*I logged in and decided to check my dashboard and I had 500+ views (and 3 comments)! Not bad, I thought :)*
It is officially August, which means the first day of school will be here really soon. So my decision was to go full-force into prepping and planning come August. Time to stop pinning and searching, and start planning and creating.
My biggest challenge being an educator is my organization and routines in my classroom. I really want to work smarter and not harder. Being a mother of two ( who will be starting the big Kindergarten this year), I need to make sure I am maximizing my time as efficiently as possible.
As I reflect, there are a few main things I want do start this school year.
At the top of my list is my beloved grading system. In our district, each content area is designated a specific amount of grades per week based on the amount of required time of instruction. Grading was almost the bane of my existence! lol. So I thought of a way to make this easier. I found a lovely freebie on TPT from Jessie's of a grade sheet. I was looking for something weekly because I found the usual gradebooks too much on one page for me. Since I teach 3 subjects (we are departmentalized in 4th grade), I needed something to fit my needs. I used the freebie I found to create a grade-sheet more custom for my specific needs.
The other organization part is a teacher binder. I have searched and have seen several amazing teacher planners on line. I usually buy the ones in the store, but one of two things always happen (if not both). I start off using it as planned, but not consistently, OR I end up using it, but there are so many pages I barely even touched. So that left me to make my own. A preview is below. It features everything I thought I would need in one spot. Last year, I used a binder system. It worked well for somethings but not for others. It worked great for my Small Group Data (which I will still use the same way this year). But I think I just had too much--there was a specific binder for everything. So when it came time for conferences, meetings, etc, I always had to pull from several places. I needed something specific and simple--I'm not one for too many frills, as long as it gets the job done! I plan to get it bound using office depot printing & copying services. It took a while but its finally finished! :D
Its pretty much compromised of 3 main sections--Important Information(Contacts, Resources, etc.), Documentation (meetings, parent contact, Student Info-grades,seating charts etc.) and Calendar (year glance, monthly, & weekly). Here are some preview pages.
All of these will be the first items in my TPT store, The Dedicated Educator!.
