Joseph is back today with his third post for The Teaching Project!
Post Number Three – “Teaching Binder Set-up”
The original intention for the creation of my teaching binder was to better organize my time spent in planning and instruction. As an educator, there are many things you have to keep up with during each instructional day such as lesson plans, attendance rosters, professional development activities, and instructional cycles, among other things. After evaluating my needs, I decided to arrange my teaching binder into six sections:
Diary: Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
This section was populated by the generous dairy inserts provided by Steve “Mr. Philofaxy” Morton and Ray Blake on Philofaxy. The weekly diary I am using is the week on 2 pages which is perfect for recording my daily teaching schedule. The month on two pages is used to track instructional cycles and the yearly is used as a general overview of the entire instructional year.
Classes: Class Rosters, Level Gains, Master Student List
This section contains a master student list where I have speedy access to student Email addresses and cell phone numbers in case I need to contact them. This section also contains class rosters for the five classes I teach per day.
Instruction: Teaching Schedule, Lesson Plans
This is perhaps my most used and most valuable section. Fifty percent of my instruction occurs within a semester instructional cycle and the other fifty percent occurs during bi-terms, so tracking my different instructional within my teaching binder is most important as it keeps my instruction on target. I also house my weekly lesson plans within this section for my weekly instruction.
Professional Development: PD Activities, Common Core Standards, Accelerate Opportunities Kentucky Project
It is required that I complete a certain number of hours of professional development each year. For example, this year our professional development is focusing on the implementation of the new Common Core Standards. This section within my teaching binder serves as a reference to the professional development I am currently working on as well as evidence of professional development that has been completed.
Teaching Resources
This section contains a listing of print and electronic resources that can aid me in lesson design, instructional tactics, instructional resources and other resources which benefit my lesson preparation and delivery.
Notes
This final section serves as an inbox to capture any time going into my teaching binder.
Next Post: “Teaching Binder Inserts”
Hi there, I’m a secondary maths teacher in the UK and use an A5 filofax for work (it’s a Chameleon). If you are interested I could share photos and describe my setup and how I use it? Please let me know!
I would love that – it would be brilliant if you could do a blog post for me! I will email you in case you don’t see this reply. Thank you!
Might have to wait till Christmas holidays though!! I’m in the process of moving some things into a Galaxy Note. Might have to do you a before/after sort of post!
I only substitute teach right now, but this is inspiring me to put my substituting stuff (backup lesson plans, school schedules, contacts) in a planner.