Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash

When it comes to organization, over the years I have tried countless strategies, and methods varying in complexity to try and keep my work and research organized. 

If something is too complex, it might work great in the beginning, but I inevitably fall off the wagon when things get busy, and I end up with an unorganized pile (physical, and/or digital) not able to find what I need. If it is too simple, things get lost in the shuffle, I forget where things went, and I end up not able to find what I need. 

It has taken until now, 4 years into my teaching career, for me to have a system in place that I feel works well. It is simple enough that I will always automatically put things where they need to go, but detailed enough that I know exactly where to look when I’m searching for something. 

You might be wondering, so what does this strategy look like? 

I currently work at a G-Suite school (and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon). This means everything I do is on Google Drive, and most things are created with google products (Classroom, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms etc.). My Google Drive is organized in two different ways depending on the category. 

Firstly is by school year. Anything that is not course specific, that I won’t be reusing year after year in the same capacity goes into this folder. It could be things like my folder of report card comments, or track and field rosters, practice schedules, meet dates etc., or my TOC plans folder. It is still accessible for me if I need to find it again, but it isn’t floating into the ibis of my Google Drive. 

Secondly is by grade courses. For every course I teach I have a folder, and each folder has a number of subfolders with a breakdown along the following lines:

  • Course
    • Term
      • Unit
        • Unit Outline Document – within the document is a unit plan with everything linked directly within this single document
        • Lessons
          • Numbered lessons, and corresponding resources
        • Formative Tasks
        • Summative Tasks
        • Section Specific Documents
      • Older Resources Prior to *specified year*

I find using this system to be fairly seamless as I know where to expect things to be when I go searching for them. Is it perfect? No, I don’t think anything ever is, but it has worked really well for the last year and a half since starting at my current school. 

Because of how the Google Suite works, I can open up the folder I want a document to live in, and create it right inside that folder. There’s no drop down menus to click through to find the right folder, and I can easily move its location if I need to. 

How is this going to help me when I begin engaging with the research and educational technology?

Simply put, I plan to use the same system, within my Google Drive, but also in Zotero. I have a folder in my Google Drive called M.Ed., and inside is a folder for each year, which has each semester, and finally a folder for each class within the semester. I will create folders for each task that requires multiple documents, and keep a running document with things linked when required.

Inside Zotero, I have folders for each course I am enrolled in, which will be placed into the appropriate semester folder, with course readings, and project reading separated into their own subfolders. For each article I try to attach a note, summarizing an article’s Origin, Purpose, Content, Value, and Limitation (OPCVL). That way when I revisit a resource I can quickly scan not only the abstract, but also a summary of my own takeaways, and comments. I also use the tags function to make articles easily searchable, although currently most of my articles are about similar things, so they all share many of the same tags. 

I know myself, and I know that as I embark further on this journey I need to remember to take things slow. It’s easy for me to get excited and dive right in, but I need to stay focused on the here and now, and what is needed at this moment in time so I don’t find myself getting overwhelmed later on. Using a similar system to what I currently use everyday at work, will help me stay organized, and not get overwhelmed when I have countless resources saved. 

With all this being said, I am a lifelong learner. I constantly am trying new things, and searching for innovative ways to do things. So I am sure I will continue to try and experiment a little bit in how I organize things to find a better, more efficient system. BUT, and I know that’s a big but, I also know that the system I currently use works, and I can fall back on it anytime a new system doesn’t work the way that I hope it will.