TCBOTB-BrightBlog

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Organized? Me?

I am so enjoying participating in Teacher Week this year and I am wondering why I did not start blogging a long time ago! :) I am especially happy, that for me, Teacher Week occurs before school starts (sorry to all those already teaching) because I have less commitments (the house cleaning can wait, right?).

So, here is the funny thing. When I receive notes from supply teachers, they often thank me for being so organized. This makes me laugh out loud, "Boy do I have them fooled!" I am so far from organized, it is embarrassing! I do, however, have dreams of being organized though! And, this is my chance. In June, I worked very hard to purge and organize (having everything from grade 6 to grade 2, and a beginning collection of kindergarten supplies).  I only have a few boxes that I had to just dump things in (because I was down to the wire of being kicked out of my school) and I got rid of A LOT! What scares me is how much I have left! Yikes! 

Being new to kindergarten, and not having a lot, my plan is to organize (especially the paperwork) right from the beginning. Recently we had to get rid of our 4 drawer filing cabinets (apparently they are a safety hazard). So, after seeing how this worked effectively for a colleague, I am going to binders. I have a wonderful, fantastic, fabulous, outstanding friend who is going to take all of my grade 5/6 files and grade 2/3 files and organize them by subject and strand/unit, making it easier to share with my fellow colleagues. I refuse to get rid of them because you never know what grade you are going to teach from year to year. I had a fabulous student teacher who started this for me! 

They look similar to this:


Check out the post at The Teacher's Cauldron

I also keep a Substitute binder, Parent Contact binder, Student assessment binder, which I will continue to do, but wondering how this will work for me, while using technology for these tasks as well. I will get back to you on that one! Last year, I purchased this binder set from Little Lovely Leaders (check it out here):




But now I am loving this set of binders by Little Lovely Leaders and thinking it may be time for an update. 



If you are loving this, like me, you can get your own copy here.

I also love this idea from Orange Polka Dots for making tabs using sticky notes! Seriously, you can use a sticky note for almost anything! 



Previously, I used a Monday to Friday file folder organizer to keep copies of worksheets I planned to use, but after visiting my son's Kindergarten teacher and watching them in action. I see that they will likely be doing the same thing for at least a week, this organization strategy is not as useful for me. So, I have other plans (thanks to all of you wonderful bloggers out there)!

I will keep my current centers in buckets, ready to use and when they are not being used, I will store them like this: 

A Cupcake for the Teacher 

And I plan to organize my storage buckets like this: 

Erica's Ed-Ventures

It's a start, right?  Just one last thing! Looking around others' classrooms yesterday, there was one thing that stood out that I really liked and wanted to mention! I loved the idea of collecting the books you plan to use for teaching by your reading chair! So simple, but a great idea! The kids can still enjoy them as well (I know my kids always liked to read them on their own, especially right after sharing a book) , and they are all there at your fingertips!



Thanks for joining me! Now please head over to Blog Hoppin' and check out all the other organizational ideas! Remember to share the love and make some comments. It is nice to hear from people! A special thanks to Desiree at Kinders on the Block for linking to my site yesterday! As I said to her, it is nice to know that someone other than my mother is reading! ;) 


Come back tomorrow for Classroom Management ideas!

Yours in organizing, 

Jackie

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...