Keeping Track

Today, I'm going to take a break from the Primary Pizzazz book to talk about organization.  As we get nearer and nearer back to school time, I can't help thinking about all of the things that I want to do next year.  I have a TON of resources (as I'm sure all of you do).  Sometimes, I think I might have too many! I mean, I have binders full of ideas and activities, bins in my closet that are full, 2 zip drives, my computer's hard drive, items on Google docs, etc.  The problem I have is that I'll plan and complete a unit only to find or remember that I had a wonderful activity that would have been perfect.  Don'cha just hate that?

So I've decided to spend the last few weeks of summer taking inventory of all that I have.  I bought a spiral notebook for each theme that I plan to teach this year. 



I found them for 24 cents at Big Lots, by the way (I know I probably could get them cheaper when the back to school sales start, but with all of the restrictions and limits that stores have on their "Extreme Deals", it's not worth the few cents I would save). 
Then, I got Post-it tab dividers to section off each notebook.  These are AWESOME because you can peel them off if you need to move them (which I have, and may have to again).



I labeled each one with a subject - Reading/Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Fun Stuff. 

Starting with my zip drive ('cause I'm still at my Mama's house), I began to inventory and list all of the things I have downloaded and saved, sorting them into categories.   I listed the skill that each resource addressed and where it was located (zip drive, Google docs, etc). 

After buying and starting with the notebooks, I'm thinking it might have been better to do this in a binder and record on these sheets that I created (after the fact, of course):

My Reading and Language Arts Resources

My Science Resources
My Math Resources
My Social Studies Resources
I hope some of you can use these.  I'm hoping that now I'll know what materials I have to use and where to find them.  Although, I'm beginning to think I should have started this project back in March!  You don't realize how much you actually have until you sit down and try to go through it.  Wish me luck!