Speaker 1: I used to think the Rainbow Cart was my favorite way to store worksheets and resources for the week, but the one problem with it is that it only allows you to plan for the current week. What if you have materials for next week or next month? What if you have an assignment or project that you do every January and you'd like to store it to use it year after year? If this sounds like you, then you need the 43-file system. Hello, Marielle here, and today's teaching tip is about worksheet organization so that you can have everything ready to go for each day of the month, or even future months if you'd like to plan in advance. And be sure to stay until the end when I show you how this is the perfect system for when you are out and need to direct a sub to your materials for the day. If you're like me, you probably less than plan by running off copies for each day of the week, Monday through Friday, but there are a few problems with that. What if you plan ahead for the following week? Where do all those worksheets go? What if you have extra worksheets after Monday's class and you need somewhere to put them? And what if you don't want to just deal with stacks of papers in a drawer that you can't see, or worse, stacks that are totally unorganized and on your desk? Well, here's the solution that I came across from the lettered classroom, but I've also seen it used by others in a variety of settings, not just schools. All you need are 43 hanging file folders and a file cabinet or even a large milk crate, anything that will store those hanging files. Label each file as follows, 1-31 for each day of the month, for any month, and January through December for each month of the year. The reason why it's obviously called the 43 file system is because you have the numbered folders 1-31 plus the 12 months out of the year to equal 43. Now I like to begin by placing my month folders in the order for the school year, which would be August through June or July, and place those at the back of the row of the number folders. You use this system at any point of the school year, but I'll show you what it looks like for my current month, which is May. Next, pull out the current month, and in my case May, and put it in the front of all the numbered folders 1-31. If the month you're using doesn't have 31 days, no worries, the extra folders just remain at the end. Now you have the month folder in the front and can hold all your materials that you use every May. For example, Mother's Day projects or end of the year activities. Use the folders 1-31 to place your materials for each day of the correct date. If a date falls on a weekend, for example May 1st of this year, just place those at the back and your numbered folders will be in order by the end of the month. The current days folder will always be in the front, ready for you to access all the worksheets and assignments for that day. Now, at the end of the day, take the days folder and put it in the back of the numbered folders, behind the 31st folder. So now you have the next days folder right in front. If you get to a folder and it's a weekend date, just move those to the back of the numbered folders and they will stay in order. Say you're planning ahead and have run off copies for a future date, well now you can just put those in the numbered folder for the correct date. And of course, when you're done with the month, just move that folder to the back of the month folders and grab the next month to put in front of the 1-31 folders. The great part about this system is that you can run off copies for any of your lessons for the week, month or year and you have somewhere to put them. And if the file folder gets a little too full, simply add an empty folder behind it. It will all be part of the same date. The other reason why I like this system is it prevents me from having paper piles on my desk for the whole day or even week. I simply keep everything in my filing cabinet and walk over to it throughout the day to pull out what I need. This is also a fantastic resource for subs because you can direct them to the file cabinet and have all the materials they need for the day or days they'll be subbing for you. Instead of them searching through random piles of paper on your desk, they have one folder to grab and they have everything they need. Speaking of piles of paper, are you sick of having amassed a huge mountain of your to-be-graded papers on your desk? Or are you losing your master copies for your worksheets and a mess of materials mixed in with all those papers? Then check out this video about my portable grading bin that allows you to clear the clutter once and for all. And the best part is that it works seamlessly with the 43-file system I just showed you.