Made 4 Math Monday #2

ARE..... YOU.... READY?!??!?!? It's time for another #Made4Math Monday post! Remember to link your post in the comments or tweet with the #made4math hashtag so we can get all of your goodies catalogued here! Again, feel free to steal the logo below for your post :)

I don't know about you, but last week's #Made4Math just blew me away! You guys are so amazing and so creative that I had to scour my pins to figure out what to do this week!

My #Made4Math creations this week all have the same theme... Organization!!! Now if you know me, you'll know I'm a pretty organized person naturally, but I definitely have room to grow. Thankfully, some of the people on pinterest are WAY more organized than I am, so a few searches on "teacher organization" helped me out this week.

Project #1 - My To-Do List
My first stop on my pinterest journey led me to the "What the Teacher Wants" blog and her "to do list" post. I added her idea to the many, many pins about using picture frames as dry erase boards, and off to Dollar General I went...

After printing the awesome to-do list from the "What the Teacher Wants" blog and putting it into my document frame, I realized that I wasn't crazy about the vertical layout, but I loved the style of her to-do list, so I set out to make a similar one in a horizontal format. Here's the finished product:

In case you would like this planner for yourself, here's the PDF version. I can send you the Word form via email if you'd like to change out the fonts, etc. I love that I can write on it with dry-erase marker, then wipe it clean anytime. I'm hoping this will stop some of the constant shuffling of the sticky-notes that I have all over my desk!

Project #2 - The Teacher Bag
You might have seen my previous post about the Teacher Bag posts over at the Clutter Free Classroom. Well, of course that meant I needed a brand new teacher bag!!! I got in trouble from some of my twitter buds that I only posted a spoiler picture of my new "Thirty One Utility Organizing Tote", but hopefully this picture will satisfy them! Obviously my bag is rather empty right now, but in about 5 weeks, I'm going to be very grateful for it!

This bag is pretty awesome. It has the 3 pockets on the front, 2 more in the back, and 2 mesh ones for water bottles on the sides. I haven't decided what all to put into the pockets yet. The left side has one of the magnetic canisters with paperclips and such and the left pocket has a bag of 100 calorie popcorn for when I need a snack. :) Inside the bag you can see the file basket I picked up yesterday at Target with some file folders (didn't have any hanging file folders at the house), a pencil pouch, and my teacher binder (see project #3). At the right, you can see a dark pouch, that's my trusty TI84 calculator :)

Project #3 - The Teacher Binder
If you have browsed any teacher's pinterest board, you've probably seen at least one link to a Teacher Binder. Here are two of my favorites... one at the Fun for First blog and one over Kelsey's Teacher Binder blog.

This is honestly the project that took me the longest because it took FOREVER to decide what sections I wanted! I definitely wanted a binder that I could take to meetings, take home, have on my desk and it contain everything that I needed. I also am not a fan of writing in binders due to the awkward angle at which you have to write on the back of pages, so I used a Mead Flex Note-Binder for my Teacher Binder. Honestly, I'm not sure that it's the perfect one for me either, but I picked it up last year at Office Depot for $1 on the clearance table and I thought it might fit my needs for this project.

When you first open my binder, you will see another copy of my Weekly Planner, this time in a sheet protector so I can still ulitize the "dry erase" feature.

Turning the page, you can see my section dividers. On the far edge, you can see my section tabs :)

The agenda section is where I have my school calendar, my monthly calendars, and my weekly agendas. Thanks to @mathtastrophe's #made4math post from last week, I have adorable calendars! I put my school calendar into the sheet protector that I used for the section divider.

The next section in my notebook is for my Lesson Plans. Honestly, this section is the reason why I went with the Flex Note-Binder. I like having my lesson plans opened up on my desk so I can jot down ideas and shopping lists, etc. You can see how the Note-Binder folds back like a spiral notebook here. If you want a copy of the Lesson Planner I use, download it here. (I'm not the original author of it, no clue where I found it years ago!)

The next section is for my Gradebook. Obviously since school hasn't started yet, this section is pretty empty :)

Next comes the Parent Communication section. I used to do a really good job of documenting parent contact, but for some reason, I got away from it. I don't know if I'll stick with it or not, but I did make a pretty new form to include in my folder. If you want a copy, grab it here :)

One of the reasons I wanted a Teacher Binder in the first place was because I'm bad with keeping up with notes from meetings. I've tried using an agenda, a notebook, etc but I just always get unorganized. When I saw the Teacher Binder that I liked back up at the beginning, I really liked their "meetings notes" forms, so I set out to make my own for my binder. If you like it, download it here :) I like that I have a place to scribble notes, then a place to go back and process the important info from the meeting.

The final section in my notebook is... (drumroll please)....

I have to give credit for this section to the Fun at First blog authors. In her binder, she had one for "Grade Level Ideas" and I just loved that she had a place to jot lesson ideas. The title of this section is because one of the teachers at school always jokes that "Brain Storms" seems so violent, so he has "Thought Showers". For me, I'm constantly coming up with ideas, things I want to do or try in my classes and then scrambling to find a post-it note or a scrap of paper to jot my idea down before it flees my brain. This gives me a place to jot down all of those "oooo... shiny!!!" thoughts in the hopes of finding a gem somewhere. Since I personalized this one for my classes, I didn't upload the file, but if you want it, let me know and I'll send it your way.

At the very very end of my binder is one of my Dollar Tree finds...

Who can resist such a cool variety of sticky notes and page flags??? :)

Whew... I'm done!
Gosh, golly, gee! That was a REALLY long post! Sorry about that! However, I do have to share that I am LOVING #Made4Math Mondays! Knowing that I have to post SOMETHING really helps me get motivated to get the things done that I need to do before school starts in just 5 weeks! Thanks again for helping keep me accountable :)

Your Turn!! What did YOU make for #Made4Math Monday???

@roitzc - Tarsia Polynomial Puzzle AND Rack'o'supplies, Posters, and Puzzles

@misscalcul8 - Shopping Finds and Copy Cats AND Vertical Hanging File

@pamjwilson - Hanging Tape Measures and Station Activities

@fawnpnguyen - Electronic Teacher Binder

@MarshaFoshee - Teacher Binder and Binder Cover

@mathtastrophe - Teacher Toolbox

@ScottKeltner - Pencil Art AND the blog post

@fouss - Pringles Can and PreCalulcus Files

@mgolding - Student Supply Center

@_CindyWallace_ - Welcome to Class Podcast

@elhodge - #Made4Math breakfast (Ed sent me this text and it just cracked me up - he said this was as creative as he gets on a Monday morning! :) )

@jreulbach - Adhesive Tape Measures

@fourkatie - Flash Cards and Organizing Folio

@lysarieger - Card Sorts

@gwaddellnvhs - Website Revamp

@reminoodle - Bulletin Board Makeover