Create a Classroom Setup Kit

One of the best ideas I had a few years ago was to create a kit of all the necessary supplies I would need to get my classroom set up in August.  There is nothing worse than coming back ready to get your classroom organized and decorated and not being able to find the tape or stapler you need.

This is a list of what I have in my kit.  I have been doing this for a few years now so I just edit my list whenever I add something new to it.  Most items fit into a small storage box.  The paper cutter and cardstock/paper get stored in a separate container.

• Create a Classroom Set Up Kit:
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Staples
• Staple Remover
• Masking Tape
• Painters Tape
• Double Sided Tape
• Glue Stick (keep in plastic bag)
• Goo Gone
• Cotton Balls
• Ruler
• Fishing Wire
• Push Pins
• String
• Paper Punch
• Paper Clips
• Magnets
• Magnetic Tape
• Post-Its
• Pencil
• Black Marker
• Quart Freezer Bags
• Gallon Freezer Bags
• Fiskars Cutter
• Astrobrights Cardstock
• Astrobrights Paper

Everything fits in this Sterlite container except the paper cutter, freezer bags, and paper/cardstock

Every adhesive you can think of 

Magnets for displaying items on my chalkboard

Stapler and push pins

Scissors, ruler, pencils, eraser, black markers, paper punch, mini flashlight, chalk, and paper clips

I make sure I put this kit into a safe place where I will be able to access it immediately.  I have a wall cabinet that I store everything I need for the beginning of the school year.  That way nothing important gets misplaced or goes missing.  When I come back in August all excited to get my classroom set up I don't have to hunt around for the supplies I need.

End the School Year With the Beginning in Mind

A few years ago I started being very intentional about planning and getting organized for the following school year while finishing up the current year.  I've had this blog post in draft form for a couple years and decided to pull the trigger and finish it so I could finally post it.  I wanted to post this now because I only have six weeks of school left and I know many other teachers will be done weeks before me (lucky!).

It's that time of the year when we as teachers are all thinking about the huge list of things we need to accomplish between now and the end of the school year or frantically packing up our rooms for the summer break. When packing up your room make sure you know where you are packing things that you will need to start off the year.  Seems obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I have started the school year wondering where I packed something important that I need when arriving back to school in August.

I have a blue wall cabinet that I clear out at the end of the year and I make sure to pack everything I need to start school the following year in that cabinet so when I return in August I just open it up and everything I need it write there for me.

I pack up everything I need for my classroom setup and the first weeks of school in this cabinet.

Start by creating the following:

• End of Year Packing List.  This list should be customized to your individual classroom.  I made a list a few years ago and look it over every year as things change in my classroom set up as rearrange/get rid of furniture.  I start by sitting at the back of my room and looking at the door.  I then take a 360º counterclockwise look around my room and make my end of the year packing list.
• End of the Year Calendar (last six weeks of school):  This is sort of my To Do list put on a calendar so I don't ed
• Classroom Setup Kit: This is a kit I put together of all necessary supplies for when I return to my classroom in August to set it up.
• Classroom Setup List:  This list is sort of the reverse of the End of the Year Packing List.
• Back to School To Do List:  This is a comprehensive list of everything I need to have organized for the first few weeks of school.
• Back to School Paperwork List:  This is a list of copies I need to make or printables I need to create for the beginning of the year.
• Summer To Do List:  This is a very lofty/unrealistic list of all the school related things I may want to work on over summer break.

I will be doing a series of blog posts in the coming weeks to help you get organized so you don't feel overwhelmed by all the end of the year tasks to close up your classroom.  I will also share tips on how to spend time now getting yourself prepared for Back To School so you can come back in August feeling relaxed and ready to start the school year.

Currently April 2016

I'm linking up with Farley for her April Currently.  I can't believe I have not blogged since January.   I am having a great school year with wonderful students again.  Life with three boys seems to leave little time for blogging these days.  I am thinking of doing some posts about getting ready for the end of the school year and all that entails.  Feel free to email or leave in the comments any suggestions for future blog posts.

Listening:  I'm watching Live with Kelly and Michael episodes I have DVRd.  I hate when they do repeat segments and that is what the last week has been so I'm just watching the host chat portion and then deleting the episode.  

