In my last school, I used a large white bookshelf as my 'podium' to hold the materials I need to access when I'm in front of the class. I kept my teacher’s guides, laptop, worksheets for the day, reading group supplies, mini-offices, and even a trashcan inside! It was slightly off-center in the room so that when the kids sit on the rug, I could sit on a chair at the front of the room and write on the board without the podium blocking their view.
My overhead cart is set up a lot like previous years. I use the middle shelf for the kid’s wipe-off boards, erasers, and markers. (The boards are made of a piece of showerboard from a home improvement store: the total cost for 30 board that are 12 inches by 12 inches was less than ten bucks. The ‘erasers’ are cut-up pieces of felt). The bottom shelf of the overhead cart holds all of my transparencies. I used to keep them in hanging files but I have a lot more of them now and binders are easier to access.
Here’s my TV cart. I keep extra scissors and gluesticks in containers next to the VCR/DVD player so helpers can pass them out when needed. Behind them are the videos I own. On the bottom shelf is a crate I use for filing the kids’ papers (read The Paper Trap page for details about how to have kids do filing). My filer can sit on the floor and file right there or carry the crate elsewhere in the room. I also have plastic drawers on the shelf, in which I keep various teaching materials.
The other half of the plastic drawer set is kept next to the TV. My cassetter player is there for when I play the textbooks on tape or for kids in the reading area to use with headphones (which are stored behind the file box). The top drawer holds cassettes. The drawer below it holds extra class papers. Whenever my paper passers distribute worksheets to the class, they place the extra ones go in this drawer. That way, they’re not standing there trying to hand me papers while I’m teaching, and anyone who is missing a paper or needs another copy can just go up to the drawer and find what they need. I empty it out every month or so, but it’s convenient to have the extras in there for awhile for absent students, during parent conferences, etc. The bottom drawer holds art supplies that I want the kids to be able to access during class projects.
[One of the most important organizational tips I can offer is to think carefully about which supplies you want the kids to be able to access and which you don’t. Anything they need to be able to get to should be in VERY sturdy containers that are easy for children to keep organized- nothing too elaborate- and in convenient, low-traffic areas. For example, I want my paper passers to distribute various types of blank paper from time to time, so I keep it in the Writing Area on an open shelf, as opposed to in a high cabinet that I have to get the paper from in order to give it to the paper passers. I want them to be able to access art supplies, but I need to keep an eye on what they’re taking and how they are returning them, so I keep them up in the front of the classroom so I can observe without having to stop a lesson. Conversely, the things that the kids don’t need to be able to get to are hidden away. The majority of children automatically understand that they are not to touch certain areas of the room, especially a teacher’s desk, so it’s not so much to prevent them from handling things I don’t want them in, but more so because kid-friendly, accessible shelf space is at a premium, and I don’t like to waste it with things the kids will never be using. Extra textbooks, vats of soap, office supplies, posters, etc. are all hidden away in cabinets so that the open shelves and containers around the room can be filled with the supplies I want the kids to have].
Here's how I keep extra office supplies. Everything is on a shelf right behind my desk so I can easily access it.
I found our schedule impossible to keep up with when we have so many pull-outs for special ed, speech, reading groups, etc. and things would get cancelled and rescheduled. So I started writing notes (in green) on the board whenever there were special events or calendar changes. To the right is our daily schedule, which is just made of simple laminated strips with magents on the back. Below that, in red, I have the chapters for the novel the class was reading at the time. Students wrote their names under the chapter they were on so I could monitor their progress. The big poster has our math assignments on it (it was only 7 days until the end of the year so they didn't have much!). I left it up all week for their reference (read more about that on the Homework page). You can find out more about row points on the Behavior 101 page, and the Have You Turned In Your... on the Paper Trap page and Bead System page.
Another teacher in my previous school had such a fabulous idea for storing reading curriculum materials that I copied it myself! (You'll see her version on the Other Teacher's Ideas page ).
I actually took it a step further and created drawers for ALL the subjects I teach. I wanted larger ones for science and social studiesto hold all of the materials for our experiments. Each drawer has a laminated legal size folder for each chapter in the unit. The key for me here was that the containers are drawers, not just bins, because if I had to unstack them and take the lids off to file something, I would be too lazy to do it. This way, if I come across something for science, I can just open the drawer and toss it in. You can read more about this on the Organizing Lesson Plans, Files, and Photocopies page.
I don't use workbooks with my kids very often, so I have them kept on a bookshelf in the back of the room. Each child's workbooks are in one place (student #1's books all together, students #2, etc.). There is an index card on the shelf above which tells the order the books should go in (blue, purple, green, yellow) just so it looks neater and the materials are easier to find. I had to remind the kids about this a few times during the year but they were pretty good about keeping it up. Every other week during Fun Friday I had helpers straighten them out.
I like to move my kids' desks around a lot, but it takes a lot of forethought in terms of matching up personalities, abilities, proximity to the front of the room, etc. I laminated an index card and then cut it into little rectangles, writing a student's name on each one. Then I put velcro on the back. I put the rectangles on a piece of felt so that I can move them around repeatedly throughout the year without having to physically move the desks until I know I've got things the way I want them.
32 of my favorite organizational tips are being compiled at EducationWorld.com!
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