Organization
Tips from Mrs. McDavid
I
have had many teachers stop by my room to ask how I keep things so
well organized. I have had other teachers to ask if I would
consider teaching a staff development course at our school to help
teachers become better organized. Truly it's the small details
that make the biggest impact. Organizing the classroom takes
time, dedication, and determination but once things are put together
the classroom will run smoothly. Less time will be spent looking
for instructional materials and more time will be spent
teaching. You will be able to provide your students with the
quality time they deserve and you will become a much happier
teacher.
Materials
You Will Need
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File Folders
(Manila and Colored) |
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Magazine
Boxes |
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Hanging
Files (Economy and Colored) |
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2 Pocket
Folders with Prongs |
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Hanging File
Tabs |
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2 Pocket
Folders without Prongs |
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Hanging File
Boxes |
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Baskets |
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File Folder
Labels |
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3-Hole Punch |
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Address
Labels |
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Stapler and
Staple Remover |
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Shipping
Labels |
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Pocket
Charts |
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Index Cards |
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Visa-V-Pens |
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Index Card
Box |
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Dry Erase
Markers |
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Paper Trays |
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Permanent
Markers |
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3-Ring
Binders |
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Sandwich
Bags (pint & gallon) |
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Tab Dividers |
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Clear Shoe
Boxes with Lids |
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Sheet
Protectors |
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Rubbermaid
Storage Boxes |
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Purge
Unused Materials and Non Essential Items As
teachers we tend to hoard materials and supplies that we think might
come in handy one day. We save worksheets, sample units,
websites, newsletters, memos, and the list goes on and on. In
order to decide which items are important enough to keep, ask yourself
if you really need the item or if you have used the item in the last
year or so. If you're like me and cringe at the thought of
throwing something away that may prove useful to someone else, simply
place your unwanted items in a large box. Place the box with a
sign that says "Please Take" or "Free to Good
Home" in the faculty lounge or Media Center. Trust me, the
items will disappear like magic.
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Organizing
the Teacher's Desk The teacher's desk can become
a dumping ground for paperwork, papers that need to be filed,
correspondence from the main office, items that need to be read or evaluated, and papers that need to be
held for future reference. Paperwork can at times
become overwhelming. Organizing your desk is the simplest way to
save time and energy as well as eliminate undue stress.
The first thing you need to do in order to
organize your desk is categorize the type of paperwork that crosses
your desk:
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To
Do (things you need to do immediately)
-
To
File (papers that need to be filed)
-
To
Read (items that require your full attention and evaluation)
-
Pending
(items that you need to hold for future reference)
The
next step is designating an area to file your paperwork. Now
that you know what the categories are, you must assign a place for
your paperwork. It is important that you not place a piece of
loose paper on your desk. How many times have you sat something
down only to have misplaced it? Always place the paper in its designated
area. There
are many systems available and you must choose one that works best for
you. You can you use a hanging file caddy that is
positioned on or near your desk, stackable paper trays, or an
incline sorter.

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Hanging
File Caddy |
Stackable
Letter Trays |
Incline
Sorter |
My
personal favorite is the metal desktop sorter. There is a
section for file folders as well letter trays.
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Setting
Up Your Files Make a file for everything you need to
keep. Designate at least one file drawer for your personal
files. All other file drawers can be used for curriculum and
student files. Your files will become more user friendly if you
use colored hanging files with corresponding colored file
folders. Listed below are some file categories to get you
started:
Lesson Plans |
Staff
Development |
Lesson Ideas |
Personnel |
Back to
School Forms |
Substitute
Contact Information |
Disciplinary
Forms |
Substitute
Instructions |
Accident
Report Forms |
Meetings -
Staff |
Personal
Leave Forms |
Meetings -
Committee |
Clinic
Referral Forms |
Meetings -
Grade Level |
Correspondence
- Office |
Class Roster |
Correspondence
- Media Center |
Newsletters |
Correspondence
- Counselor |
Return to
the Office |
Correspondence
- Other |
To Be Copied |
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Managing
the "To File" Folder Create two
folders within this file. One folder marked "Students"
and the other folder marked "Teacher". It is important
that you manage the "To File" on a daily basis. Do not
let it back up on you. One quick way to manage this file is to
go through it twice a day and file what you can within a 10-minute
segment.
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Managing
the "To Read" Folder
As a teacher, you
will receive a lot of really good information but will not always have
the time to sit down and read over it. This is where the
"To Read" folder comes in handy. There are a lot of
magazines, newsletters, and various other forms of correspondence that
you will receive on a daily and weekly basis. File these
documents in the "To Read" folder and designate one day per
week to read through the documents you have accumulated. Don't
let it back up on you because some of the information could be time sensitive.
After reading the information, decide what is important and file it
immediately. If the document isn't something you will need,
discard it immediately.
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Managing
the Teacher's Mailbox
Check your mailbox at the
beginning of the day, on your lunch break, and again at the end of the
day. As soon as you check your mailbox, prioritize your
mail. Place items that require your immediate attention on top
and items that do not require immediate attention on the bottom.
