Organizing Your Teacher Files & Resources in Google Drive - Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how I organize my teacher files and resources in Drive by using folders with strands and standards. If you didn't catch it, check it out here!

If you are wanting to start organizing your Drive, I suggest that you start by subject and categorize one standard/skill at a time. Eventually it will become habit and you won't waste any more time looking for that one resource!

In my Cherokee folder, I have a 4th Grade folder that I've shared with my teammates. If you are not familiar with sharing Docs or folders on Drive, you must try it! To share, click the person with the plus sign (in the upper right hand corner in the picture below) and type in the email addresses of who to share with. You can see that this 4th grade folder is shared with A and S, my teammates.

Inside of the 4th Grade folder, we have 4th Grade resources that we share with each other. There is a person on the folder indicating that the folder is being shared with others. 

It is difficult sharing ALL resources because we are levelized (emergent, on-level, advanced), but if we find something excellent we include it in its corresponding folder!

You can also see that this is where we keep our PLC and Team Meeting notes. We keep each meeting notes as a Google Doc, this way any of us can edit the documents. 

As you can see, these folders are also shared with B and T. These are our administrators.

When sharing documents with others, you can control whether the others can edit, can comment, or can view. (see below) With our meeting notes, we have shared it with our administrators as can view. You could also select can comment if you wish to get feedback regarding your docs.

After clicking the share button, you can further change your sharing settings by clicking the advanced button in the lower right hand corner. (see above)

After clicking advanced, you will see something similar to above. The owner can further decide who can edit, comment, or view the document. You also have access to a link for the doc/folder that can be emailed out. At any time you can add or delete collaborators from the doc or folder.

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In Part 3, I will share with you how I organize my creative resources! Think digital papers, clip art, frames, etc. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below so I can address them for others in the next post!

Friday Freebie!

Today, we flew out to Vegas for a girl's trip! To hold you over until my next Google Drive post, I wanted to share a new freebie with you.

Who uses Brag Tags in their classrooms? I have not yet, but plan on starting this year! I've started making several that I will be using for the beginning of the school year, and would love to share my Back 2 School tag as a freebie! Click on the picture below to download!

If you are not familiar with Brag Tags, they are a great incentive for students and can be kept either on a ball chain or key chain.

Do y'all use brag tags in your classrooms? What has been your students' experiences with them?

Organizing Your Teacher Files & Resources in Google Drive - Part 1

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If you know anything about me, you know I am an organizing fiend! There's just something about an organized... ANYTHING that makes my heart so happy. Before I started using Google/Google Drive, my teacher files and resources were a mess. I had some on one USB drive, some on another, and it drove me a little super crazy!

Enter... Google Drive. I have been obsessed with Drive for a while now. I'm going to show you how I keep ALL of my files organized in one place! The best part about Drive - it's internet-based, so you can access your files from ANYWHERE!

Below is a snippet of my main Google Drive folder. I have both a personal and school Google account, so what I do to make sure that I can access any file from either account is share the folder with my other account! (If that makes sense...) All of my teacher files are in my Cherokee folder. (Cherokee is the name of my school.)

In my Cherokee folder, I made a new folder for each subject. I added the 00s before each subject so they appear at the top of my list. 

So maybe I'm a little folder crazy... I told you I am an organizing fiend! I clicked into my Math folder and this is what you see. I have my main resources and files organized by strand. (G-Geometry, MD-Measurement&Data, and so on...) This makes it easy for me to find resources I need by standard! Inside each of those folders I have each standard and skill, as you can see in the second picture.

This is in my Reading folder. I can easily see the standard abbreviations as well as the skills.

In Part 2, I will show you how I organize my grade level files and folders, as well as how I share resources with my coworkers in as little as 5 seconds!

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Do any of y'all use Google Drive this obsessively? Do you have any additional tips for me? Let me know!

TpT Seller Challenge Week 4: Follow Frenzy

What a month! Without the TpT Seller Challenge, I never would have had the courage and motivation to start a blog! Some wonderful things have come from this challenge, including LOTS of new friends and blogs to follow. I have officially become obsessed with the social media world! (Teaching social media world, that is.)

Since the challenge started, I began following a numerous amount of new bloggers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlogLovin', Periscope... you name it! However, I have been silently stalking keeping up with a few specific bloggers! Click their buttons below to head on over to their blogs and check them out as well. You will not be disappointed!

          

        

A shout out to the four ladies who started the challenge... thank you for everything you have done to make sure this was a great boost and motivator for every TpT seller who participated! It would not have been done without you!!!

Third in Hollywood

Sparkling in Second Grade

Teach Create Motivate

Peppy Zesty Teacherista

Five for Friday & a Freebie!

Let's get right to it!

On Wednesday, I bought this amazing thing! I got right to work laminating everything in my BoY BIG Bundle for my new zebra print classroom! Needless to say... I am obsessed. It's the little things!

I spent some more time working in my new classroom this week. It is slowly (but surely) coming along! I am trying to finish all of the "decorating" before I leave for Vegas next week. This will help ease the stress of coming back and will leave more time for lesson planning/creating.

I am LOVING the brights and zebra print in this room! I'm hoping to get some curtains up over the top of those windows. I scored a couple of zebra print sheets from a local thrift store for about $3 each that I'm going to rig up there somehow!

