Best Teacher Organization Ideas, Part II

by Elizabeth Cossick, M. Ed. 

Comment on this post and be entered to win a $20 School Box gift card. Just for sharing a lil’ ol’ comment. 

Every teacher knows that trying to manage a classroom without organizational systems in place is just plain foolishness. So, we’ve been compiling our favorite classroom organization ideas to share with you during this series. {To see the ingenius idea from the first post, click here.}

In our quest for the best ideas, we found creative uses for over-the-door shoe holders. Now these magical pocketed do-alls can be used to organize just about anything, but we loved how Miss Kindergarten (adorable blog, btw) used a shoe organizer to categorize the mountains of stickers that were taking over her classroom.

“As a Kindergarten teacher I have a ton, and I mean a TON of stickers! More and more keep popping out of random places in my room,” she says. “It was driving me absolutely nuts finding adorable stickers that I didn’t even know I had after said holiday. So I decided to face those stickers and show them who’s boss!”

Here’s her shoe organizer-turned-sticker file:

Here’s how she did it:

Step one: Tackle Those Stickers

Pile all of your stickers into one huge mountain. :)

Step two: Categorize

Organize the stickers into broad but relevant categories like encouragement, sports, Christmas, fall, culture, letters, stars, hearts, reading, and science. Once you have your piles organized, label each pile with a sticky note.

Step three: Make Cute Labels

Create labels on the computer in a cute font (one for each sticky note), mount them on construction or scrapbook paper, and laminate them.

Step four: Attach Labels

Attach labels to your shoe organizer with cute ribbon and a hole punch.

Step five: Fill the Pockets

Put stickers in correct pocket and never forget about cute stickers again!

Miss Kindergarten found her shoe organizer in the Target dollar section, but we found some pretty inexpensive versions online here and here.

Source:

www.miss-kindergarten.com

Best Teacher Organization Ideas, Part I

by Elizabeth Cossick, M. Ed. 

Comment on this post and be entered to win a $20 School Box gift card. Just for sharing a lil’ ol’ comment. 

Every teacher (and parent) knows that trying to manage a classroom (or home) without organizational systems in place is just plain foolishness. So, we’ve been compiling our favorite classroom/home organization ideas to share with you, and in the next three posts, we’ll share the very best.

Favorite Idea #1: Teacher Toolbox

This idea is simple but genius: use an organizational toolbox (as in that big ol’ thing with tons of drawers that your grandaddy used to have parked next to his workbench) to stash all of your small supplies. Star stickers, paper clips, post-it-notes, first-aid kit, desk supplies: you name it, it can find a place in your teacher toolbox. This box also makes it super easy for subs and para-pros to find your essentials!

Search “teacher toolbox” in Pinterest to see a slew of examples, but here are a few of the very best we found in teacher blogger world:

Toolbox One: Down the Learning Road

She details the fonts and papers used in her blog post here.

A similar toolbox can be found at Amazon.com for between $25-$35. Try this one or this one.

Toolbox Two: Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

Here’s the post about how to make this one. And here’s a link to the toolbox on Amazon.com.

Toolbox 3: Apples and ABC’s

LOVE the step-by-step pictures on how to assemble this one!

Here’s an in-process shot:

Happy organizing! Check back for the next post on another fabulous organizational idea in Part 2 of this series.