I’m back today to talk about one of my favorite subjects… Organization! For real, I get so excited to organize things, it’s like a weird addiction for me.
Here are some tips that I used in my classroom to help things run more smoothly:
Organizing all those fantastic teaching resources is always a struggle. I used to store all of my teaching materials in hanging files in my classroom.
This was an okay system until I needed to plan. How many people have time to actually get their plans done while in their classroom? I know that I was never able to get everything done at school so I’d end up taking a folder of two home with me to finish my plans. This always turned into a paper crinkling, falling out, hanging files stabbing me, and getting lost disaster! So I finally decided one summer to put everything in binders, and let me tell you that this changed my teaching planning life!
Just look at how nice they look sitting there on the shelf *sigh* Okay so here is what I did. First I sorted everything by theme/unit that I teach. Then within the binder I sorted into categories for reading, writing, math, and fun. Most items are hole punched but some I put in page protectors for safe keeping. I also started binders for each subject as well for non thematic materials. Now that I have them all at home I want to sort through them even more, but thats my OCD. Here are the covers for my binders if you are interested in binderizing your teaching files!
Loved reading this, Jess! I also linked up. Thanks for sharing! A well organized classroom library is a MUST!
<3 Melissa
http://mrsdaileysclassroom.blogspot.com/
Wow! I love your thematic title cover pages!! Adding to my wish list now! Right now I do a little bit of both hanging file folders and binders. I really need to organize everything!
Andrea @ Cheers To School
Thanks Andrea! I got motivated to tackle my files at home today after this post and already have a whole trash bin full of things I purged! I can't believe how much has changed in just the 7 years I was in the classroom. Hopefully I can finish in the next few days.