Organizing for a New School Year

On the last day of school, I bring home bags and boxes of binders, books, files and other school stuff that usually ends up untouched despite my good intentions. Unfortunately, this year was no exception. Today my husband took my three kids out and about for the day so I could unpack and organize my new counseling room. Though he was gone six hours, I never managed to leave the house and get to school. Instead, I went through all the stuff I brought home months ago.

Over the years I have tried to use binders to organize my reference materials and use color coding to find things quickly. When I graduated with a M.S. in counseling, the ASCA National Model and my state's comprehensive guidance model used different terminology than what is used today. While I am trying to update my organizational style based on the new terminology, my brain still automatically categorizes using the terms I was trained in. This old dog is still trying to learn new tricks! But for now, I created a hodge podge of categories that work for me now.

For example, I have always divided my files into these categories:

• Counseling (individual, group, family, other)
• Curriculum (guidance - personal/social, academic, career)
• Coordination/Consultation - Referrals, Mentor Program, Student Assistance Team
• Responsive Services (behavior, conflict management, crisis response, referral)
• Program Management

While this seems simple enough, I had several categories put in the same binders and file drawers and often had to look in several places to locate information.

This year I really cleaned out the older papers in my binder system and re-organized them. I now have different binders for each category. In the past I tried to put too many categories in one binder or file drawer and then ended up not putting papers away where they belong because it involved too much thinking and looking for the correct file folder or place in the binder. I was also hesitant to bring my binders with me to meetings because they were to bulky. These are my new binder categories:

• Student Rosters (1/2 in.)- Class lists, alpha list with address and phone numbers
• Responsive Services (1 in.)- Behavior Plans, SPED behavior plans, office referral data, attendance data, etc...
• Curriculum (2 in.) (Counseling Action Plans, Curriculum Maps, Guidance Outline by Grade Level, Data, RAMP/ASCA National Model information)
• Reference - (2 in.)Professional Counseling (District, State, ASCA), District Information, Building Information, Reference, Community/State Reference, DSS/Child Protection, Technology
• Counseling - (1 in.) ideas for individual and group counseling activities
• Guidance- (3 in.) Lesson ideas I would like to use as well as lessons from curriculum I've copied or summarized to share with other counselors

With more binders, I am hoping it will be easier to find information and put new information in the binders. I also plan to bring the relevant binder with me when I go to meetings. In the past I have put more information in my files and had more file drawers. As I store more data electronically, I am using the paper files less often and have purged many of my file drawers. I have one short file drawer that I use daily and I have a four-drawer file cabinet I store less used items in.