Media.

Then, within the folder you create a separate section for every module you have to cover within that strand.

Eg, in the Reading drawer you have a seperate section for Shared Reading, Read Alouds, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading/Novel Studies.

Then, everytime you create a file, you pick everything it might be classed as and you file it in that section. So you may end up having duplicate files, but you will have comprehensive, up to date sections of every piece of work. And if you want to do a piece of work in reference to a particular section of a strand, you just ook it up under tha particular section knowing it will be there, not having to worry about which section you chose to class it as.


I don't know whether you can tell, but i am an organising freak. :tongue:

x
x Caroline x
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
The trouble with organizing is that it is an ongoing discipline. It is like being on a diet for all eternity.

Janet is exceptionally good at coming in and organizing my stuff, never cathcing on after 16 years that it will only be organized for 1.5 hours, after which I will have put something somehwere else because what she did made no sense to me.

Two things I can tell you:

1. Keep the very least amount of paper and whatnot you can. For everything you do, hand out, assign, etc. keep what you must have to the absolute minimum.

2. Organize by calendar. I am sure you have lesson plans, and know when assignments were assigned, things were covered, etc. Get accordion folders for each class if you like, or for all classes you teach. Label them by week or month. That way everything you have related to your classes goes in a file slot by timeframe. Your lesson plan is your index to materials. If you know you are going to need that poem in January, put it in the January folder. When January comes, if you are behind and will not uyse it then, put it up into February. Simple, but, for those of us who eschew real organization, highly workable. Even if you find you must hunt for something, you will only need to look in a month or two usually.

This method is also an excellent way of organizing household and business expenses.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
I'm naturally horribly organised, but when I left my first real job after about 8 years of miserable chaos, I vowed never to get in that state again. The solution for me was to start absolutely from scratch, get rid of all my old half-baked systems, and implement a new, uber-system of neatness. Two jobs and about 10 years later, and to most people I actually appear to be the most well-organised person in the building, despite having a job which naturally attracts clutter.

A lot of my system is paperless, and relies heavily on not keeping anything non-electronically unless I really have to, so it might be more difficult in a classroom environment. However, very few guess my awful secret - I am by nature a flakey disorganised pig, I just have a clean desk.

You need to design a system on paper, then put it in place, and then be absolutely Stalinist about maintaining it, with regularly scheduled clean-up periods.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
I am the world's worst organizer.

My advice?

Hire the world's best secretary! :biggrin:
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
Dol...I'm good at this stuff but I'm not close. Is there another teacher in your building who you know has a handle on organization? Maybe you could beg, trade off recess duty...something...to get someone to help you get it under control?

I tend to gravitate toward color systems. If I had your situation, I'd probably use one drawer per big category and stick a big label on it (READING etc) Inside the drawer, I would have a hanging folder for each sub-division I teach in that subject. Then I would have *other* folders inside the hanging folder, to further divide my curriculum. And...here's my OCD coming out...if there was more than one possible application for a particular poem/worksheet etc...I'd make more than one copy and stick it in as many folders as I thought I might ever need to find it.

You need a buddy to help you sort through and design a system that really fits your needs. I would LOVE to do that...Im a certified office supply junkie...nothing makes me happier than little sticky colored labels and nice clean folders..
:ph43r:
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
***musical princess***
Dec 20 2006, 08:18 PM
First off, you get a filing cabinet with 4 drawers. One for Reading, Writing, Oral Communication, and Media.

Then, within the folder you create a separate section for every module you have to cover within that strand.

Eg, in the Reading drawer you have a seperate section for Shared Reading, Read Alouds, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading/Novel Studies.

Then, everytime you create a file, you pick everything it might be classed as and you file it in that section. So you may end up having duplicate files, but you will have comprehensive, up to date sections of every piece of work. And if you want to do a piece of work in reference to a particular section of a strand, you just ook it up under tha particular section knowing it will be there, not having to worry about which section you chose to class it as.


I don't know whether you can tell, but i am an organising freak. :tongue:

x

The "Put it everywhere" system is just too much paper. So far, since the beginning of this year, I have amassed 8 3" binders FULL of paper. FULL. And that's keeping one of everything. :P It's not that I've used all that stuff - but it's stuff I know will be useful, would like to use, etc etc. It's incomprehensible how much paper teachers go through. I think I need to go by subject. Maybe the skill I want to teach would be the most useful for the tags on the hanging files, then a seperate file folder (colour coded?) for what kind of instruction it was (Shared, Independent, etc). Hmm...


