The Organization Saga Continues

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But I think I'm making progress. 

I've been playing around with my website this week since it was spring break and I could do it while watching vast quantities of mindless TV. While doing that, working and watching TV, I just kind of did this:

And I kind of like it. I have a table at the top with the dates of each part of the unit. I have the notes, handouts, worksheets, all loaded on the page and everyone can see them and get them easily. I'm not expecting this year's class to use this site, but I figure if I set it up as I go, that's just less I have to do next year. So I like this and I've done it on all my pages so far. I think this will work. I can just add things if I want to and edit the table to change the dates.

The other problem was my paper. I have a lot of paper. A. Lot. And I've been working hard to figure out how to deal with the paper. A few days ago someone posted a similar question in one of the teacher groups I belong to. Since it is my nemesis, I followed that question closely. One lady said that she kept everything digitally (like me) but also kept a set of originals along with any activities or such for each unit in these boxes:
Now I thought this was a great idea, but these are not cheap and with 3 classes and 8-10 units a class, I was looking at a whole lot of boxes. Then I would have the problem of where do I store them? But in general, I really liked this idea. I could keep the files digitally - which I already do - but I would have a hard copy if I needed to make copies and I could keep any notes that I had for that unit all together and then I would not have to recreate the wheel every freaking year. Then I remembered something. At the beginning of the year, I had bought these things:
I don't remember what I bought them for and I didn't use them because they were still sitting in the box under my desk. I could use these. I could keep the originals in here plus my notes so that I would have them year after year. I can easily file in these in my file cabinet and when I need that unit, I can just pull the entire envelope and keep it out while the unit is going on. Once the unit is over, my notes and any new originals go back in here and they get filed away. Genius, pure genius. Plus, they come in 4 colors so I can color code my classes. Yes!!!! 

I had to go to school today to make some copies for Monday and I started using these. I copied the stuff for AP Chem and AP Bio and then placed the originals in here. I will sit and make the notes I need over the weekend, and Monday I will be all ready to go. I'm very excited about this. Every year I have trouble locating my notes and things from the previous year because my organization system sucks. I hate that.

So while I have been talking about this for months and months, I'm thinking I'm finally getting a handle on things. I feel like I have a good digital system and I think this will work as my paper system. And again, I can do it for the rest of the year, and have a jumpstart on next year. Yay, me!!!!

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