Having an organized classroom does not come naturally to everyone. Most of us have some tricks and routines that we rely on to stay organized, be it organized chaos or something a little more polished. Here are my personal favorite ways to stay organized in the classroom.
Simple Storage Solution
Maybe the easiest and most important thing you can do to get organized is to tackle the piles of papers and resources in your classroom. Don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m talking about… you know them. One of the things I use to keep my centers organized and ready to go is magazine file boxes.
I also use these to store my seasonal picture books at the top of my classroom closet, but you don’t want to see those… they aren’t labeled nicely like these and are mismatched sizes. Gasp!
The labels in the image above are part of my Guided Math organization resource.
Plan Your Life
Now that we’ve got the piles taken care of, we must ensure no important meetings or deadlines are missed. My FAVORITE way to stay organized is with my Erin Condren Life Planner. Not only is it amazing for documenting all the important parts of your day, but it is also beautiful!! I mean, look at this:
How can you NOT smile when you look at that?! I’ve chosen the vertical layout, which gives me three daily sections. I use them to separate Home, School, and TpT & Social Media.
You can take a look at all the Erin Condren planner options HERE. (This is a referral link to the EC Insider program, saving you money when you join for free!)
Streamline Home Communication
Now for all that paperwork that flows back and forth between school and home. I have a couple of organizational solutions for this issue. The first involves courier bags from the dollar store. Every year, I provide one of these to each student:
Every handout and notice the school sends home gets zipped into this sturdy little bag at the end of the school day, emptied (hopefully!) at home, and any return communication comes back the next day inside. There are never far fewer crumpled papers in the bottom of backpacks, and parents and I get the needed info!
Grab your free editable labels in the Freebie Library!
Keep Parents In The Loop
The Seesaw and Remind apps are another amazing resource for keeping parents involved in classroom activities.
I use Seesaw primarily to collect a portfolio of student work, but you can easily connect parents, giving them a window into your classroom. Parents receive a notification whenever their child adds something new and can even leave comments for their child to read! If you haven’t checked out this FREE app service, you’ll find more information HERE. You can also learn more about how I use it in my classroom in this blog post:
Remind is an excellent two-way messaging system for classroom notices, whole-class reminders, and private messages to individual families or small groups. This app uses text messaging and email, but families never see your personal information, and you never see theirs! This is also a FREE service and has made staying in touch much faster and more convenient! Check it out HERE.
Digitize Your Teacher Binder
While we’re on the subject of student work, another fabulous way to get organized and ditch the piles of paper is to go digital. Yes, paperless is the way to be! For the past three years, I have been using the iDoceo app. It is not free and does have a bit of a learning curve, but I love how I can store all of my student data.
I’m using Planbook for all of my subject planning. The most significant advantage of this platform over the iDoceo app is that I can create templates for my subjects and plan either on my iPad or on a computer (iDoceo is strictly an app). I followed Ladybug’s Teacher Files’ awesome tutorial for customizing my subjects.
The service is a steal at only $1 a month for a subscription, but guess what… I have an EXCLUSIVE offer for you! You can get six months free on a new subscription with the code: free6Beattie.
Get Student Helpers
Finally, don’t minimize the help of older students in your school. If you can find the right students for the job, they can easily take care of some of your routine tasks.
My student helpers support my students during lunch. They place school notices in my students’ mailboxes, so they’ll make their way into those communication bags I mentioned. They also do tasks like preparing the book orders each month, sharpening the pencils each week (read more about how I organize that HERE), and even care emptying my recycling bins.
I train them at the beginning of the year to do all of this independently, and I don’t know how I’d make it through the week without them!
I hope you’ve found something helpful in this post. You might also be interested in the suggestions I have for organizing independent centers in your classroom in this blog post:
Please pin this post for easy access next school year and share it with friends and colleagues!