Throw away all junk mail before leaving your mailbox. Do not
allow these items in your classroom to take up space. Keep
sticky notes, stationary, and a pen in your mailbox. If someone
requests a written response from you, you will be able to reply immediately
without having to return to your classroom to get pen and paper. As
soon as you get to your classroom, record important events and dates
on your calendar and then file the memo in the designated
correspondence folder (see "Setting
Up Your Files"). Any forms, evaluations,
correspondence, or paperwork that need to go to the office should be placed in the "Return to Office" folder.
On your next trip to the office take along the Office folder and
disperse correspondence accordingly.
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Managing Dates
and Events A teacher
must keep track of events occurring at the school, parent conferences,
birthdays, staff meetings, etc. In order to keep track of these
events, you need to invest in a calendar. There are two primary
calendars available that work well with teachers: the desk calendar
and the portfolio calendar/appointment book.

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Managing
a
To Do List
As
a busy teacher you will need to keep a running To Do List. The
purpose of a To Do List is to manage all of the tasks that you need to
carry out by consolidating them on one prioritized list. To
create a To Do List, write down all of the jobs that you have to do
then assign each job a priority with "A" or "1"
being the most important. Refer to your list often. You
will find yourself tackling jobs and crossing them off of your
list.
I
use two different To Do Lists. At the beginning of the week I
use a weekly To Do List that coincides with my lesson plans. I
review the materials that I need and then log them into the Weekly To
Do List so that each day I know exactly which materials I will need to
pull. This way I am not left scrambling at the last minute and
the precious time I have isn't wasted. My Personal To Do List is
a big time saver. I use it to log events and tasks that I need
to do. I cross them off my list once they have been
addressed.
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Organizing
Weekly Materials Each week you will need to organize
the materials, worksheets, books, and manipulatives that you will use
throughout the course of your weekly lessons. Create a daily
folder for each day of the week. Select five brightly colored
folders and label them with each day of the week. Laminate for
durability. If you want to jazz up your folders you can invest
in scrapbook paper. These folders are a great place to store
your lesson plans, worksheets, tests, notes, and other materials
needed for each day's lessons. In addition, Lakeshore has a wonderful all
purpose teacher organizer. This organizer is wide enough to
store your day-of-the-week folder, literature, manipulatives, and much
more. It retails for only 34.95. Click on the picture
below to link you to the Lakeshore website for more information.
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Organizing
Classroom Materials
If you are blessed with a closet or
cabinets in your classroom, then you have the space to store a good
deal of materials out of site from visitors. Invest in clear
shoe boxes. These can be found at your local Wal-Mart for around
$1.00. Designate one cabinet for your teacher supplies (sticky
notes, pencils, pens, permanent markers, erasers, etc.). Combine
like items and place them securely in a clear shoes box. Adhere
a shipping label to the shoe box and label the items for easy
access. By using the shoe box storage system your materials are
quickly in reach and you don't have to worry about things falling out
of your cabinet or not being able to locate what you're looking for. |
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Invest in
baskets, tubs, and small storage boxes. Organize a small
area of the classroom for often-used supplies for
students. Students will frequently loose pencils, run
out of glue, or misplace scissors. These items are also
great to use in centers or when completing small
projects. Most of the storage items can be found at your
local Dollar Store. |
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Many
times there aren't enough storage options in the classroom to
house all of the materials needed for instruction.
Portable file cabinets can be purchased from retail stores
such as K-Mart or Wal-Mart as well as office supply
stores. If you need to purchase an item of this nature,
keep a watch in your local circular ads. You will be
sure to find what you are looking for as long as you are
patient. Once you have acquired your storage unit, label
the drawers so that you and your students can easily find the
materials you need. File systems like the one seen here
are a nice way to store student portfolios and writing
journals. Students have access to their materials but
they are neatly stored out of the way until needed
again. |
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Organizing
Unit Files
As
a teacher you will use various units throughout the school
year. Organizing your materials is a big time
saver. Invest in Rubber-Maid storage boxes. Place
all the items you will need for your unit in the storage box
and then label accordingly. To label the box you can
print the title using your computer and then adhere the title
to the outside of the storage box using clear laminate.
Example items you may include in the storage box may include
but are not limited to books, sample art projects, science
materials, manipulatives, student work samples, games, center
materials, poems, etc. |
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Organizing
Student Supplies
At
the beginning of the school year students bring in extra supplies ranging from glue sticks to filler paper.
Unfortunately students do not have a lot of extra space in
their desk to store these items. This leaves us as
teachers with the dilemma of how to store student materials. Corrugated
boxes are a wonderful storage solution and you can get them
from FREE. That's right, Free! At the beginning of
school check out your local Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and office
supply stores. Ask them if you can have their empty
boxes. The boxes shown here came from Wal-Mart.
The boxes used to sell notebooks and portfolios folders work
best. Once you have secured your boxes simply label each
box with a student number and you have a very creative and
inexpensive storage system. |

Corrugated
Storage Boxes can be found at your local retail stores.
