6 Must-Have Organizational Systems for Instructional Coaching

I'm not embarrassed to say that one of the main reasons teaching first perked my interest was the office supplies.    I remember sitting in Ms. Tricoli's fourth grade classroom, reading the little note she wrote to me on a post-it: "Cute story! Keep writing!" The post-it was shaped like a smiley face. A smiley face, people! At that moment, I thought, "If teaching means I can have smiley-face post-its, then a teacher I shall be."     I know, I was so cool.    Want to be as cool as me? Get organized!   In the last three years, I have really cultivated my must-have supplies for literacy coaching. I will start with the two most important pieces. If I were to lose either of these tools, I would basically have to quit.      #1 Must-Have: A Week-at-a-Glance Calendar

  You MUST be able to see a week-at-a-glance. I don't know how people look at their little phone screens to see what they have to do that day. That doesn't work for me. A dot on a calendar day doesn't mean anything to me. I need to see, written out in my messy handwriting, exactly what it is that I need to do that day, and the days before and after.    In my calendar, I schedule everything. Meetings, trainings, observations, visits, time to work on resources and assessments, time to create bulletin boards and discuss ideas with collaborators. 

  Taped into the back of the calendar, so it opens outward, is my school's schedule. Our teachers in each grade align their schedules, so I make this handy schedule that shows what each grade is doing at each time. 

  It's not a big deal if I walk in to a room, thinking it's time for writing and see that they're still finishing up math. I do not worry about that because I was in the classroom. I know how the world works! But if I really want to see how a certain reading lesson is going, I should at least have an idea of when to visit the classroom. That's where I use my schedule. I've highlighted all the parts that relate to literacy, and I reference my schedule when planning classroom visits. 
Must-Have #2: All-in-one Notebook

Only have one notebook. Seriously, if you have a million little post-it notes stuck on your computer and your bag and your binder, and then you sit down to figure out what you have to accomplish that day, you will not be able to do it. If you stuff your meeting notes in one folder and your grade level meetings in another, and your training notes in another notebook, you're going to drive yourself batty. 

  I invest in one notebook per year, and everything goes in there. Lists of things to do, notes from trainings and meetings, the planning I do for workshops on my campus, titles of books I need to read, and just thoughts about how things are going. I date everything. Every so often, I scan through the last chunk of notes to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.    If you write something on a post-it, stick it in there! It's all-inclusive.    I choose my notebook carefully. It must be bendable (don't like hard covers), have lines, and the pages must be thick enough so that I can write on both sides. It also needs to be hand- and purse-sized, because I carry it everywhere. In the hall, you will find me with my notebook, calendar, and a pen, at all times. The few times I've left it in my room, I've regretted it! Here are my new notebook and calendar for next year. Can you tell I'm excited?

Must-Have #3 Grade Level Binder System

I work with all grade levels, and each grade level has their own special stuff. I have a series of binders, one for each level, and in them I include the following documents:

• State standards for that grade level
• District planning documents, including our instructional calendar, etc.
• The released state tests for that grade level, with answer keys
• Questioning that is appropriate to that grade, based on the standards
• Last year's lesson plans (a nice reference when we're trying to remember what we've done in the past)
• This year's lesson plans, in order from most recent to the beginning of the year

I keep all of these binders together, on one shelf, along with curriculum and resources we use most frequently for planning and training. The resources we plan with most frequently go into a basket with the grade level labeled.

Must-Have #4 Teacher Data Binder
 

At any point in the year, any teacher can ask me for a copy of something they gave me six months ago. Or my principal might ask for meeting notes from a meeting that happened a while back. I might get a district request for some information on trainings I've provided.  In order to stay on top of my documentation and lists, I have one binder where most of my teacher documentation goes. I organize the binder with large plastic grade level pockets, and behind each grade level pocket are dividers from each teacher in that grade level. I also have a special divider for Special Education teachers. In this binder, I keep copies of...

• Notes from guided reading conferences and binder reviews (beginning, middle, and end of year)
• Data from our district reading assessments, beginning, middle and end of year
• Guided reading levels by month - as teachers turn in the new month (it's a cumulative table with all months on there), I throw away the old one.
• Anything else my principal gives me and asks me to hold on to for any reason!I have a roster of teacher names (just like I did in the classroom) and I mark off who's handed me what. 

I have a roster of teacher names (just like I did in the classroom) and I mark off who's turned in what, so I know who to email and request from. When I'm being really organized, I write the date that the document was handed in rather than just a check mark...but I'm still working on that. 

Must-Have #5 Hanging File Folder Crate

I visit classrooms a lot. Of course, I wish I visited them more often (the day is too short) because I love to see what's going on there! But I try to visit them as often as possible, and when I go, I write teachers a little note. I have a pad that our print shop made with a carbon copy of each page. I write the notes on the top copy and tear it off to give to the teacher. The carbon copy I put into my hanging file folder crate. The hanging file folders are organized by grade level, and inside each grade level, I have plain file folders with the teachers' names on them. As I go visit the classrooms, I write up my notes, give the teachers a copy and then save a copy in the folder. 

This is important, because my district requires that my productivity be audited. They could, at any time, as to see evidence of how I support teachers in the classroom, and I like to have as many different types of evidence as possible!

