IEP at a Glance - Middle School Version

This year, one of my personal goals is to stay organized.  This requires a LOT of effort on my part (as any of my former collegues or roommates can tell you) - I am just not naturally organized.  I think part of the reason is I have an excellent memory, and so I can usually remember who, what, when and where without too much effort.  However, things do slip through the cracks and I'm noticing that as I get older (gasp!) I'm having trouble keeping everything straight without having it written down.  So, I've resolved to change my unorganized ways (especially since I'm always preaching to my students how important it is to be organized - I think it's time to stop being a hypocrite)! At least, I've resolved to do this at school - home will just have to wait a little bit.

One thing I have done in an effort to be more organized is made a student binder with information on all of my students.  I know this sounds like teaching 101, and I had something like this in VA (a data binder with information on all of my kiddos) but last year I started off two weeks in and thought I wouldn't need one or that I would get to it later or something (not sure what I was thinking last year).  Anyways, I have a big ole binder with a student info sheet, the parent info sheet, and (this is what I'm super excited about - and going to share with you today) an IEP at a glance sheet. 

I don't like the format of the IEPs out here - it may be because I got used to the way they were in VA, but really the problem is you have to read the entire document to get the gist - there is no sum it up page.  Earlier in the summer I found an example of one I liked on pintrest (from The Teacher Tattles), but when I printed it off and went to start filling it in I realized while it was awesome, it was really suited to elementary school and didn't fit my needs.  So I made one!

I think it's really cute, and it's perfect for my classroom.  If you would like to download a copy, just click here! This is a link to a PDF because I couldn't figure out how to link it to a word document without screwing up the formatting - if you would like a word document of this just leave a comment with your email and I'll send it to you.

 I might adjust the list of accommodations each year based on the needs of my students, but I think this will work well for me this year, and fits middle school better.  The only thing I wish I did differently is the font - I would really like to start downloading and using some different fonts, but my school computer wouldn't let me, and my laptop is running so slow now anyways, I feel like I shouldn't tempt fate.

What are some tricks you use to keep organized? 

~Brittany~