My Organization- This Year!

I have always felt that it is important to be organized in the classroom.  If I am not organized how do I expect all of my students to be organized?  And, if we all aren't organized its just chaos!

I also feel like I am always evolving in my organization, and I am ok with that.  What works one year may not work in another year.  It also helps that my grade partner is super organized as well! You can check out her organization post here.

I have also taught my students that everything has a home, so often when something is wrong I ask them where that items "lives" it helps them associate where items can be found.

I decided to show you what is new for my organization this year, I hope it all works but I can always tweak as the year goes on.

First up is this Teacher Toolbox that I made over the summer.

I know that it is going to be a great success because it already has been.  While setting up my classroom I always had what I needed at my finger tips.

This is where my teacher toolbox "lives" in my classroom. I have also kept an empty desk for years, it helps me stay focused and organized. I also feel the less clutter the easier it is to keep things neat and tidy.

My job chart will help with organization this year.  This allows everyone to have a task for  a sense of responsibility and ownership in our room.  I have a job on the list this year called "Neat and Tidy" this friend will walk around and make sure everything is where it is supposed to "live", no one can be visiting a friend at the end of the day! 

 Just a side note on the neat and tidy, it all came from a student last year.  We were in a room, that lets just say wasn't so neat and tidy.  This little girl came over to me and whispered, "How do you stand being in here, its not neat and tidy?"  Yes, I contained my laughter, and swelled with pride all at the same time.  She, as so many others have embraced the neat and tidy!

The use of buckets or bins this year for centers is new, as is this shoe rack to store all of my math items on.  In the past I have used the poly envelopes, and felt that thing got lost in them.  My goal for the buckets is that it will be more open and easier to see and maintain them.

The picture on the left is the one I want to focus on (I'm sorry these are the picture from my reveal and I don't have the originals on this computer to separate them out) This is the rack I purchased on Amazon for my reading centers.  Like the math they are all in buckets, the toolbox back here is from last year, I just relabeled it.  But, the real item is the buckets on top, they are labeled by reading unit and I am going to put the centers in gallon ziplocs after we finish.  They are empty now because we are starting a new reading series this year.  I plan to do the same for my math centers as well, but haven't purchased those bins yet.  We have a new math series as well, so I wasn't in a rush, lets wait for a paycheck to come in.

My final new item this year is my EC Planner.  My school does electronic lesson plans, so I always did them that way.  However, my grade partner, always wrote them out as well, so last year around February I tried it and fell in love.  I have loved writing out the plans, I feel so organized and remember so much more.  I was the type and forget about it before, never looked at the plans after they were done.  Now I write in pretty colors, and refer back to my plans,  I love it so much I splurged for the nice planner.  I even got a life planner and couldn't be happier.  I was never into this before but I feel so much better now that I am doing it, and I never even realized it was missing out before.

Finally, I know its not new, but without it I would be lost! This is where my files are kept, where I create, and where I can be me.  I carry it to school and use it there everyday, at school we have a PC and it just isn't the same.  

Hopefully some of my organization can help you, and I am hoping to learn some more tips and tricks today over at Blog Hoppin'