Managing paperwork: top priorities for organization
Suggestions for keeping track of your teaching materials, your students, and their work.
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"I could do this job if I didn’t have to teach, too!" Sometimes teachers feel pressured to spend more time keeping up with paperwork than they think is appropriate. While it is impossible to avoid dealing with paperwork, it is possible to keep it from intruding too much on your planning and instructional time. In order to keep the paperwork from overwhelming you and eroding your relations with other school staff, it is important to find an organizational system that works for you — even if you aren’t "naturally" an organized person. Some teachers use a traditional filing cabinet system; others use three-ring binders with dividers. Whatever your system, your first line of defense should be an "in" box where you can collect everything that appears in your mailbox until you have time to sort it out at the end of the day.
Organize your curricular materials
The North Carolina Standard Course of Study should be readily accessible at all times. This might be a hard copy on your desk or a bookmark on your internet browser, but you need to be able to remind yourself (and possibly students, parents or administrators) what you are teaching and why.
Your principal might require you to turn in lesson plans, or she might check them only every once-in-a-while. Either way, you should keep them for your own records. This might be in an official lesson plan book or simply a notebook or binder. The more information you keep about each lesson, the more able you will be to reflect on them and improve upon them next year. Keep everything you use for every unit you teach. This will require a larger filing system. The frantic pace of your first year of teaching can make it seem like you don’t have time for this, but you will thank yourself next year when you don’t have to relocate and recreate every resource you used this year.
Keep track of your students
It is important to remember that all this paperwork should be about educating students. So one of the most important systems to set up is one that allows you to quickly access information about any student. This will allow you to be aware of each student’s progress and to discuss it with other teachers, administrators and parents.
One way to do this is to keep a three-ring binder for each class, with a divider for each student. Another way, of course, is to keep a file folder for each student. In each student’s section or file, keep their biographical information, their most recent progress report, a record of your contacts with parents, any notes you receive from other teachers about them, and blank paper for notes about specific incidents. For instance, you might make notes about a student who seems to be having particular academic difficulty or write down details of a disciplinary incident. What is important is that you can discuss every student’s academic progress professionally and efficiently.
Part of this organization should include how to get in contact with each of your students’ parent or guardian. In addition to keeping a biographical data form in each student’s folder, you might keep a master list of all your students, their parents’ or guardians’ names and phone numbers. If parents are accessible via email, you can use this to send them quick updates. Also, some grade software allows you to email a progress report from within the program. Remember to keep track of parental contacts and discipline incidents for your PBL product.
Don’t lose student work!
This can give students the impression that their work is not very important and cause them to lose motivation to do future work. If the students are old enough, they should be helping to keep track of their own work. This might be in the form of a class file for portfolios that students keep organized. It might also be a folder or basket for each class where the students know to put work to be graded. Never let them place a paper loose on your desk where it could be blown off or, more likely, covered by other materials or books.
Consider keeping a portfolio of each student’s work, even if it is not required at your school. Portfolios are powerful tools for you, for the student and for parents. They show the learning process.
A sample filing system
- Establish an IN box and possibly an OUT box.
- Decide how to organize your lesson plans and your materials for each unit. Some of these might be in boxes in a cupboard, others might be in files. Establish a set of emergency substitute plans and put them somewhere easy to locate.
- Figure out a good way to keep track of student work. Remember you will have to teach students how to help keep up with this system, telling them once will not be enough.
- Keep a file or section of a binder for each student containing these things:
- Biographical and contact information sheet
- IEP (Individual Education Plan) if the student has one
- Most recent progress report
- Record of your contacts with parents/guardians
- Notes about any academic or discipline or problems
- Correspondence from other teachers about this student
- Create files for paperwork you receive from your administration and central office. These things might be:
- School newsletters
- Staff newsletters
- District mission and goals
- School mission and goals
- ABC Accountability Data (testing and new procedures)
- School or district policies
- Student Handbook
- Teacher Handbook
- Department / Grade level information
- Make files for your professional paperwork
- Your teaching certificate
- Your observations and evaluations
- Professional development course material and log
- Educational resources and articles
- Contract and other human resources paperwork
- Keep your documents and email on your computer organized in folders that are easily accessible.