And one of my divisional coworkers is an organization freak. Maybe she'd be willing to come in over the Christmas break...

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
remember, I teach three grade levels consecutively, plus music at the schools...I know exactly how much paper we're talkin'...

having said that, another thing I would do, and would encourage you to consider, is to make an index for your files on your computer. If you only want to keep one copy of a poem, that's cool, but put it in a searchable file along with it's location...so if you can't find it, or want to know where it is before you look, you can just open that file on your computer, type in "poem" or the title and find out where you put it. I have done that with my music...I have 30 years accumulation of music from 2 people who went to graduate school in music...that is a lot of stuff to keep track of and it's EXPENSIVE...so I need to know what I've done with it!
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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
Dol:

Make a sign and put it on your desk with the words:

A Clean Desk is a Sign of a Sick Mind

Now, continue doing whatever you feel has to be done.
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Daniel\
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Fulla-Carp
Dol, I'm glad you brought this up.

I've resolved that in first six months of the new year I will get organized. It is the number one concern I have. I am going to do something more about it. :sword:

I have a file box with folders, but not the hanging kind, only folders, I have a drawer with papers in it, I have garbage bags with various papers, because frankly over the years in Hawaii some papers have been in situations were they got mildewed, but I cannot throw them away.

I have been doing this for years. I go through one group of it, it gets refiled, everything get cleaned up, but it never get done.

I have a list of about 16 things that should be done in the new year. One thing on the list might require doing six other tasks and cross reference with four considerations related to three different files, requiring thinking about five different contingencies, and if not finished could have seven different consequences... :help:

I am very methodical, I can clean a house, a basement, a garage, a car...I put everything in the middle of the floor, I divide it into what to keep and what to get rid of, I am not afraid of throwing things away, I put everything I save into my organizational system (if you could call it that), and then I clean after that.

I am very methodical about cleaning and organizing, but it still ends up in unorganized piles with not enough getting done.

I am not the one to give you advice but this has been on my mind a lot and good luck with it. :)

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maple
Junior Carp
Quote:
 
A Clean Desk is a Sign of a Sick Mind

:lol: I must have a very healthy mind then.

I would say that the capability to search (electronically if possible) by different criteria is the best feature to have in a system of storage. If I would have to do it, I would choose a cronological system of storage/filling, coupled with a searchable index.

A similar problem of organization is presented by the system used to organize files on a computer drive. Currently, most file systems are hierarchical, using a filling cabinet methaphor. But as the number of files increase, the dual problems of creating a folder structure and then finding a file are becoming harder for users to manage. In response to this issue, the current trend is to add a search facility on top of storage. This enables the ability to have various views over the same set of files (i.e. saved searches). MacOS X has Spotlight, MS Vista wil have a similar feature.
The same approach was taken by Google in it's mail service, GMail. You don't spend time creating folders, instead you label/tag messages, then view collections of similarly tagged messages.
Another example are the various Media Library management apps, like ITunes, MediaPlayer, etc.. They all offer the ability to create different views over your collection of MP3, based on the ID2/3 tags inside the files, plus at least your rating.

The main advantage of combining search with storage is that data is stored once, but the various ways to create and view collections/subcollections of data can evolve in time, together with your changing needs.
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
As ridiculous as this is, considering that I use the computer for everything, I can't have a system where I both have to file the paper and sit down at the computer to note where I put it. I need something that I can do quickly, with the kids in the room, and I can't index them on a computer while they're there. I CAN walk over to my filing cabinet.

However, any pages I've created (novel study questions, fun activities, notes, etc) on the computer, I have labelled and stored electronically as well as having the paper versions. It's great to have the stuff electronically in case I need to reprint my original, but it's not practical to rely on that - especially considering SO MUCH of what I use is photocopied from other sources, or given to me in hard copy by other teachers.

I've been thinking about this, and I think the best option is to have the pages filed under whatever the whole unit is - whether that be a special unit where we're covering a topic or a genre (ex. bullying, mystery) or a particular reading strategy I'm teaching (ex. inferencing). Yes, there may be some inferencing exercises in my bullying unit, but that's not the main focus. Then, for units that get really large, I can have seperate file folders showing the teaching method (shared reading, guided reading, etc). As of right now, I don't have enough on any one topic to necessitate that, but I'll get there, I'm sure.

Of course, I'll also be stuck with more general folders - especially for major assignments. But I could have a hanging file for each of those (ex. Memoir) that has the rubric, assignment sheet, and student samples. If I have reading stuff that supports those things, they could go in that folder as well...

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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