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Organizing
Student Work
Students
will inevitably need to make corrections to the work they
complete. Students often times do not fully understand
the directions or simply didn't understand the content.
Develop an individual work folder for each student using
either a two-pocket folder or a manila folder. When
using a two-pocket folder, label the left pocket "To
Do" and the right pocket "Completed
Work". Once students have corrected all the work
contained in their Work Folder, they should place their work
in a basket marked "Work to Grade". By having
a designated basket you will eliminate the student's need to
track you down and personally hand in their work. You
are not only saving yourself time but the student as
well.
Order Chicken
Rings at Crystal
Springs Books.
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Wire
baskets work well. Use chicken rings to label the basket for clear identification.
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Organizing
Homework and Classwork
Organizing
homework and classwork can really eat into a teacher's
schedule. Using storage units to organizing student work
is one way to organize paperwork effectively. Invest in
3-drawer storage units and label each drawer with each subject
area. The storage units seen here were purchased from
Wal-Mart for around $4 each. There is a drawer for
Spelling, Reading, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social
Studies. At the beginning of the year teach your students to
place their homework in the designated drawer. During
class time, students can turn in their completed assignments
to the designated drawer which saves you time in having to
take up papers. You can even have a student pull the
work and organize the papers by student number. |
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Another
way to organize student work is to invest in deep
baskets. The basket seen here was purchased from a local
Dollar Store. When students have been assigned homework
from a workbook they can easily place their work in the
designated basket. This save you time in having to
manually pick up each workbook from the student or calling
them to your desk. Once the work has been checked,
simply place the workbook in the student's
mailbox. |
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Organizing
Work to Grade Managing work to grade can become
overwhelming. Invest in an accordion file or a pocket folder
portfolio. I personally like the pocket folder portfolio because
each pocket can then be labeled with a particular subject area.
Keep an Easy-Grader and Pen in the front cover. As work is taken
up, sort the papers by student number, paperclip them, and then place
them in the identified pocket by subject area. Student work
stays neat and protected. Using an accordion file or pocket
portfolio also keeps your desk clear and your briefcase
uncluttered. You know exactly where the work is and you won't
spend your valuable time at the end of the day looking for papers to
take home.
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Organizing
Graded Papers At
the beginning of the school year, set up a mailbox for each
student. Using a small label, identify each mailbox
with a student number (1-24). Once your class roster has been
determined, alphabetize students by last name and then
assign each student a number. Students should record
their student number at the top of every paper. When
returning papers to students place their work in their
mailbox. Do not wait until the end of the week to return
graded papers to students or the task may become overwhelming. Return graded papers on a
daily basis.
If
you are concerned about sending home papers with low marks, then you
will want to adapt this system slightly. If you're like me and you want to bring
attention to work that needs to be reviewed by both the
student and parent, then hold these papers in a separate
place. I only send home papers with a letter grade of
80-100. All other papers are filed for parent signature. To store these papers use a numeric accordion
file. These can be purchased at your local office supply
store. File graded papers by student number. You will need to decide on a day of the
week that graded papers for parental review will go home. Monday
is a good day because it gives you the weekend to finalize your
notes. Always send home papers on the designated day. Do
not deviate. You will also want to include a cover sheet
that categorizes the papers and designates a signature line.
Allow parents a minimum of two-days to review these papers with
students. Once the graded papers with signature have been
returned, file them in the student's file. You may need them
again should you have a parent-teacher or parent-teacher-student
conference.
Graded Papers Cover Sheet
The
mailboxes shown here were purchased from Sam's for around $12
each. |
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Organizing
Student Materials
One great way to help students get
organized is to use chair pockets or seat sacks. If you sew then
making your own may be an easy task. For the domestically
challenged, like myself, I have found that seat sacks from
http://www.seatsack.com are terrific. They are
reasonably priced and very durable. They come in a variety of
colors and sizes. You're sure to love them.
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Organizing
Your Classroom Library
Corrugated
boxes are a wonderful storage solution for storing books by
theme or author and you can get them
from FREE. That's right, Free! At the beginning of
school check out your local Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and office
supply stores. Ask them if you can have their empty
boxes. The boxes shown here came from Wal-Mart.
The boxes used to sell notebooks work
best. Once you have secured your boxes simply label each
box with the theme or author. Labels can be made quite
easily from your computer. Simply print out the title
you want and then use clear laminate to adhere it to the front
of the box. You have a very creative and
inexpensive storage system for your classroom library.
In addition, you can
visit your local Michael's or A.C. Moore Craft Store to
purchase inexpensive baskets to hold books. I like to
pull books for a particular theme. For example, in
February I like to pull all of my books for Black History
Month and place them in a basket for easy access.
You can also use crates
to store books. Crates are very inexpensive.
Eledon now makes crates that connect for durability.
They are a little more expensive but may be worth the
investment if you don't have a lot of bookshelves available in
your classroom. To purchase crates by Eledon check out
your local office supply store.
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Corrugated
Storage Boxes can be found at your local retail stores.
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