What is a Teacher Binder?
My lesson plans are organized inside my teacher binders. I have one for each month and separate binders for larger units. I created some of the lesson plans inside these binders, but many were also purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers with the help of DonorsChoose.
Why Teacher Binders?
I am beginning year three of my teaching career. So far, my nights have been spent planning from one day to the next. It’s difficult to have a life outside of teaching when that happens! Instead of feeling burnt out, I wanted to have a teacher binder system that I would save the hours of time and energy. A bonus is that it is simple enough for a substitute or my teacher aide to follow in case of emergencies.
How to Make a Teacher Binder
Making a teacher binder is very simple! The first thing you need to do is decide if you want to organize your binders by unit or month. The best way to decide that is by the materials you have for your classroom. If you’re just getting started, a quick search on Teachers Pay Teachers will help you find them! My favorite products are from the Moffat Girls and Kim Miller. I recommend buying in bundles and waiting for sales so you can get extra savings. (If you’re a new teacher, this would be a great thing to ask for as a graduation present from friends and family!)
Once you have your materials, you can print them at school, Office Depot, or at the local library.
Once the pages are printed, I use a yellow highlighter to mark them with a small “M” to indicate they are the master copy. A fun teacher hack is that a yellow highlighter won’t show up when you print your copies!
How to Organize Your Teacher Binders
You’ll need page protectors and 3 ring binders to organize your binder materials. You can use the money you get from school funds, request them on a class wishlist, or reach out to friends to see if they have any lying around their home or workplace. You don’t need anything fancy! Just use the cheapest option you can find. You can use these templates I have created to organize your binders!
Want an extra-mile digital step? Create a Google Drive Folder for each binder, then add a QR code that you can easily scan to access the files anytime!
How to Use Your Teacher Binder
Now that your binders are ready to go, you can use them as a reference point to what you will do each day. I plan everything out in my digital planner, then place the copies of the assignments I need for each day in my rolling cart. Then I either make the copies if I have time, or my teacher aide does it for me.
Teacher binders are a great way to keep track of what is going on in the classroom and organize your teaching materials.
That’s it! Tag me if you decide to use this method in your classroom, I would love to see your teacher binders!
