The Talking Owls: Making Resources Accessible

Well, hello strangers! With summer wrapping up, I have been on the move to get organized. Since I am switching districts this year and have moved all my materials out, I am starting to organize and go through everything once again. This year I will be at four different schools so I am contemplating keeping all my materials at home for easier access, rather than disperse everything between the four schools. In the past the maximum numbers of schools I have served has been only two, so this will take some figuring out for scheduling and accessing materials. I am curious to see how others manage their materials when they serve many different locations, so feel free to share in the comments. I would love the input!

While organizing my materials, I was looking through my resource binders. These binders are truly one of the best things I have done in terms of organizing my own personal resources. As speech-language pathologists, we attend so many professional development workshops, classes, and focus groups and with those we acquire a lot of resources and notes. In year one of my professional career, I would stick my notes in hanging files or in folders I had laying around. It was nice that they were tucked away and safe, but with them out of sight they became out of mind and I was wasting valuable information and resources that I could refer to when appropriate. Then, beginning of year two, I decided to organize my notes and resources in a way that was functional and accessible to me. Here is where my resource binders came into play.

I had these binders at my home office in my old district, but for now they are sitting on my window sill until I get a bookcase at home. I categorized 1.5-2 inch binders into the following categories: autism, language, articulation, AAC, and social skills. My goal is to attend more workshops and classes on fluency this year, so I hope to be adding a fluency binder in the near future. What is really important is that they are categorized in a way that is beneficial for you!

Each binder is labeled on the side and front for easy reach.

I basically label the tabs as I need a new category per binder. Some binders only have five tabs right now and other binders have fifteen, just depends on your needs! You also get a glimpse of my horrific hand writing. You're welcome.

Basically, I just hole punch all my notes or print outs. Any visuals or items that cannot be hole punched I place in plastic covers or pockets, which works out handy for visuals or examples I hang onto for teachers. I prefer the tabs with pockets to hold materials or notes that I haven't hole punched yet.