Organized or Not?
Posted by Kim Murphy on 08 Sep 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Management, Organization and Supplies, Teachers and Teaching
As I look about my office, I notice a lot of piles. There are piles of folders, piles of ideas, and piles of miscellaneous things that need to be sorted into other piles. I’m sure some of my coworkers are horrified at my haphazard organizational system. It isn’t that I don’t want to have everything in its place; I really do! However, my brain doesn’t seem to function that way.
The one time I always had everything organized and as neat as a pin was at the beginning of the school year. Of course, my organized room would slowly disintegrate into my more typical piling method. Do you consider yourself well organized? Are you consistently neat and tidy or do you lean a bit more toward my method of organization? Do you feel that your home and classroom are both organized or does one suffer? Drop me a line and let me know!
Your slightly disorganized blog host,
Kim
Congratulations to Rhonda Brown of Messiah Lutheran Preschool in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She is the winner of a copy of one of the books from our Mix & Match Games series.
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63 Responses to “Organized or Not?”
More Comments Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 » Show All Comments
More Comments Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 » Show All Comments
I am a pile person. I try to get things filed and put in their proper place but life is to short and my time with my students, family, and friends is more important. Still I try hard to tackle one area at a time and then try to keep it tidy. I teach my students to organize thier things and sometimes they remind me why it is helpful to be organized. I hope that in my lessons I also show the human side and that even the teacher is not perfect.
I love to be organized, but it’s a constant battle with the people around me. I have specific places for everything, or most everything. I’m the go-to person when you need to borrow something, because I always know where my things are and so do other people because I keep it simple.
This past year I have become more digital with my organizing. I scan documents into my computer and file them there instead of in a traditional filing cabinet. I have cut down on two-4 drawer filing cabinets into one filing drawer in my desk by doing this. I find it easier to find bills, receipts, school assignments, and all the other paper things that get stacked if I have it on my computer.
If it were easy to scan books into my computer, I’d do that too. As it is, I try to buy digital books and print as I need the materials.
I have a file cabinet for various subjects from A-Z and plastic bins for the months of the year as the same units are usually in place through the course of the year. The one thing I have had trouble with in the past is how to keep the children’s books at hand and readily available. I love to teach a theme around a book. I used to put them away in my library by subject matter but now I am using the same method that I use with the plastic bins and putting the books in my bookshelf by month-i.e.September is Handwashing Rules of the school, the fruit of the spirit(Kindness) etc. This way next year I will not have to go for a search through the library. Staying organized has always been a challenge for me and putting things away right after I have used them seems to be the only cure I know!
I am as guilty as the rest of you. I start off with great intentions and end up with piles. This year, I am trying to focus on one bad habit at a time. I tend to let my filing pile up and then at the end of the year it takes me a whole day to file. I am resolved, before I can go home on Friday, to file everything in my file box.
I try everyday before I leave to make sure that the papers that are on my desk are filed away where they belong. I like to start my day clean. I do have a table that sometimes is cluttered but it is because I work there all the time. Another thing I have found helpful is hot glueing a file folder to the wall with each of these categories: to be filed, to be copied, and important notices. This helps me to clean off my desk! I take one afternoon a week to clean the folders. It makes life so simple!
I also Have a file folder for each day of the week. When I make my copies I put them in the day that I use them.
I hope that these ideas help someone! Trust me my room is not as organized as I would like, but….
That sounds just like me. But, I am organized. I know what is in that pile and where at in the pile. If you move it or actually file it away I don’t know where it is!
Organized at school…absolutely! Organized at home…not so much! My desk at home is always a mess no matter how hard I try to organize. At school, everything is in binders or folders and clearly labeled. I figure that as long as I am organized in one place in my life, the other part doesn’t matter as much!
As I am reading this I look over at my desk cluttered and covered with a note stuck in the middle to clean off my desk this week!!! I have organized chaos!!
I’ll let things stack up and stack up. There will be piles all over the house. But once a month I’ll get to it and get it all back where it belongs. However, at school I’m much better organized. I start the year nice and tidy with everything I’ll need ready to go. But I’ll let those things pile up after I finish with them. Whether they are stacks of trade books or files of ideas. Again, once a month I’ll clean it all up and start fresh.
If you can find the pile you put the stuff in you are ahead of me most of the time! I like to think that the children around me are more important than the filing system. However sometimes I loose my “pile” the children have to wait and then it becomes bigger than me. I have labored with this problem for 34 years. There is only x amount of time and xyz things to do!
Okay, I hear that a lot of you are organized (unlike myself) but I didn’t hear any specific ways that you go about being organized. Suggestions? Ideas? Help?
I agree with Mary Ellen - time, space, and especially life gets in the way. I have three kids, who always need something so they interupt alot and I forget what I was doing!! I try really hard, but if the people you work with and live with don’t work as hard or follow through - nothing stays organized. If someone solves that problem let me know!!