Having taken over a classroom in the middle of
the year, the large supply closet located in the corner caught my eye. Excited,
I imagined a lot of things like teaching manuals, stationery, and paper.
As I opened the supply closet doors, shock
crossed my face. Images from a show about hoarders flashed through my mind.
Textbooks that had been out of circulation for more than a decade, various
pieces of paper, and floppy disks that were literally flexible were now
clustered around my feet.
This cabinet was huge. It was amazing, but due to the lack of organization, what should have been a blessing was a source of stress. The idea of tackling a six foot tall cabinet crammed with years of discarded J-U-N-K was overwhelming.
Get that cabinet organized ASAP and I've been organizing it ever since.
Do you want to know how to do everything? Do you want to be an organized teacher? Are you tired of wasting time? Yes me too! Personally, I would answer all three questions with a big yes. I guess you would too.
I wish there was a way to do everything perfectly every time, but perfection just isn't realistic.
Fortunately, by becoming an organized teacher, you can maximize your productivity and efficiency. It may not turn you into a super woman, but it can help prevent the secret chaos hidden behind closet doors.
These are some of the tips that have helped me organize myself more. Hopefully, they will help you too.
Organized Tip for Teachers 1: Know Your Plan
You have probably heard the quote, "Not planning is planning to fail" from Alan Lakein. If you don't know what you want to do or don't plan how to get there, you probably won't achieve much.
Personally, I am a fan of using checklists, especially for large tasks. They let me see both the grand plan and the individual steps required to achieve it. For an example, you can get a copy of my free Back to School Checklist here.
If you are planning a task that you will redo, such as IEPs or your classroom setup, write down your checklists and print them out. It makes it easy to make changes and you're ready to print and go to work next time.
Teacher tip 2: do things once whenever possible
I've already talked about my love of a good checklist and I've already talked about typing them on the computer for easy editing and quick reprint, but my most used checklists go one step further.
Laminate those suction cups. You can write on them entirely with a permanent or dry-erase marker. A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser will clean them. No need for water! Store frequently used checklists in a folder or clipboard for easy access.
Another way to reduce your workload is to avoid reinventing the wheel every year. While I believe in writing new lesson plans for each group of students, I highly recommend storing lesson materials based on the units you teach.
That way, when you're ready to write your lesson plans, your unit materials are all together and ready for you to copy. If you have examples, rubrics, keys, and even unit drawings, keep them with your supplies. You can even add images of hallway displays or bulletin boards that you use with the unit. I love the way Stephanie stores her supplies. Check out her post about it here.
Organized Tip for Teachers 3: Make Your Space Work for You
When it comes to organization, people often think of physical space. Let's be honest, organizing in a chaotic space is difficult and preventing chaos can be challenging in a classroom full of children.
Therefore, it is important to structure your classroom to support the routines and activities that will occur there. You probably want to have certain structured areas in your room. I always wanted to have a carpet area for whole group instruction, a table for small groups, student work areas and areas to store centers, teacher supplies, student supplies, and some kind of mailbox. Also, I planned my wall space to accommodate my goals, the word wall, alphabet, number line, rulers, and ever-changing anchor charts. I wrote about efficient storage and display of anchor charts here.
Regardless of the areas you decide on, there are a few important things to consider when planning your space. You'll want frequently used supplies to be easily accessible and everything else accessible when needed. If your students will be using the supplies, you need to make sure they are at a height they can reach and are very easy to access and return. Supply caddies, like this one Kristen uses, work well for both school supplies and students.
Not only is it important to be able to access and find your materials, but it is also important to feel comfortable in your workspace.
Personally, I am much more likely to keep up with putting things in place if everything has a home and the environment is visually orderly and appealing to me.
Another thing to consider when planning your physical space is whatever technology you have in your classroom. Like other supplies, technology must be accessible and organized to maximize its usefulness. You can find more ideas for organizing technology here.
Teacher Tip 4: Develop Good Routines
Using checklists and developing a good storage plan will help you create efficient routines for yourself, but in the classroom, there is one of you and a bunch of kids. Establishing routines for them and practicing routines with your students is an essential part of being an organized teacher.
You've probably heard this before, but seriously plan every little routine you want in your classroom. Decide in advance how you want things to be handled like going to the bathroom, questions, pencils, packing, etc. Set up, teach and practice your routines step by step with your children. The more consistent the routines, the more freedom you have to teach.
Organized Tip for Teachers 5: Delegate
Remember there is only one of you. You can't do it all alone. Sometimes it seems easier to do something yourself, but delegating is an important strategy to save the sanity of any teacher.
Students can take responsibility for collecting and storing supplies. Having small buckets or using neat tubs, like Aris does here, can help. Classroom assignments can include cleaning up specific areas or even doing things like helping archive non-confidential materials if you have older students. You may be able to get some senior volunteer students to help in the evenings if your school has an after school program.
Some tasks require the help of an adult. If you are lucky enough to have parent volunteers, use them. Parents can be great at working with small groups of students to practice sight words or math facts. They can help with bulletin boards and aisle displays, run copies, or cut lamination.
If you have parents who want to help but are not available during the day, try sending home laminates that need cutting. The main thing is to know exactly what you want your parent volunteers to do and to set up a system so that they can help without interrupting your class. You can get a free copy address sheet here. Fill in the information. Then clip the note to the pages you need to copy.
Teacher Tip 6: Prepare for Things Ahead
If you want to be an organized teacher, organizing is not enough; you have to stay organized. In my experience, that's where things get tricky. Things don't always go according to plan. The copier runs out of toner, school closes early, an emergency meeting with staff requires your planning… Things happen.
Sometimes it's going to blow your plans to pieces, like the time the entire school had to evacuate for hours because someone put a stink bomb in the toilet, activated the sprinkler system, and flooded part of the school. Most of the time, though, it's not that dramatic and you can fix it.
Since things come up, it's best to plan ahead.
No one wants to write last minute lesson plans when sick or rush to come up with a plan b because the copier broke. Plan well in advance to give yourself some leeway. You'll breathe a little easier when things come up.
If you have your plans written 2 weeks in advance, you are well covered. At the very least, I would try to plan it a week in advance. Not only does it mean that you are covered if an emergency occurs, but it allows you to use parent volunteers to run your copies and gives you time to prepare any additional materials you need. Being prepared early also makes it easier to get your supplies ready before you leave. Try to put tomorrow's materials and lesson plans on your desk each day. Then if you do get sick, you can simply email a colleague any additional notes you want to pass on to the surrogate instead of writing a new set of plans.
I did my best to design my materials, but there were days when it didn't happen. One thing I always had on my desktop was a replacement folder. My secondary folder had all of our class procedures, emergency drill procedures, student special needs, schedules, and a map of the school. I also kept a section for each subject with classroom routines and various review activities in case of a true emergency when I could not write substitute plans. It is much easier if you have done it to deal with waking up sick or having a sick child. If you'd like a copy of my free editable substitute folder, you can get it here (owl theme), here (beach theme), here (Apple theme).
Pick a tip to try today. Soon, with the organized chaos behind your cabinet doors, you'll find yourself getting more done in plenty of time to enjoy your life outside of school, too.
At Grade School Giggles, my goal is to help Y-O-U become the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G teacher you were created for WHILE YOU HAVE TIME to live the life of your dreams outside of school. How? Sharing the best things with you. Things like…
- Fun ideas for the classroom
- Inspiration for teaching
- Captivating and engaging activities
- Tips to save time
- Ready-to-use resources
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