Throughout the country, school has ended and teachers have packed up their classrooms. In the past, I have dreaded returning in August because my classroom is usually an unorganized HOT MESS!!! Around April each year, I make a plan to organize all my materials and then
pack in a timely fashion. It never works out that way. Between assemblies,
conferences, piles of paperwork, and endless changes to our schedules, I end up
throwing things in boxes and bins in a random fashion. I am never done by the
last day and always have to go back after school is over to finish packing.
This year, I vowed it was going to be different. And it was!
I successfully organized and packed all my materials away with two days of
school left.
Would you like to know how I tackled my classroom materials?
I began in May. I started in my math area. I sorted all my math materials
into categories. I had 12 piles when I was done. Three of the piles were
standards I no longer teach. I went through those piles first. I gave new
teachers any of the materials I no longer needed. I held onto only the
manipulatives or activities that I could use for enrichment students. For manipulatives of smaller amounts, I used the old math storage kits that came with the math textbook. It was a perfect match! For some of the larger amounts, I purchased shoe box size storage tubs.
Then I purchased three 3-drawer cart organizers. My plan was simple. Each standard would have
one drawer. I could only keep enough
manipulatives for a class of twenty and they had to fit with activities in their
assigned drawer. This was going to be a huge challenge for me. I tend to hold
onto manipulatives, “just in case.” Well, I have been teaching ten years now,
and I still had doubles, sometimes triple, of materials. I was determined this
was going to be the year to get rid of the stuff!
Each afternoon, I sorted through one of the nine piles left.
I kept activities the kids loved and the manipulatives for the standard.
Anything that would not fit in the drawer went to other teachers. I did this
every day until my piles were neatly in drawers. Then I made cute labels for my
new math drawers. They are neat and organized. More importantly, I now know
exactly what I have for each standard.
When I was finished with math, I moved onto the dreaded
filing cabinet. Lucky for me, I have never been one to stuff it full. I only
use two drawers for resources. The other drawers hold copies when they come
from the print shop. I went through every file and purged everything I no
longer need or use. If I had a digital copy, the file went in the recycle bin.
I am happy to say, I no longer have any files other than required data for
students, in the filing cabinet. Next year, it will be for housing print shop
copies. It took me about three afternoons to go through every paper in the
filing cabinet. Over the year, I created binders for lessons and activities that I use frequently.
The next week, I moved onto my reading centers. Again, I
followed the same system I used for math. I ended up with 27 piles this time. I
bought two 10-drawer cart organizers. I also bought six 3.75-quart bins for
larger standards. I labeled each drawer
and bin. It took me a little over a week to organize all my reading materials,
minus the textbooks and teacher resources. (Those are all boxed up and ready to
go to the book depository. We will be getting new reading textbooks next year.)
Now, the scariest part for me…BOOKS! I have a classroom
library with well over a thousand books. That does not include the three
hundred read alouds I keep separate to teach with. I bought another twelve 3.75-quart bins. I
labeled each of the bins with the months of the year. Then I sorted through all
my read alouds and placed them in the month I teach with them. Next, I added my
monthly resources and center activities to the bins. This took me three days to
do. My resources were already organized in a cabinet; they just had to be moved
into the bins.
I moved onto the classroom library. For this project, I had
my students help me. I was prepared with guided reading, Accelerated Reading,
and genre labels. Each student took a basket of books and inspected each book.
If a book needed repaired or labeled, I did it right then. Each student cleaned
their basket with a baby wipe and returned the books to the basket. This took
us about four hours, over two days. My library is now current with labels and
organized by genre.
I am thrilled my classroom is not only packed, but also
organized! When I unpack, next week (UGJ!), it should be a breeze. No more dumping
boxes, sorting, moving stuff, and then setting up. I will be able to walk in,
move my furniture, and start unpacking. This year, I will be excited to get back as I know I will not be overwhelmed!
