And so it begins . . .

     Welcome!  Let me tell you a little about myself.  I am a wife to a wonderful man of almost 17 years.  We have two incredible daughters.  Second to that, I am a special education teacher in a resource classroom for students in grades kindergarten through 5th grade in a small school.  I am the only special education teacher in my school.  This makes for some exciting times!  I love my job, and I have been teaching there since graduating from college in 1996.
     My hope with this blog is to help keep myself on track.  From the title I chose, you can correctly assume I can be at times unorganized and/or messy.  In an attempt to help me this fall, I have changed my school bag to this wonderful 31 Utility Tote.  I like it because it is the perfect size to hold a file box.

Isn't it cute?  You can find it at http://www.thirtyonegifts.com/.  It's called the Organizing Utility Tote.  (Also there you see my Tervis tumbler  http://www.tervis.com.  I got it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I carry it with me almost everywhere.  I drink a lot of water!  The other nice thing about it is that if I leave it behind somewhere at school, everyone knows it belongs to me, and it finds its way back to the classroom.)

Here is how I am starting my organizing:

I'm sure it will change as I start the school year, but I have to start somewhere!  My hope is that this helps me stop lugging the same stuff to and from school everyday that I don't really need.

Then, there is my clipboard.  I covered it in pretty duct tape.  On the front I have staggered and taped a 5x8 index card for each of my students with their basic goals for the year.  This will give me a quick flip reference when I am making plans for each student and/or group.  I want to streamline my documentation so I do it more effectively.  The binder system was to cumbersome for me.

I'll share an app for the iPad I use for documentation another time.