Optimum Organization- Google Drive

I hope everyone is loving the summer Optimum Organization series as much as I am! I have some quick thoughts to share with you about how I organize my files on Google Drive. My school district has Gmail as their email provider, so we are able to use the resources supported by Google --which I am very happy about.

Nonetheless, I receive countless documents "shared" with me that I need to keep track of. I also use Google drive to share lesson plans and resources with my PLC to make sure that everyone has the same access to the materials that I do. (After trolling the internet for awesome blog and Pinterest ideas!)

The first thing you will need to do is click on"Drive" at the top of the page. Then, select "My Drive" on the side. From there, you should see a little folder with a plus that looks like this:

From there, you can create a folder. I chose to keep the following folders in "My Drive," but obviously you can choose whatever workers for you!

1. 2012-2013 Information- Includes all the resources that you need to keep on file from last year, but don't necessarily think you will need right away.
2. Behavior Management- I like to keep information on my students on a spreadsheet, which is easily shared with administration.
3. Folders for each unit I will be teaching- For example, I have a folder that says, "Power of Research Resources"
4. Professional Development- I keep certificates and other things that are typically sent to me in an attachment form here.
5. Website- Contains the files I display on my school website
6. Organization Resources- This is filled with many fabulous ideas and resources for keeping everything clean, tidy, and "matchy-matchy" aka...the way I like it.
7. And the wonderful catch-all- Miscellaneous

Once you've set up you're folders, you'll notice that they are all gray. That does not work for me. I have to have some kind of color-coding system in place!

To change the color of your folder,  right-click on the folder, move down to where it says "change color" and select.

I always keep important information in red, my units in green, and behavior in blue (it's calming, right?).

All of these images, I took right from my Google Drive. Thanks for reading, hope it helps! Thank to Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files and Elizabeth from Fun in 4B for hosting!