Cornucopia of Teacher Tips-Easy Unit Organization

I am super excited about the Cornucopia of Teacher tips blog hop that's being hosted by Focused on Fifth! I love AWESOME teacher tips! 

Today, I'm going to share with you my favorite method for managing and organizing unit plans! If you're anything like me, you struggle to find a seamless, clean way to organize your unit plans and files.

  PERHAPS YOU'VE TRIED:  

- binders

- papers in a filing cabinet

- piles everywhere

- plastic envelopes

Here's what's working for me right now...Google Docs. 

  LET ME TELL YOU WHY I LOVE IT!  

1. No papers to keep track of. Lightening my load is always worth it. Think about it...there's fewer papers to cart around when you move classrooms!
2. Quickly locate any resource for your unit at the tap of a button. No more searching and digging through that old filing cabinet, getting up and looking around for the binder with that unit in it, etc.
3. All files are uploaded to one secure place. You can access them at work, at home, at the dentist office, everywhere.
4. No more breaking your shoulders carrying those heavy bags back and forth. You can just pop on your phone or computer and there it is.
5. You can share the unit plans with your teammates so everyone's on the same page and collaborating with resources.

  HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:  

1. Log in to your Google Drive.
2. Create a folder for the unit. I create my units like this: 
1. I have a folder labeled "Math"
2. Then I have a folder inside of that for each unit theme that I teach. For example: Measurement, Multiplication, Division, 2D Shapes, etc.
3. Inside the folder, create the specific unit plan in a Google Doc. For example, in measurement, I will create a Google Doc outlining each step of the unit plan. 
4. Then, I will upload all of my resources into that folder. Some resources have to be scanned into my computer and then upload and others are just saved directly on my computer and upload

Here are some of the unit folders that I have.

Here's what it looks like inside of my measurement folder. There's the files that are uploaded and the Google Doc "Unit Plan."

  HERE'S HOW IT LOOKS:  

This is the Google Doc for my 3 week unit on measurement.

The days are outlined. 

The videos that go with each day's lesson are hyperlinked for easy access each day. 

YouTube videos are put through a system called Purify to clean up the commercials and comments.

The blue hyperlinked items are resources that go along with the lesson. That way, I'll have access to each item next year.

The red words are things that still need to be added as hyperlinks in the document.

  HOW TO HYPERLINK YOUR RESOURCES:  

1. Upload any file into your Google Drive in the correct folder.
2. Click the "Share" button. 
3. Get the "Shareable link" 
4. Go to the Google Doc and highlight the name of the link you're creating.
5. Click the hyperlink button.
6. Add the shareable link to the hyperlink section.
7. NOW!

This is what it looks like when you're finding the Shareable Link!

Now...head on over to the next blog in the hop to find out about more awesome teacher tips!!