How to Organise Your Teaching Files: A Simple System for Busy Teachers
A quick answer: Teaching files do not need a complicated system. One home for everything, a clear name on every folder and file, and a ten-minute tidy once a week are enough. When every worksheet, lesson plan and handout has its own place, you stop searching through piles and start teaching. Updated: 9 November 2026. This is general teaching and organisation information only, not professional advice. When every file has a home, you stop searching and start teaching. Why teaching files go missing Most teaching files are not lost. They are in one of three places at once: a pile on the desk, a folder in the cupboard, and a copy on the computer. The problem is rarely that the file does not exist. The problem is that nobody can say where it is. It usually happens in the same four ways: Piles grow faster than filing. A worksheet is used once, then left on the desk "for now". By Friday there are five piles, and none of them has a name. The same file lives in three places. ...