Mathsational

This is week four of the Sunday Funday blogging initiative.  It's never too late to join in!  You can read more about the challenge  here  if you like.  This week's challenge is to write about organization. Organization: Well, seeing as how I'm posting this entry several hours past the deadline, I certainly could use some organization pointers for sure.  However, I do have a few pointers. Do everything digitally if possible.  My students will have 1-1 iPads before the start of the second marking period.  Until then, I'll continue to use my class cart of laptops.  I am fortunate enough to have those as part of a grant that I signed-up for circa 2007.  The machines were updated one time in those 10 years, so the technology available is anything but cutting edge, but it is functional. The reason I love organizing digitally is that it is easier for me to make lots of folders inside of other folders and to move/update things as needed. ...

I feel a bit weird about organization, because my system is far from perfect and I still need to work on this myself.  My main issue, now that I'm entering my 13th year in the classroom, is that I have way too much stuff.  Luckily, I've switched classrooms at least once every three years.  This has at least forced me to purge once every few years.  So that is tip number 1. 1)  Purge often.  Don't wait until you need to move all of your stuff for a new building or a new job or for retirement.  Go through all of your stuff every spring and/or fall and get rid of as much stuff as possible. 2)  Digital Folders.  I have a flash drive with literally thousands of files.  I need more folders to organize.  I have folders for each course, unit, and year that I have taught.  I've got folders for projects, warm-ups, and anything else you can imagine Prior to mass storage like this, I used a 1 inch binder for every unit in e...