Reflection #9: Recordkeeping

     From the time you first apply to be enrolled in a certification program until you retire, you should keep a personal file folder of all materials relevant to your professional life.  You don't need a really complicated filing system to protect yourself. You need a dedicated space, binder, or file folder in which you keep all records, correspondence, and memoranda about your professional certification.                        

·       Don't throw away anything.  Be sure you keep everything regarding your training and/or credentialing, no matter how innocuous looking.  (You may very well need that very piece of paper down the line to prove a point. Since teachers’ salaries depend upon credits taken, degrees achieved, and certification earned, as well as experience acknowledged, your salary may very well be at issue)  Every workshop, every in service may turn out to have value along the way. 

·       For most of us, the KISS rule should apply to record keeping (Keep It Simple, Sweetheart). You should devise a plan at the outset and stick to it.  The less complicated the procedure, the more likely that you will follow through.

·       Since much of the stuff you will want to keep will come to your school site, keep a personal file at school marked Personal/Professional and deposit everything there. Don’t risk taking stuff to your home office and misplacing it.

      Maintain a second file folder which contains all the notices of meetings,  memos, and reminders.  You may think your life is complicated now, but you will be awash in a spate of memos and notices of professional responsibilities, the details of which may escape your attention.  If you deposit all of those notices in a file folder, you will always have a handy reference source for refreshing your memory on particulars.  You will save hours of time during a year as well as countless moments of frustration by setting up such a file. More often than you can imagine, you will need to refer to these dead memoranda to refresh your memory for special reports, and responses to querries.  You can always purge the contents from time to time, thereby keeping the folder system simple.

·       You should keep records of all requests for administrative actions and the actions taken in regard to your students. Remember, again, the more complicated your system is, the more likely it is to break down as time marches on. 

·       You may need to trace the record of your actions with a given student; you will then find your simple file folder invaluable to you.

·       If you are a counselor or a "home room" teacher, you may well want to keep individual folders dedicated to each student.

·       As a regular classroom teacher, you may find a single folder of all memoranda sufficient for your needs.