Organizational Nightmare!

Did you notice? I changed the title of the blog! It's a little more accurate now, even though the URL is the same. I don't have any amazing or funny stories to tell, I just thought I'd give you a little info on what this year has been like and how it's been different.

First of all, if I haven't said it already, year TWO is WAY easier than year ONE!!! I hardly ever bring work home, I don't have to spend hours planning, I have a really nicely organized planning book, my lessons are pretty much always ready to go, I'm caught up on Geometry copies for probably the next two weeks, I have nothing to grade but a couple of make-up tests, and things are just going pretty smoothly all around. 

But not everything is perfect. My desk is a colossal mess at the moment. Granted, it was typically messy last year, but I feel like I cleaned it up a lot more often! The thing is, I've decided to start organizing some of my papers differently. I really like the new system, but the transition means a lot of stuff everywhere. I've arranged all of my geometry keys into one nice 3-ring binder, so when someone is absent and wants to know what went in the blanks on the notes or whether they did their homework correctly, they can just check the binder. And if someone misses several days, I don't have to dig through 3 different folders to find every single last thing. I also have a separate folder for the originals so I know what to copy. I think I need to get rid of most of my little file folders now that I'm organized this way, except maybe one per chapter for tests, quizzes, and other various things I don't want it to be easy for kids to get their hands on.

I also want to put together a binder of all the Algebra I homework. That way they can do the same thing... look in the binder if they want to see the steps for a particular problem. One of my cooperating teachers in student teaching did this, but she had a spiral notebook. I like the 2-ring binder idea better because I can add, remove, and change assignments more easily. I'll probably do this with Algebra II eventually too, but for now I'm still using my notes from 10th grade for that class. (Yep, that's right, teaching it from my own high school notes! We're still using the same book, and the teacher I had is right next door!)

Anyway, this means my desk is COVERED in binders. I have 2 binders for Geometry, 1 for the class of 2015 (I'm their advisor), and the one I think I'm going to put the Algebra homework in. And until I shoved them in a drawer some recent morning, I had my sub binder and my teacher handbook. I really need a better organizational system for storing these binders. Maybe if I ever get that bottom desk drawer organized again...

So anyway, I had originally titled this post "Musings About Year Two," but I think the new title is better, don't you?!