days of happiness, day 6

I've mentioned before that I struggle with organization. Apparently I hide this well. I've had many people comment on how organized something looks or ask me how I make x or y or z look so organized, and I'm always surprised.

I'm convinced that I'm an organized person living inside a disorganized person's body.

So, any time that I try a new organizational method that works I'm always so pleased. From an amazing 3rd grade teacher at my school, I learned a simple, but easy method that has worked really well for me. She has several tubs on one of her shelves, each labelled with a different subject area. She puts books, notes, copies, lesson plans, anything that fits that subject area that she's currently teaching, it goes in that tub.

For me? Perfect. I hauled out four brightly colored (this is important) containers, labeled them with pretty fonts (again, very important) and stuck them on my windowsill. It's been... well, almost magical, to be honest.

You see, I suffer from the "oh, mother of crap, I just had it in my hand, where in the *^#@%$ h#@%$ did I put it?" disease. But this -- this is helping! Now, everything just goes into those buckets and I can always find it.


the buckets!!

(note: the coffee pot. Also very important.) This is right behind our math shelf, so it blends with kid tools as well.



This is where I keep my plan book and the stack of file trays that only live there because I haven't figured out a better method of organizing those papers yet.


I imagine I'll need to sit down and cull the contents of the buckets every few weeks or so, but that actually doesn't sound like too much work.

organization struggles

In my quest for organization, we reorganized the tools in the writing area. It's always amazing to me the vast differences between each class of children. Some classes have a natural sort of ability to keep areas of the classroom clean and organized and some classes need specific, detailed, clear instructions. Sometimes it's only one or two children that need the support.

Well, this year's class needs as much routine and structure as I can possibly give them, so...

Our Writing Tools!

Some notes: the pencil sharpener is only open in the morning and at the end of the day, otherwise the noise is completely distracting. We also have two class jobs for children to be the one that sharpens the pencils. You can see two cans in the back of the station for sharp pencils and ones the need to be sharpened. It's a system I developed a few years ago and works well, so I keep it going.

You'll notice that the paper clip and sticky note containers are empty for the moment. This is deliberate. First, we haven't put those tools out yet. Secondly, it allows us to make a big deal when we are ready to put the tools out because the kids have seen the empty containers for a little while already.

Anyway, I think I might take some pictures of different areas over the next week or so and document them here. I find that I am, without a doubt, an organized person living in a disorganized person's body, so it's a near daily struggle for me to keep things in the right place. Creating classroom organization that works is a fun challenge for me, and definitely something I wish I was better at in my personal life.

How about you all? How do you deal with organization? Are there systems that you use that you find particularly helpful or that you're proud of?