The new school year is fast approaching. With August comes all of the professional reading that I said I was going to start in June and have only just begun. Whether you are a classroom teacher, administrator, reading specialist, or literacy coach, I'm guessing that most of your professional books are housed on a book shelf, or if you're like me they line the back of your desk spine out with no rhyme or reason. If that kind of sounds like you, allow me to offer an option for organizing your professional materials, especially books.

Think about everything you know about organizing books in a classroom library: clearly labeled containers categorized by author or a common theme, books are face out, with clearly established parameters for check out and return.

Now consider how many times you have scanned your professional books looking for a certain title and you just can't find it. You may know that you loaned a book to a colleague but have no recollection who has it, and the absolute worst - you purchase a book you already have a copy of but can't find. Why has it taken me so long to figure out that I should organize my professional books the way I would organize a classroom library?

So here is what I have done:

1. The first thing I did was make piles of books. I didn't think about categories; I just started piling like books together. From that categories were born:

a. Guided Reading

Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children, Fountas & Pinenell
More Than Guided Reading: Finding the Right Instructional Mix K-3, Cathy Mere

b. Reading Workshop

Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days, Frank Serafini
Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom, Kathy Collins

c. Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, Fletcher & Portalupi
About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers, Katie Wood Ray

d. 6-Traits

Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction, Vicki Spandell

e. Grammar and Mechanics

Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop, Jeff Anderson

f. Kindergarten

The Literate Kindergarten: Where Wonder and Discovery Thrive, Susan L. Kempton

g. Assessment

Understanding and Using Reading Assessment K-12, Peter Afflerbach

h. Poetry/Fluency

The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension, Timothy Rasinski

A Poem for Every Day!: An Anthology of 180 Poems with Activities to Enhance Your Teaching, Susan Moger

i. Comprehension Strategies

Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement, Harvey & Goudvis

j. Word Work

Word Solvers: Making Sense of Letters and Sounds, Miche`le Dufresne

The Wonder of Word Study: Lessons and Activities to Create Independent Readers, Writers, & Spellers, Lauren Berman Lucht

k. General Reading/Writing

Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write, Cunningham & Allington

l. Phonics/Phonemic Awareness

Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing, Patricia Cunningham

2. Next, I made a visit to my local Dollar Store to purchase containers. Since professional books tend to be a little on the thick side and vary in size and dimension, I decided to purchase plastic dishpans which are sturdier than typical classroom library bins, easier to carry, and store a decent number of books.

3. Next I had to decide if I could combine any categories in a bin together because I don't have enough grammar and mechanics books, for example, to fill an entire container.

4. When that was done I used large labels to label each container.

5. Before I placed books in the containers I purchased adhesive book pockets, like the kind we filled out for library books before everything was computerized. If you're not sure where to buy these go to this site and search for "book pockets":
http://www.demco.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?PROCFUN+LWDCWEB+LWDC001+PRD+ENG

Most of you are probably thinking you would place the book pockets inside the front cover of the book. Keep in mind this is a lot of work, and the whole purpose is to avoid not knowing where your books are. I actually placed the book pockets right on the outside of the book on the front cover. I did my best to place the pocket so that it would not interfere with the title of the book, but I want to be sure that teachers see the pocket and card and fill it out when taking a book.

6. I placed the books in the appropriate container, shelved the containers, and placed a card file box by the containers for teachers to place book cards.

7. In addition, I also placed book pockets on videos, CDs, and DVDs, and placed those in a container for checkout.

There's one last thing I'd like to tackle: professional journals. They can become a storage nightmare and if you're anything like me, you find yourself hanging on to the entire journal for one or two articles and before you know it you have piles of journals that you are not referencing. I'm going to start cutting out the articles I want to keep, place them in plastic sleeves, and do one of three things depending on how many articles I find myself keeping:

1. I'm going to start by labeling a bin, Professional Articles, and placing all of the articles in it.
   
2. Some articles may end up in bins with professional books if they match an already existing bin.
   
3. Since the plastic sleeves have holes I may start up binders categorized similar to the professional book bins.
   

As I look at the newly organized professional books in my office I know that I will have an easier time finding the resource I'm looking for and hope that the teachers I work with will be more inclined to peruse and access with greater ease.