Resource Thursday

As a self-professed Pinterest addict, I find myself having to wade through the things I LOVELOVELOVE and the pins that are SO SO SO CUTE and get down the nitty gritty of what's actually practical and applicable for me and my classroom(s).

Thus begins Resource Thursdays. Every Thursday,  I'll share a resource that I plan to use and update the progress on the previous week's little gem.

This Thursday's Resource: File Organization

source

I found this pin, which was linked to this blog post by Miss Ashley at That's So Second Grade. Um, hello... genius! I LOVE the idea of organizing all of my resources by TEKS (Texas curriculum standards). It is so logical and seems easy to use after the initial time suck of set up.

My articles/worksheets/manipulatives/patterns/lesson plans are currently jammed into portable file boxes and moving boxes. They are loosely sorted by subject. It's insane, and I probably miss a lot of opportunities and/or remake a lot of materials for lessons just because I don't have a good system.

I'll be wearing many hats in my job this coming year, but one will be resource teacher/gen ed teacher support. Each week, the teachers of the students I work with will send me their lesson plans. In addition to working on skills in the lessons with the students in my classroom, I'll also work with the teachers to help meet the students' needs in the gen ed setting.  It would be awesome to be able to go to my files and find supporting materials based on the TEKS the teachers have provided.

Let's Get Real

The drawbacks:

• I can't use Ashley's Common Core freebie labels, so I'll have to make my own
• I'm working with PK-5th grade students... that's a ton of TEKS

The pros:

• If I create all of these labels, it can help me and then others... maybe a start for a TPT seller account?
• Once I get the system up and running I can really see it being functional... AND I can point other teachers and paraprofessionals in the direction to easily use it if I'm not physically available when they need something