Organization

This is a list of things that I have done as a resource teacher that have helped in the area of organization not only for the students, but ways that I have kept myself organized. Many of the things that I do to help the students be organized fall under "Behaviour" or "Resource Class". But being a Resource teacher can mean that you have your hands in a lot of different areas and it is important to keep yourself organized, so I have the main things here that I do to keep myself organized.

NOTE: I need to go back and add more to the students area below. I just added these three things without thinking about it too much. Give me some time!

Things I do to help myself stay organized as a special education teacher:

80) In order to keep track of all the things that I have to do I have many systems that I use to keep track of it. Here they are in all their glory:

a) use OUTLOOK email app to put reminders of not just meetings on my CALDENDAR, but also reminders for emails to send to push-in teachers, tutors, etc. that I do on a weekly basis.

b) I have post-its on my desk for things that kids bring up (i.e. a kid comes in with a problem and I write it down on my post-it and put a note to email a teacher or something like that., then put it in my desk, or teachers bring up, or that occur to me quickly. I keep them on my desk, posted in front of my computer and try to take care of them ASAP. Sometimes they get posted in my day planner. Other times they get posted on my computer. But they stay around until I’m done

- every once in awhile I have to put like 8 or 9 of them on a piece of scratch paper and put it in my to-do folder

c) I have my day planner where I write a lot basic agenda stuff, but also notes to follow up with something I spoke with someone about (i.e. four weeks from a whatsapp conversation with a parent about the socio-emotional health of their child, I might write something in my agenda that says, “Check in with *blank about socio…”).

d) Something that sometimes overlaps with the agenda is the reminders app in my iPhone. I put a lot of things in there that pertain to work (i.e. "Talk to Manuel about…." ), but they also go in Day planner and cycle planner.

e) Memo pad app in phone. I don’t use it too much, but a little bit. I used to use a paper memo pad in my back pocket for years, but in the last year or more I stopped using it and have used the reminders app mainly in my phone

f) I use the cycle planner for things that I want to deal with kids in the Resource room. Sometimes you want to talk to them and just write a note in the CP. Or other times you want to send them a message at night, but it’s too late to text a kid (especially a girl), so you put a note in CP and wrap with them then.

g) I have a “To-Do” folder that sits on my desk. I don’t use it as much as I used to, but that is usually the first place I look if a teacher gave me a test that a kid has to take, or I have an essay that we are re-writing, etc.0

H) Legal pad. I put a lot of things in my Legal Pad that I work through when I have a chance. These could be things like, “Mr. Haight, can we work on parts of speech sometime?” AND I will write a note to create some mini lessons. Or if we have a meeting, if I don’t take the notes in a Word Doc, I will take them in my legal pad, then put DP, next to things I have to follow up on. Club meeting notes, meetings with teachers, students, etc. Ideas for behavior plans, notes about action plans, notes about how a student is doing in school, etc.

…that’s basically what it boils down to. I write DP (day planner) on all the things in my legal pad that I need to accomplish and try to keep the legal pad up to date in the sense that there are never more than 3-7 pages that need to be looked at.

I) File thing next to desk. Before I put things in the files of the students or push-in classes, etc, I put it in the two level file thing on my desk (with binder paper on lower level). Then every few weeks I file

J) Folders for push-in Lites. Notebooks and folders for normal push-ins.

K) And of course a million folders in my computer under either the school or the special education department

L) I write notes in my Excel student file notes in the future to follow up with cats about different things like meds, behavior plans, bets that we have, etc.

3) Have a weekly plan, or Cycle Plan (CP), and follow it on the daily for cats in the Resource room. This really helps you when you need to work on a thing with a student, ask them a question, follow up, etc.

- you have considered it with push-ins too when you are really active. And when they have a lot of deadlines and what not

6) Putting stuff on Moodle. Moodle has slowly been a repository of many things HS OLC. It was especially helpful for situations like when you were in Bolivia and Franklin wanted you to email him a To-Do sheet. Instead of having him wait, you just told him to check the OLC Moodle page.

