Tricks and Tips for Teachers: Organizing Materials and Papers for the Week {A Weekly Linky Party}

Yay for week three of Tricks and Tips for Teachers!

{Collaboration and sharing is a great way to learn and grow as a teacher! Tricks and Tips for Teachers is a weekly linky party held every Thursday as a place for you to join in and share a post about a teaching tip or trick on your blog. Just grab the button above and link it back to this post. Then come back to this post and link up your blog post by using the linky tool at the bottom of this post. I can't wait to read your great tricks and tips and learn and grow together!}

I'm having so much fun with this weekly linky party with you all!! Thanks to everyone who has read, commented, and joined in the party with their own posts!

This week's teaching trick is on organizing your materials and papers for the week!

Organization saves my sanity!! Honestly, truly!! If I'm not organized and ready for the week, I stress out! Big time!! Some may call it OCD, I just like to call it being prepared! :)

There is so much that happens in the classroom that you can't be truly prepared for--like when your sweet little one projectile vomits all over his desk and his neighbors' desks. Or when the fire alarm goes off for the 3rd time in an hour due to a faulty wire--so much for that math lesson! Or when one of your *keeps you on your toes* kiddos comes out of the classroom bathroom holding her soiled underwear loudly proclaiming "Look Mrs. Foxwell! I got it everywhere!" True stories my friends--you just can't make this stuff up! These are the moments that could not be found anywhere in those college textbooks! But I digress...

There is one thing that I can be prepared for and that is my materials and papers for the week! I have a crate that holds a hanging file for each day, with file folders for each subject:

 Our school runs on a 6 day cycle, so I organize by cycle, but if you run from Monday-Friday then you could make your tabs weekdays!

I have all of my copies and materials prepped BEFORE the week begins! Like I said--I can't handle the stress of last minute planning! I file ALL of my papers and materials for each day into the correct content folder. This could include:

Anything I need goes right into the crate and if it's too large for the hanging file folder I put it right behind the day's hanging file:

That way everything is all set to go for the week!

Organizing your materials and papers will not only help you be ready, but also comes in super handy if you ever have a last minute sick day where you can't make it in--everything is all ready to go for the substitute!

I have been using this system since I first started teaching and LOVE it!! I love it so much that I even keep 2 Material Crates so that I can prep and file materials and papers for the next week while finishing up the current week:

I identify the crate for the current week by using a magnet on the back of a "Current Cycle Materials" sign and a magnet on each of the crates. So that all I need to do when the next week (or in my case, cycle) comes I just move my sign from one crate to the next:

How do you organize your materials and papers? Or if you have any other tricks or tips for teaching, I'd love to hear and have you join in on our linky party! Just write a post about a tip or trick, include the button at the top with a link back to this post, and link up below!

Can't wait to hear your tricks and tips! :)

An InLinkz Link-up