Keeping Information Organized

Today, it happened...the first "Back to School" siting.  I was minding my own business, trying to find a gallon of milk at Target, when a an over sized pencil touting the infamous words was spotted, looming from the Target ceiling.   The mere glance of it sent butterflies through my stomach and sent me into a brief, but cold, sweat.  The butterflies then began making making mental checklists of all the prep-work I needed to begin (the work I try to avoid, as a rule, during the entire month of July).  I hated the giant pencil and the butterflies that ensued, but  it did give me an idea for today's post- "How to Stay Organized."   

Like many special education teachers, I have lots of support staff in and out of room daily.  Everyone from therapists to paraprofessionals (whom I always brag that I have the best of) are in and out of my classroom constantly, so organization is a MUST.  It is not only my job to organize myself, but I need to make sure there are things in place that streamline organization and communication for the entire ASD team.  Vital day-to-day information  ( like locker and bus numbers) and caseload info (like IEP dates and state testing info) have to be at my fingertips daily.  If your room is anything like mine, I don't have time to dig through drawers eightly-five times a day to find a phone number or IEP date. Instead, I tend to make implement other methods that are more user-friendly and easy to access.  If you are new to the world of special education (or looking for some new ideas), specifically self-contained categorical classrooms, here are some organization tips that you can start working on after July is over :) : 

1) Designate a binder for each student's important paperwork- This may seem like a no-brainer, but for years I had a file in a drawer for students' important documents.  The problem with that is, drawers don't transport to meetings very easily and drawers can't go home with me. Invest in some tabs for the binder (ex. behavior, IEP, Curriculum Info, etc) to keep everything more organized.  The binder can travel with them when they leave your classroom to move on to high school.   

2) Keep a spreadsheet posted (laminated) in multiple locations with vital info for staff- Our students can't always communicate their wants/needs to us, let alone their latest allergy or bus #.   I have a spreadsheet available for download on my teacher pay teachers store that contains a column for students everyday info such as allergies, pack/buy lunch, bus number, locker number, locker combination, etc.  I have found that keeping this near the door, in addition to other locations in the room, has been a huge help to staff (especially substitute teachers). http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Staying-Organized-in-an-ASD-or-Special-Ed-classroom-784781

3) Create a few sets of "Student Info Cards" to pass out to staff- Most special ed teachers communicate important info from students IEPs using a document like an "IEP at a Glance."  While these documents are very important, my experience has been that staff don't' have the time to look at them as thouroghly as we would like.  So....a  few years ago I started making a set of laminated cards (one per student) with VERY important info for each one of my students.  The cards are a little larger than an index card and have a picture of the student at the top of the card, followed by other info (sensory needs, allergies, medications, behavior, communications needs, toileting concerns, etc).  If I was passing out an entire class-set of cards to a staff member, I hole-punched them and put them on a binder ring. For whatever reason, I found that staff were more likely to read these cards than the IEP at a Glance document.  Again, it is part of the "Staying Organized" package for sale on my Teachers Pay Teacher store. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Staying-Organized-in-an-ASD-or-Special-Ed-classroom-784781

4) Keep all your caseload info on one spreadsheet- Ugh!  Special Ed can sometimes seem like one enormous pile of paperwork.  In order to make dates/info/levels less overwhelming, keep all this info in one easy-to-access spreadsheet.  It seems like someone will unexpectedly come in my classroom asking for Johnny's IEP date, just as one kid is having a DEFCON 1 melt down (that's what I call the big ones), the science experiment has just exploded,  and someone else has just wet their pants...so making it available at your fingertips is a MUST. Warming- this document may contain private information, so it may be wise to not post, but rather keep in your desk drawer, or somewhere else less conspicuous. See my Staying Organized package for an editable template to keep all the vital caseload info streamlined. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Staying-Organized-in-an-ASD-or-Special-Ed-classroom-784781

These are just a few ideas to get you started thinking about Back-to-School and Organization, I'm sure there will be more ideas to come- hopefully it didn't give you too many butterflies!  Now, go enjoy the rest of your July.