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Binders


So the new school year will be starting soon. I know in some countries you are already in the middle of it, but here it officially begins in September. As I was sitting down with "my teachers", we talked about the classroom supplies, making our lists of what has to be bought for the upcoming school year.
One of the teachers told me she won't need a binder and said she wouldn't know what to use it for. It is her first year of teaching, so for all of you out there in the same situation, let me give you a couple of ideas on where you should (or could) use binders in your classroom, because you don't want to NOT have them in your classroom ;)

1. The teacher's binder
Here you might want to put everything related to you, your students and your lessons. Just some ideas:
- copy of your schedule (and maybe schedule of the kids you teach in case you might have to switch classes and have to see about the availability of each student)
- copy of the curriculum / objectives
- student information
- contact lists of parents / guardians
- unit / lesson plans
- material
- ideas
- assessments / evaluation forms
- behavior charts
- meeting notes (colleagues / parents)
- notes personal / professional development
etc

2. Lesson plan binder
When you are teaching in your first years, I really recommend you to do the following:
Have a binder apart with the lesson plans of the lessons you will be teaching (don't forget to mark down all the resources you are using, such as links to videos etc) and print everything you will use in the classroom once for this binder.
Put everything together in a sheet protector and keep it in your binder.
Maybe after the lesson you can write a couple of remarks, which things worked really well and which ones not so much.
The advantage is, that next time you will teach the same level or age group, you can just refer back to your lesson plan, copy your materials and go. What a time saver (I know, not when you are actually doing it, but for the years to come, believe me)!!!
IF you have to adapt the lesson .. still better than to write a whole new plan, isn't it ;).
The binder will fill up pretty quickly, so you might need 2 for a school year.

3. Student binder (Part 1)
This type of binder is pretty thin and contains all the student information such as
-name, adress
- contacts of guardians
- how does the child get home
- who is allowed to pick the child up
- allergy notes/ other medical notes
- evaluations
- behavior sheets
- parent meeting notes
etc

4. Student binders (Part 2)
This type is one that I tell the parents to buy (always be specific with what you want them to buy, or they might come with things you never really wanted! ;) )
Student binders are very important; Each kid should have one. I always tell the parents to bring big binders (for small children), because we will collect all the work the child does during the school year in there. And some art work can take quite some space in such a binder (or anywhere else).
If your classroom is big enough, keep the binders there so they don't get lost or might be forgotten.
If not enough place, well, be sure to tell the parents to bring the binders along for every lesson.
A student binder should contain at least
- protection sheets
- white paper or writing paper, depending on the age
- and of course a cover (!!) that I either let the kids create themselves or give them a sheet to color and write their information on. An example can be seen in the picture above.

You can download the cover image: here
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