Loving:  My new black storage boxes from IKEA.  It was on my To Do List last summer to switch out all my ugly old white storage boxes for new black ones from IKEA.  Unfortunately I ran out of time last summer and was never able to make it to IKEA. My amazing husband indulged me and took me to IKEA in Schaumburg, IL on Monday.  I have not been there for nearly a decade and didn't realize how confusing the store layout is.  Afterward we had a delicious lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.  I spent a couple days in my classroom decluttering the contents of the white boxes (so not fun, but so necessary) and then reorganized everything in the beautiful black boxes.

We shopped till I was ready to drop

Before

After-one box is still empty

Fruits of my decluttering labor

Love the posters from Carnegie Learning I finally put up

Thinking:  About some of the projects I want to create with my new Astrobrights packs I ordered from Amazon.  They will arrive tomorrow.  I also need to go back to Office Depot today and pick up one pack of cardstock that was much cheaper at the store than on Amazon.  I plan on sprucing up the blue wall cabinet shown in the photos above.  I never got around to putting up anything on the right side last summer before school started.  I think I might redo the posters on the left to incorporate some more color.  Please share any favorite Astrobrights color combos you may have.

My name is Sherrie and I'm obsessed with Astrobrights paper

Wanting:  The weather to warm up once and for all.  We have had lots of sun and warm weather lately, but the picture below shows what's happening right now.  We have LAX and BB games this week with rain and snow in the forecast so things might be interesting, not in a good way.

Snow snow go away and don't come back until November

Needing:  I'm going to spend some time this weekend trying to finish up the most important items on my Spring Break TO DO list.  Our trip to IKEA was very productive and we got a bench for shoes and backpacks for the laundry room and new shower curtains and rugs for the boys' bathroom.  RIP Pottery Barn Frogs that I loved so much, but my youngest is 10 now so it was time for a redo.  I also spent a couple days in my classroom and got those boxes done which was a major project.  Lots of housecleaning left to do this weekend.

Spring Break To Do Lists

Whatever:  This week marks the beginning of 4th quarter.  Every year I feel like 4th quarter is over in the blink of an eye.  School will be busy, but family life will be even busier.  My oldest plays Varsity LAX. My middle plays BB, and my youngest plays LAX and BB.  I love this time of year, but it will be crazy and suddenly it will be summer break.

My room all ready for me to return from Spring Break

The adorable and super yummy cake my mom made for Easter

I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break and wish you the best of luck on successfully finishing up this school year.

Monday Made It- July 13th

I'm linking up today with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics to share some past projects I have made for my classroom.  Last week was very busy and my weekend was even busier so I did not have a chance to finish begin any new projects.  My goal is to blog every day in July so I thought it would be fun to highlight some past projects of mine and link to previous blog posts.  

I think a classroom door is equivalent to the first impression you give everyone of yourself as a teacher.  I want my door to not only look exciting and inviting, but also to be a mix of fun and educational.  My classroom door has evolved through the years, but I really love what you see below.  I was thrilled to not have to take down my door decoration at the end of the school year.  I'm praying nothing fell off over the summer.  We shall see.

Welcome to Room 407

Calvin and Hobbes have been my favorite since before I started teaching

A few years ago I decided to make a math focus wall for my classroom.  It has evolved a bit through the years and this coming year I am thinking of changing it up a bit.  You can click to see all posts on my Math Focus Wall.  This year I mainly focused on having the CCSS posters up so I could refer to them as we worked through different units in math.  I promise to do a post in Aug or Sept about how I change it this year.

Math Focus Wall

This blog post explains my Daily and Class Files.  These are two or my best organizational tips I have for any new teacher starting out.  The class files are great to have if you teach middle school and have multiple classes you teach throughout the day.  

Daily Files

Class Files

This is the corner of my room where I have my Learning Stations/Games bookcase.  The bottom two shelves are filled with math games, puzzles, cards, etc.  Students are allowed to use them during Homebase or if they have time in math class.  The top shelf has math manipulatives and the middle two shelves hold buckets I use for learning stations throughout the year.  I love the way this little corner turned out.