Must-Have #6 Teacher Documentation Turn-In Basket

This one is a no-brainer. You know how you wanted your students to have a consistent turn-in process? Well, I need the same thing from my teachers. I have a basket labeled, "Teacher Documentation." Obviously, whenever teachers turn anything in to me (this includes DRA, WRAP, guided reading levels, end of year data, etc.), they put it in this basket. Then I go through it, maybe once a week, and file everything and mark it off on my roster.

These are six systems that have really helped me maintain organization while being inundated with tons of documents, all the time. I know where things are and I can find them easily. 

Do you use any systems like these?
Then this freebie will be right up your alley. I've put together a nice bundle of instructional coaching freebie pages from my Instructional Coaching Binder MegaPack.  
Read more about staying on top of things as an instructional coach in my ebook, The Start-Up Guide to Instructional Coaching! It's over 80 pages of information to help you start making a real difference on your campus.

In case you're getting yourself organized as an Instructional Coach, or looking for some forms to help you keep documentation, you should check out my Instructional Coaching MegaPack on TpT! It's full of 140 pages of fillable forms, printable documents, planning and organizational tools, and more!

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Organizing Writing Mentor Texts

If you read my recent post about my closet, you are probably surprised that I would title any future post with the word "Organizing". My closet is, of course, an embarrassment I have recently shared with the world, but in general, I'm pretty good at creating organized systems. One of these I just started this year is our writing mentor texts library.  

Not all of these books are writing mentor texts but about half of them are!  

  It's working for us, so I thought it might be the perfect idea to link up with Primary Powers' Organization Blog Hop!

As a Literacy Coach, I help teachers plan for writing. Sometimes, we are desperate for another kind of writing model text for a specific skill or strategy, and we are stumped! To help us plan effectively, I started ordering books based on specific traits. You can find one of the lists I used here at Empowering Writers.      After the books came in, I set to organizing them. I wrote a specific characteristic of writing on each index card and made piles of books.   

From there, I divided them up into baskets and put them on specifically designated shelves:  

 I labeled each basket with the writing skill or strategy that the books were great models of. Some of these are great beginnings, great endings, character development, sensory description with the five senses.

Of course, Patricia Polacco gets her own baskets, as do these other great mentor authors: among them, Tomie dePaola, Cynthia Rylant, Gail Gibbons, and more.

To help us use the books well for planning, I made little stickers that go on the inside cover of each book. The image and label on the sticker correlates with the basket label. I printed the labels on sticker paper.

I cut them into strips to stick inside the books.

Here's how it works. This basket is labeled "Generating Ideas for Writing." In it, I also include books about the idea of writing, like "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street" and "What Do Writers Do?"

This book, Little Red Writing Hood, tells a story of a pencil character writing a story. It blends Little Red Writing Hood with writing tips. 

 On the inside cover, I include notes: just some ideas about how to use the book to teach writing strategy.

Throughout the book, the tips about writing are interwoven with the story. I used post-its to mark pages where there were writing tips, strategies, or potential for teaching. 

It's still a burgeoning system, and we're adding to our library a little at a time, but it's a start! Want a freebie to get started? Grab the basket and book labels for free!   

  Check out our other organization tips by hopping to the next post - Mrs. Richardson's Class, and learn all about organizing guided reading groups!   

  Or, if you'd rather, start at the beginning of the hop and check out all the great organization tips! Pin It

A Real Teacher of Blog County

So, I'm a real teacher of blog county. How can you tell? I drink coffee in the morning and wine all night. I wear comfy shoes that allow me to walk (and run when necessary) all day. I take my lunch because school lunch is yucky. My guided reading table is clean 90% of the time. And I haunt the Target Dollar Spot.
All of these things make me a real teacher.  But there's one more thing.  A dark secret. Something no one should ever see or know. Something...awful. It's dun Dun DUNN my closet. This, seriously, might be the worst closet you've ever seen. It's so bad there could be a child living in there and I would never know. There could actually be a whole Lord of the Flies situation in here and I'd never know. 

I'm really just a secret slob. Honestly, I like a neat desk and a neat guided reading table. I like my pens and pencils in separate cups and I have one notebook and calendar I use ALL THE TIME. But when it comes to out of sight, out of mind, I am the worst offender. There should be most wanted posters with my name on it that say, WANTED: HORRIBLE SLOB. Because my closet, where I stuff and shove all things someday useful but not today, is horrendous.

This is why it got so bad. I run a lot of school events. So I house the materials for those events along with my other personal junk. So I bought these handy storage drawers.

I filled them up with the supplies for the school programs I ran last year. And then I ran out of space. Syrup, goldfish, crayons, and scissors were stuffed in here.

So then I filled up this tub with other stuff from the schoolwide programs. Bags, yarn, pencils, glue, and more found their way to this tub. And when this tub was full, I made stacks and stacks and stacks. I can't seem to make the time to clean it! Something else is always more important.

This might be the best part. I had a bag of plastic spider rings for Halloween and one fell out and landed right inside the door. Every time I open the closet, my heart leaps and I think, "EEK!" and then I remember it's only plastic. But do I pick it up? No. I'm too busy for that. 

So now you know my dark secret. You should share yours! Or, if you don't have one, just check out everyone else's and be smug about how tidy and perfect you are. Visit Second Grade is Out of this World to check out the link-up!

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