32) Use the previous weeks Cycle Planner in order to add things to new CP that you didn’t do in the last weeks cycle planner

-I use the current weekly plan / cyclescycle plan to “save as” and start a new one. That way I can erase things that are not needed and keep in mind the things that I may have missed

38) Use the “Scrapbook” function at times in Microsoft word when doing IEPs and stuff like that. It helps you cut several items for one document, put it on the scrapbook, and then paste into another document

96) Use Macros to automatize tasks and fill in stuff in Atlas Rubicon or in Word for things like DP, new IEPs based on last ones, etc.

53) Use Command + R to ‘strikethrough’ things on the Cycle Plan that we have accomplished, then the next week I can add stuff (or on other days or whatever).

77) Flag important emails and keep them at the top of my email so I can do the darn things

- also, try to keep email down below a certain threshold. Maybe around 20 emails in the inbox. Anything else should be filed in folders or deleted.

- these folders that I have are to the left of my inbox. Each student has a folder. Push-in teachers have folders. Clubs, committees, etc. You have the one for ‘posterity’ for things that need to be kept

83) When I’m taking notes in my notepad or in my post-its I use the word "XL" with a circle around it so I remember to put it in the Excel spreadsheet for filing purposes

- from the spreadsheet, some of that data goes into the Google Doc we have set up

84) After the winter break I made sure to give everyone their enrichment cards…..remind them of the weeklies if they have one….and do the Quarter 2 reflections

85) After every quarter I go over the Excel pages of the progress monitoring of IEP goals with the students. I do it in stages where they give me their perception, later on I put mine, etc.

86) At end of the quarter I put the quarter grades in the grade check spread sheet and show the final reds and blues (ups and downs) for the last week or so of the quarter…..

….then we look at the semester grades and talk probation status

44) I have a file folder thing here on my desk….two tiers. The bottom one has all of the binder paper. The top one has all the papers that are to get filed later on(to-do’s, notes from meetings, etc.)….all the stuff that goes into student files or push-in teacher files, etc.

10) Goal for outlook email inbox. I try to keep my inbox to no more than 50 (now…but it used to 25).

- I do this by deleting messages, responding to messages, and I have a ton of folders on the side of my inbox for sorting. Clubs, push-in, each student, etc. So once I have responded to a teacher or a parent the email gets catalogued in the respective folder or deleted.

6) Computer files hierarchy / organization

- I have a mac that makes it really fast and easy to locate documents….but also I try to be very organized in how I file my documents. I have a CMS folder for the school and school things that are not related to my department (special education) files:

a) School folder contains: club folder, school handbook, Special education folder, Writing Skills, etc.

b) Special Ed folder contains: student information files, behavior support, graphic organizers, push-in folders etc…..basically things that pertain to my job as a special educator (spedukator). There are very few loose documents, and some folders are color-coded.

98) Used Google Drive and Google SITES to make secure online storage places (i.e. Portfolios).

…You were also talking to the other special education teacher about taking some things that we put on T:Drive and putting them on Google Docs

…you also made a template that anyone can use that can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/specialeducationportfoliohs/

99) I try to sit down once a week or so, while watching a movie or listening to a podcast at home, to go through my Day Planner and cross out what has been done and figure out what is remaing, and I also like to erase my reminders in my phone. This helps me to figure out what I have accomplished, and what things need to happen. I add pages of my day planner that have been crossed out completely to the paper-clipped section of the day planner. It’s always a goal to be within a few weeks current on the paperclip tip

Things to keep the students organized as the resource teacher:

25) Help cats backwards plan on projects and help to teach them good ways to go about it. Print out calendars for them, etc. This can be most greatly seen in S.E.E., but in essays, big projects, etc.

33) Make plans on ways to makeup work if they are lagging it or will be going out of town. Follow up a few days later with them and follow up with parents. Set contingency plans in some situations (i.e. if you don’t do this by this date then this will happen).

93) Give students folders for HW….or the forms that I have them fill out (i.e. dailies), etc.

- this can help keep them organized. No random loose papers floating around. They keep that and keep it in the front of the binder or backpack and ya