How to you organize your teaching files?

[Sarah B]

I am currently in school to become a teacher. Over the past semesters of class and fieldwork (and through my own searching) I have collected a great deal of resources and lessons. I am trying to get them organized before I start my full time student teaching, and of course for when it’s my job! I bought a file cabinet and began to sort things, but I am wondering how specific should I get with the folders? I obviously can't just have Math, Science, or Social Studies folders because there would be too much, but how specific should I get? I would just like to get an idea of what works well for other teachers.

[Loves2Teach]

I've been a teacher going on five years now and I'll give you the advice my mentor gave me while student teaching. Look at your state's objectives for each subject and file them according to topic. That way, when you get in the classroom and you know your next lesson is on..... the physical properties of matter, for instance, you can go to the "Matter" folder in the Science drawer and pull out your sheet. She advised me to put every handout/activity idea I received into its proper folder. While this seemed overwhelming at first, five years later, I'm thrilled that I now have a library of information to be able to pull from.

P.s. Also, try getting as many electronic copies of information as you can and save it on your hard drive in folders instead. That way, your information is only a click-print away and it moves easily!


Hope this helps!
Diana

[gooch]

This might be a little harder because you're not teaching yet. I have everything organized according to chapter, but you can't do that because you don't have a specific book to go by. So you might want to organize as best you can by subject area, and then into more specific lessons within each subject.