Mission: "Binderize"

Binderize. Is that a word? I have been looking into "binderizing" my classroom for quite some time now. I just hate the way I never use my filing cabinets and have tons of files that I find WAY after the fact and wish I would have used during the year. Right now, I'm going through some baskets of "to file" papers and seeing a lot of good stuff I should have pulled out this year. (Insert signature forehead palm slap HERE) I have GOT to figure out a better system for housing all of these valuable files, and a big, ugly, tan, rusted filing cabinet isn't it.

Introducing Mission: Binderize. I have found a few blogs where the teachers "binderized" their rooms and were monstrously happy afterwards. That is what I'm working toward...being monstrously happy at work. :-) So...I need to develop a system that works for me. A lot of the classroom blogs that have done this are primary. Primary classrooms use a lot of themes and seasonal ideas, whereas a lot of times I am going, "Holy crap...Christmas is next week!" and then I just pull of random Christmas Internet pages. Ugh...blah. My point is that we don't use themes and season to drive our planning (unfortunately...because I think that would be so much more awesome)...so I knew that making a binder for each month wasn't going to cut it.

For now I have started just going through files and pitching the old stuff and things I have 100 copies of and dividing the papers into subject areas. My plan is to then go through and divide them by topics/standards. AHHH...my head hurts thinking about it. However, I think if I can get them into some useful binders and have things within easier access, I will be able to see what I have and then actually use what I have...which is probably a good thing.

Wish me luck.