Organization in the New Year

I’m joining Hope’s Linky Party from 2nd Grade Shenanigans on organization! Here are a few ways I already organize my classroom and ways that I keep myself, my aides, and most importantly, my students, organized!

Reading Group Organization:

I have three reading groups and each group has a bin with all of their materials in it. Underneath, I have supplies for centers, a bin for Orton-Gillingham and a bin with my writing materials for the week. The nice thing about having all of this laid out, is my students know where to find everything and will often set up centers for me!

Daily Housekeeping Organization:
Many of my students have organizational IEP goals so it is really important for me to stay organized, so they can stay organized. I have our daily routine and schedule listed (middle, blue), the homework for my whole team and our Common Core Standards for the day. I started my What’s the Plan for Today? when I taught kindergarten and I have learned how much the students like seeing what is on the agenda for the day. I also have a PowerPoint up at all times that lists the directions and the order in which the students should be working. I have it on my television so I never have to erase it or worry that it will be in the way when I begin teaching that day. For example:
1. Fill in your agenda.
2. Turn in your spelling homework.
3. Work on your Math Wizard packet page 12-13.
4. Early finishers- use the Fluency Station.

The Busy Bins:
Ahhhh The Busy Bins. One of my favorite organization tricks. If you haven’t noticed, I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to classroom management. I really don’t like it when my students say “What can I do now?” or “Where can I get a _______” or “I need another ________ “. At the beginning of the year, the disruption of students taking out materials was driving me a little bonkers. 5th graders don’t have supply boxes and they also don’t have a desk full of materials in my room, so any time they needed to take out a highlighter, a correcting pen, a pair of scissors or a dry-erase marker, it became a big ordeal and we lost valuable instructional time. I also can’t stand when they have those materials out and they can’t stop playing with them! My solution? BUSY BINS! I store these blue and pink utility tubs at the front of my classroom and one person from each group is responsible for grabbing one at the beginning of class. They are great when I am teaching direct note-taking, study guides, review classes, vocabulary instruction, reading comprehension and more.

Each Busy Bin has:

• 3 correcting pens
• 3 dry-erase markers
• 3 mini dry-erase boards
• 3 highlighters 
• 3 Post-Its
• 3 glue sticks
• 3 scissors
• 1 dry-erase eraser 

Fluency Station:
I am going to do an entire post on my Fluency Station, but here is a photo of how I organized it. These serve as a place for my students to work when they are finished early. I put this together as a central place for the students to find all of their options instead of wandering from one area of the room to the next to find something productive to work on. There are four levels. They have to complete one activity from each level to go on to the next level (Hint…as the levels progress they become more “fun” and therefore keep the kids engaged). More on this in another post!

These are dry-erase labels so I can change what is in each bin periodically.

Fluency Boxes:
I am big on flashcards for my students because for so many of them, they need the repeated practice and they need to develop good study habits. For many of my students, the biggest struggle in test-taking is not the actual content of the test, but reading the words in a question. I came up with the Fluency Boxes as a way to organize the flashcards that we are working on at any given time. 5th graders are not great at keeping 3 x 5 cards in one place, so this is their place. In each child’s box I have a variety of words that are specific for that child. Here are some examples of what are in some:

• Vocabulary words for Math, Science and Social Studies
• High frequency words for reading groups
• Test prep key words (e.g. according, passage, summarize, describe, explain)
• Math facts (multiplication and division)

Each night, the students bring them home and have to practice all of their cards for 15 minutes with a parent, sibling, grandparent, babysitter. They are responsible for bringing them to and from school.

Teacher Organization:
Despite the number of bins and baskets with labels that I have, I still end up with stuff on my desk every day. This is my attempt to keep some of it together according to its department.

Birthdays and anniversaries

Month view

Week view

Home to stickers, cards, stamps, etc.

Home to coupons!

Now here comes my Organization Resolution. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on organizing my school life for now. However…..I’m moving in 4 months so I’ve chosen a personal goal. I’ve been living in my house for 4 years. You can only imagine the amount of stuff I have to go through, get rid of, clean out and organize. My first resolution is to make moving not be the worst thing ever, but a smooth and exciting change! Each month I want to tackle a different part of my house- clothes, basement, kitchen, office. If I can do a little at a time, I won’t be pulling my hair out in April!

When the time comes that I do move, my second resolution is to organize and put together a really great home office. I spend 75% of my time at home on my computer (sad? I don’t know) and I want a peaceful, organized space to do my blogging, crafting and working.

My third resolution is to organize my iPhoto library. After I graduated from college I went through and backed up all of my photos on CDs. Now, 4 years later, I have a computer full of photos again and they are not close to being organized. I need to digitally organize my life. I digitally organized my teaching documents a few months ago and it took me DAYS but it feels so good to have it all done.

Whew! That was a long post. But that’s because it’s one of my most favorite topics!