organizing digital teacher files

There is something about the order that unfolds from consistency that makes my heart feel peaceful. I live in the midwest and we can get a lot of snow come the winter months. For those of you that can relate, you know that muffled silence that happens after a fresh snowfall and the glistening beauty of sparkly white snow blanketing everything? {I'm talking about the moment you absorb the quiet before you realize you have to brush off your car...} That's how my heart feels when things become consistent.

Now, consistency in the classroom is huge. It makes an entire year (or breaks one without it), creates and sustains relationships and consistency is... well, you get the point. Its important. It is even important outside of the classroom. A person cannot consistently act outside of their level of self-image for prolonged periods of time and therefore consistency reveals your true character. Deciding to be consistent in one small area of your teaching (or life) can be an incredible force in helping you improve overall because you align your actions with who you view yourself to be.

Consistency can also be applied to how you organize things. I'd venture to say that if we could have containers that coordinate across our classroom shelves, it'd make many a teacher happy. Not always possible, but did that connect with you? I've recently been reading that teachers are wondering how others organize their teaching files digitally. My tip is to organize them just as you would like to organize your classroom: with consistency. Is there one way to organize them for everyone? Probably not. That'd be like telling you, that you had to teach exactly like me. Some of you would revolt!

Here are a couple ways to create and organize folders on your computer for your files.

This way is probably the most popular in the primary teaching world. If we think of pulling together lessons and materials to fit next week and we have polar bears on the brain, we'd want to go looking for polar bears in our files.

This method works when you know the order in which you like to cover things and falls more in line with the calendar than just with themes or topics. You know that you'd like to cover the concept of opinion writing after you master some non-fiction writing since you can build off of using the concept of facts.

If you find yourself thinking, "That'd be a great activity to practice decomposing numbers during math time... or I can't wait to use this once we are really good at adding..." Then you might find yourself often using umbrella topics and then filing items by standard.

Yet, some people like to consider how they'd use an item in a classroom capacity before filing it away. If you know that the activity you just found is great for a math concept, but would work best for you to send home as practice or better with an aide (lucky you!) ...or you're already thinking if it's a whole group or small group activity, then you might organize well by usage.

{how I organize my math folders}

I like to organize items based on topic and usage most often - it's my default train of thought... "how will I use this?" I keep everything I create for KindergartenWorks organized by topic and theme. But once I get to my personal school files, I organize math by topic, time and usage in quarterly folders (as seen above). That way I can pull up a teacher zone item I use in the third quarter. It works for me. What works for you - are you a combination organizer?

If you didn't start out with any organization, is it a lost cause? Nope. An example? I decided it was time to bring consistency to the categories shown in my Teachers Notebook Shop and my Pinterest boards. This way they will match what I share with you here and in the products I offer. You'll notice that I organize at the top of this blog on my header and sidebar by topic (guided reading, guided math, etc.). I've aligned the categories in my shop and on Pinterest to match and go one step further. It makes my heart feel silent-glitter-snow happy. 

Here's a snapshot from my shop.

{shop categories organized to search for products}

Here's a snapshot from my Pinboards.

{pinterest boards organized to search for content and products}

Is that organization overload? Well, pin this and then come back with a big sweet tea when you're ready. I've started a set of blank folders under each style if you know which style(s) is for you. (Click the folder images above).

Until then, here's my last piece. Store it all digitally! If you want to have it at home and at school, get dropbox or something similar. You won't be sorry to have a folder that is the same on multiple computers and the second you change something at school, its already changed on your other computer too. I use it to store ev.er.y.thing. that I make and use for school.

Your turn - How are you a combination organizer? Do you have a lot of files to organize? What's your style?