Teacher Week - Why? {Organization Tips & Tricks!}

 Linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Day 3 of Teacher Week!

"Why Organize?"

Let me first start off by saying that I'm OCD when it comes to my classroom. It's always tidy. (Custodians loved me! lol) Now my house...not so perfect {sigh}; I'll live! Here are a few tips that I LOVE and that help me stay organized and sane. Enjoy!

~Centers~

 I organize all my centers in clear gallon sized ziploc bags. The kind with the sliding zipper, NOT the squeeze kind. I put one of everything that kids need at that center (minus the manipulatives) and then store them in a filing cabinet by topic. This way when I need the center, I just take it out of the ziploc and put it in our center bins for the kids. Sometimes, I even just leave it all in the bag for them. My students last year were very good at putting things back because they were well trained! HA!

I try to keep one hard copy of a recording sheet so that I can make copies easily. Having them in bags like this is also SUPER helpful for remediation. When I had parents ask for resources to practice during the week, I could just send home the whole center ziplock. Safe. Easy. Convenient for me!

Here's a look at a Word Work center that had a few more components than other centers. Still, they all fit in the bag! 

~Planner~

I am obsessed with my planner from A Modern Teacher. It houses everything: my lesson plans, my Master's homework, my blogging stuff, To-Do Lists, notes from meetings, calendars. EVERYTHING. It is a lifesaver, plus it's pretty. Having everything in one place is extremely helpful for me.

~Computer Organization~

This is my home computer. Please ignore the mess! This was taken while I was working on a paper for my Master's. However, it shows my wonderful background! I like to know where all my files are so that it doesn't take long to find things. I have also found that it is helpful to have files right on your desktop when uploading things to different sites.You can the background above for free here!

This is one that I made for my work computer. Same concept, but the titles changed to more work related things. :) Can you tell I have a lot in progress?

Head back over to Blog Hoppin' to get other organizational tips and tricks!