I have limited storage space in this classroom (my last one I had a huge closet), so I have labeled my math resources by strand and put them next to my math manipulatives and center activities.

The computer backgrounds are possibly my favorite part of the room so far! I'm a sucker for organization and all things in order... can you tell??? I used PicMonkey to create the wallpapers then set them as my desktop background. SO easy!

I made my first EDITABLE product this week! It is so easy to make an editable product... First, create the template you want in PowerPoint. Save that template as a PNG, then in a NEW PowerPoint use that PNG as the background. I am listing this Zebra Print Labels product FREE in my TpT store, so go grab it!

This week, I passed 150 followers on Facebook! This probably doesn't seem like much to some... but considering it's only been two weeks, I'd say I'm doing pretty well! Are you following me on Facebook??? Click the picture to go to my page!

Last but most certainly not least... This is happening this weekend...

The Fireman surprised me with tickets to see GARTH BROOKS in NOLA! I absolutely cannot wait. We grew up listening to his music and I know it will be quite the experience!

What have you been up to this week?  Go check out Doodle Bug Teaching's blog to see all of the other Five for Fridays link-ups!

Plan With Me Sundays | My Planner

I may be a couple days late... but I am linking up with Kreative in Kindergarten and Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris for Plan With Me Sundays!

During the school year, my planner is pretty crazy. I have a teacher's version of my students' planners, except much more! Since that one is at school, I will show you my Erin Condren planner I've been using this summer and plan to continue using for personal/blog purposes.

I have loved using this planner, but it is just not enough for everything school related! 

This is what my monthly spread looks like. I am not washi or sticker crazy like everyone else yet! Note that since it is July, there is not too much going on! I am SO looking forward to a girl's trip to Vegas in a couple weeks though. :)

For the weekly view, I have a to-do list on the left hand side and use the bottom portion for dinner ideas. The morning/day/night parts of the planner work really well for me during the summer! Throughout the school year, I may use those sections for cleaning lists or important to-dos.

On the notes pages in the back of the planner, I keep large post-its for blog ideas, TpT product ideas, or even grocery lists. I love using the post-its because they are temporary and can be thrown away when not needed anymore!

I also use my Google calendar because I can access it on my computer, laptop, or phone! One of my favorite parts of Google Calendar is that events and meetings can be scheduled and shared with others. Multiple calendars that are color-coded is a favorite as well.

Now on to the fun part... the bloggers participating in this link-up got together and have a couple prizes to give away! 

 

Check out Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris' post to enter! There are not many days left!

TpT Seller Challenge Week 3: Make Your Masterpiece

This week in the TpT Seller Challenge, we were asked to create a new product or finish one that had already been started. Last month, I created a whole new set of things for my classroom to go along with my new theme - zebra print! I really wanted to create a more flexible product that wouldn't be so specific to a single theme, so I created a NEW BoY Big Bundle!

This bundle features over 140 pages of classroom necessities for the beginning of the year. Most of the products come in 3 different black and white patterns, giving teachers the option to stick with one pattern or mix and match! I not only included all of the products from my zebra-print bundle, but added in some extras! (Hall passes, word wall letters...)

This has been the most difficult week of the challenge yet, but hopefully it will pay off! To celebrate, I am listing this BIG Bundle at HALF-OFF in my TpT store! Also... if you buy this BoY bundle, I will send you my Student Data Tracking Folder set for FREE! 

This is an offer you cannot pass up! Stop by my TpT store and check it all out... I am SO excited to have this Masterpiece complete!

Also... keep an eye out for my Plan With Me Sunday post tomorrow! I know I'm behind... but my planner says to relax and go with the flow. ;)

FLASH FREEBIE | Behavior Clip Chart

Until 12:00pm noon TOMORROW (7/3/15) get this Behavior Clip Chart flash freebie! I just finished this new version of my clip chart for my new BoY Big Bundle coming SOON! Be on the lookout!

The Berry Hill - Behavior Clip Chart

Currently | July 2015

It is the first of the month, which means I am linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for my first CURRENTLY! I have seen these so often and have been waiting for my chance to get in on the action. :)

Listening to Footloose on TV... the one with Julianne Hough. I typically need background sound when I am working!

Loving that today was my last day of Professional Development this summer until the end of July. For the last three days I have been in a training for Project Lead the Way... if you haven't heard of it, check it out! I am SO excited to teach science next year!

Thinking about my to-do list for everything I want (and need) to do on Teachers Pay Teachers. The Sellers' Challenge has really made me think about so many different things I need to do! Update my products, create product covers, update product information, create new products... the list seems endless!

Wanting a home office... with a TV for background noise. I have my desk and supplies in one of our guest rooms, but there is only one little window in that room! I am the type of person who enjoys letting the light in. I'm thinking of making an area in my living room for a small office space. Another option is to switch out the Man Cave (which has much more light) and making that my space. Mike wouldn't mind playing PS4 in the dark, I'm sure.

Needing motivation. See the endless TpT list above. :)

It is so ironic that I put being punctual as my All-Star, considering on Monday and Tuesday I was really pushing it getting to PD on time! I am typically 10-15 minutes early for everything. If I cut it close, it stresses me out! And we all know that isn't good for any teacher.

What are YOU currently doing??? Does anyone have any advice for finding motivation??? PLEASE share if you do!