How to Make a Teacher Binder

Binder cover courtesy of Teaching in Flip Flops.

Phew! This Sunday has flown by...a little church, lunch with the hubby and my latest obession, creating my teacher binder. I got this idea last year from Ladybug's Teacher Files. I even used her freebie tabs which were great for my first run; however, after using the binder for a year, I realized I needed to come up with different tabs. I'm on a limited budget (who isn't) so I wanted to complete this project with things I had at home already (aka use up some old paper and a cheap Target binder etc.) So here is my own version of how to create a teacher binder.

Step 1: Make a list of what items/resources you keep or think you will keep and need to reference frequently throughout the year. Think of this binder as your "teacher bible" that you can take home if you need to and still be able to plan, grade etc., without lugging home a bunch of binders or folders. For this purpose, I chose a 1 1/2 inch cheapo binder. (I take out my lesson plans after every 9 weeks, so this binder is big enough for me).

 Step 2:  After you come up with a big list of resources you think you need to keep in your binder, group them into major headings. My headings are Planning, Behavior, Grades, Meetings, and Info. Then using Powerpoint, I created circle tabs for each of these headings. I printed them on colored paper and cut them out.

Step 3: I attached the circle tabs to a piece of blue card stock. Before attaching the tag I listed and printed the sub-sections of each tab. For example, under Info I have "Student Information," and "School Information," under Planning I have smaller tabs that say "Lesson Plans," "To Do Lists," "Calendars," and "SOLs, Pacing Guide Etc."

I taped the circle to the card stock before laminating.

Here are all the things you will find behind the planning tab.

Then I used tape to secure the tab to the card stock and ran it through my laminator...homemade, totally customizable binder tabs! (The edge of my tab stuck out of my laminating packet a little bit, so I just used some scotch tape and covered the exposed parts.)

Then after each of the larger tabs were laminated, I 3-whole punched them and repeated a similar process for the smaller tabs that go behind each main section. So behind each of the 5 main tabs are a few sub tabs. It took a while but I know it will be worth it judging on how beat up my binder is from last year. There are so many great teacher binder resources that I have pinned... and a lot of them are free. Check out my Pinterest boards here.