31 Days of Letting Stuff Go - Day 16

This post is part of a series of posts called 31 Days of Letting Stuff Go and is hosted as a link up at Write 31 Days with Nester of the Nesting Place.  For previous posts, please do visit my landing page.  You can also explore #lettingstuffgo and #write31days on Twitter.  

Most of my posts have been scheduled and ready to go: hurray!  Not today.  It just took too darn long to work through today's stuff.  You remember this?

No sense in putting it off any longer.  I dove in last night and finished up today. Normally, I can pick what I need to purge and write quickly about it, but that was not going to happen with this project.

It all took me down memory lane: essays, reflections, notes, and full-blown papers.  PIP packets, syllabi, research articles...

I kept some class notes.  I didn't think I would, and maybe I'll recycle them once I take a closer look.  After a while, I couldn't make decisions anymore.  DECISION FATIGUE. :)

A graduate class at the undergraduate level made me "highly qualified" to teach reading.

The left side is the recycle pile, and the right side is the keep pile.  I must say, I am disappointed the keep pile is still so big.  It was less than half the size of the recycle pile.  The keep pile needs to be organized a bit better and placed in an appropriate place.  I'm not sure the basement is the best place to keep class notes.

Abandoned file folders.

Throughout the purge, I kept asking myself: could I get this information again somewhere else?  Do I really need my notes on the stages of an early reader?  Or could I research the latest professional teaching resources for this information?  So, I'll take a break from this particular stack of stuff and come back to it with fresh eyes, maybe during the latter portion of 31 Days.

With a half hour to spare, I am finishing Day 16 of the 31 Days challenge!  

How do you organize your professional papers?  Are you a teacher?  What do you like to keep?