Organization Tips
Posted by Hope Spencer on 13 Jul 2009 | Posted in: Organization and Supplies, The Mailbox Books
Ah, sweet summertime! Now you can finally find a bit of time to relax, spend days with your family, tackle household projects, and pursue favorite hobbies. But I know teachers, and I know that your students are always on your mind. I’m sure you’ll be spending some of your precious summer hours planning and organizing for the coming school year. With this in mind, I’ve taken some time this morning to gather some organizational tips from several of my favorite Mailbox® books, the “500 Classroom Tips” series.
| From the Preschool book: Thematic Storage Boxes
Decorate your room and store your teaching materials at the same time. Here’s how! Decorate boxes to reflect the thematic materials they will hold. For example, for a farm-related unit, cover a box and its lid with colorful paper. Then glue on farm animal die-cut shapes. Or, for a transportation unit, cover a box with yellow paper. Add black paper wheels, painted windows, and magazine cutout passengers. You’ll be able to tell at a glance where your materials for each theme are located. Plus it’s a great way to spark youngsters’ curiosity for upcoming units! |
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From the K-1 book: Topics at Your Fingertips
Have you collected so many resource books over the years that you don’t even know where to begin looking through them? Here’s a tip to help organize that colossal collection. Arrange your books according to topics—reading, math, centers, art, etc. Using a different color of sticker dots for each topic, attach a dot to the spine of each book. (For example, all reading books might have blue dots on them.) To be sure that the dots stay on the books, cover them with transparent tape. Then arrange the books according to topic (color dot) on a bookshelf or in a file. If desired, make a legend showing each color and topic for your reference. Then, when you need ideas for specific topics, you’ll know exactly where to look! |
From the Grades 2-3 book: Favorite Reproducibles
If you’re always scrambling to locate your tried-and-true reproducibles, try organizing them with this great tip. You will need a three-ring binder with dividers. Label one for each month of the school year. Three-hole-punch your favorite reproducibles (student activities, parent letters, party notices) and place them in the binder according to the month in which they will be used. Your reproducibles will be right at your fingertips when you need them.
From the Grades 4-6 book: Database Organizer
“Where did I see that neat activity?” If this sounds familiar, eliminate searching through magazines and books for lost ideas by creating your own computer database. Set up your database using fields titled “Publication,” “Issue/Year,” “Subject,” “Article,” and “Page Number(s).” As you look through a magazine or book, write the information needed on a sticky note attached to its front cover. Later, type the information from the note into the appropriate database fields. Whenever you need an idea on a specific topic, such as ecosystems, go to the Find command in the database and type the name of the topic. The database will list the name of each idea you’ve entered, including the book/magazine featuring it and the page number on which it can be found. How simple, organized, and convenient!
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53 Responses to “Organization Tips”
More Comments Pages: « 1 2 [3] 4 5 » Show All Comments
More Comments Pages: « 1 2 [3] 4 5 » Show All Comments
I am already struggling with keeping organized, and I have only been teaching a short while. At a garage sale this year, I saw a “FREE” box with a retired preschool teacher’s mess of papers. I’m sure there were lots of wonderful things in that box, but I thought “Oh, please don’t let my life’s work end up a mess in a ‘free’ box.”
Thanks to technological innovations, I store a lot of my themes/ reproducibles on a virtual notebook. I hope that someday soon we will be able to have The Mailbox not only in print, but completely available online so that I can utilize this technology with all your wonderful ideas too!
Organization is so important when we discuss time management. Having moved back into my remodeled classroom this past Jan. I now am faced with reorganizing everything. The sharing of ideas through The Mailbox is getting me motivated to get started on my organization projects!
I’m addicted to collecting ideas. I do like the idea of my own personal database. What has helped my so far is filing my paper and flat materials in hanging files based subject and when I use them in the school year. Donna’s idea of copying the Index pages of all the resources books is great! Love of idea of having it all at your fingertips.
One thing that has really helped me organize my students’ papers is having a crate for each subject. In each crate are numbered hanging files. Each student has their own number, and turns their work into their respective file. This keeps all the papers in number order, shows who did not turn theirs in, and keeps everything neat. No more crazy piles! 6 crates take up more space but I think it has been worth it.
I love the great ideas! One thing I like to do is make a copy of the magazine reproducibles or copy them from the Mailbox Companion, place them in page protectors and put them in three ring binders. I also use tabs to mark out each unit I would use the reproducibles. This way, when I am ready to teach a certain unit, I just turn to the tab and all the reproducibles I want to use are right there!
When you put ideas in a page protector in a binder, do you mean you are tearing the page out of Mailbox magazine? I don’t think I would like to tear the pages out of my magazine but I could make a copy first and then put that in the page protector in a binder just to help keep them together. Love hearing everyone’s ideas.
Thanks for sharing such great ideas! I use plastic filing boxes and folders to keep a few months worth of ideas organized. My new project is to organize the mailbox and teacher’s helper ideas so I don’t have to look through all my past issues for ideas. I think I am going to print the indexes from each mag and keep them in a binder just a thought.
Great ideas, activities, and organizational innovations! Thanks to all.
Love the idea about having reproducibles at your fingertips in a three ring binder. Put instead of three hole punching them place them in a page protector. That way you dont have to worry about ruining the paper and it protects the sheet. You can also photocopy right through the plastic cover.
When I did my student teaching, my cooperating teacher introduced me to The Mailbox Magazine. I felt my confidence soar as a new teacher. I didn’t know there was one magazine with so many wonderful ideas to help me on my teaching journey. That summer I was able to buy a lot of 30 “very old” Mailbox magazines and spent the summer going through them and earmarking like crazy! I made a quick database of the magazines on an Excel spreadsheet and add to it with every new issue I receive. I can sort by topic, subject, season, etc.
I really love reading everyone’s ideas! Thank you for sharing! Like Audrey mentioned, I have taught Kindergarten for years and this year I will teach First Grade (Yeah). I usually keep my papers and project ideas in a file folder, but I ordered binders for this year. I love the idea of putting them into a sheet protector so I don’t have to hole punch the original! I have file folders labeled, like Back to School ideas, Parents forms, teacher resources, classroom management ideas, September, October, etc. Therefore when I come across a great idea, I print it out and place it in that folder. I also have a folder for great websites! I love the idea of color coding too!
Thanks for the suggestions. I am a family childcare provider and I am really struggling with clutter. I am going to try the Thematic Storage Box Suggestion. Myra
I use file folders to keep flat units together, but wait for Michael’s or AC Moore to have sales on photo boxes to keep larger games together; they even have the little label space at the end. A label-maker has also helped a lot.