I decorated my teacher desk like you see below, but now I do not use my desk (it sits against the wall), but I loved the decor so I changed it to my file cabinet.  So much cuter than a plain black cabinet.  You can see this photo was taken in October.  I change out the decor on this for different holidays/seasons.

The side of my 4 drawer file cabinet

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my past projects that I use on a daily basis in my classroom.

Monday Made It- 6/29/15

I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for this week's Monday Made It link up.

At the end of the school year I did a lot of planning and organizing for the upcoming school year on Google Docs.  Teaching middle school means I cannot do all the fun and cutesy things I see elementary teachers do, but my students still love a nicely decorated classroom and they still love to get little trinkets, candy, or stickers.  I made a doc with all the ideas for monthly decor and treats.  I like to change out my window borders and clings to easily change the decor in my classroom without spending a ton of time putting things up and taking them down.  Some things stay up for more than one month. depending on the season.

I have three seasonal bins (Fall, Winter, Spring) for storing items like pencils, paper pads,  and stickers.  I store items for September, October, and November in Fall, December, January, and February in Winter, and March, April, May/June in Spring.

Fall items container

I got really organized at the end of the school year (when I should have been packing up my room LOL) and separated items into monthly baggies (instead of having everything loose in the container) that now go into each seasonal container.  I like that I will be able to easily grab the bag of goodies for the month rather than sifting through the whole container to see what I have.

Baggies of items for each month of the school year

I finally got around to making my own font.  The process of creating the font is super quick and easy.  Being able to neatly write the letters in the small space without cutting anything off is not so easy.  I will have a blog post soon about how to create your own font.  Stay tuned.

Love it!

Ok I just had to post a photo of these Spanish Go Fish cards that I had over 25 years ago!  I was a double major in Eled and Spanish in college and spent a couple summers teaching Spanish to young children.  Sidenote I completely designed the course myself and got it up and running.  After college I then taught summer school Spanish for three summers.  I made this cards way back then and my parents still have them at their house.  We were at my parents' house the other weekend and my youngest was playing go fish with my dad (they play a combo with Spanish/ English) and I just had to take a photo of the cards my son had won so far in the game.  I just have to say these are not even laminated.  If TPT had existed back then I could have made a mint off the teaching materials I created for those classes.  Everything was done via *GASP* spirit duplicating master!  LOL

Spanish Go Fish Cards

I have already made this Nectarine Muffin recipe twice this summer.  It is very quick and easy.  It's especially great if you have any peaches or nectarines that are getting overripe.  I had two nectarines today that were on the verge and so I made another batch of muffins.  My changes:  I use two nectarines and no peach, I make 12 muffins instead of 8, and I just sprinkle the brown sugar on top, no measuring of that.  These are the moistest (or juiciest if you hate that word) muffins.

Nectarine Muffins

Planner passes

I am linking up 4th Grade Frolics a few days late for her Monday Made It.

I did a previous blog post about How Our School Handles Passes.  It drives me cray cray when students are coming up to me in June and still.not.filling.their.passes.out.properly.  For the past two years I've had "How to fill out a planner pass properly" on my "Passes to Make" over the summer To Do List.  At the end of the school year I finally followed through on making a poster for my classroom.  I will post this in a couple key spots in my classroom and then next year when students come up to me for the umpteenth time with a pass with no date or time, I will politely refer them to the poster.  This may save my sanity next year, we shall see.

Every student at our school gets a student planner that has 6 passes per week.

A close-up of what the planner passes look like.

This is the poster I made:

I will mount this on black paper.

I posted here how I keep track of Student Passes.  I code them LP-Locker Pass, BP-Bathroom Pass, and DP-Drink Pass. Those are really the only three passes they would write out in their student planners.

#mtboschallenge Week 8: Organization Tips

This is Week 8 of the #mtboschallenge on twitter.  The challenge is to blog once a week for the remainder of 2014.  Each Saturday there will be a different prompt shared to blog about.  The prompt will be shared prior to Saturday on twitter using #mtboschallenge  You can link up on my blog (or any other blog that shares the link up). Also share your blog post on twitter with #mtboschallenge .  You can copy the following graphic into your blog post.  Each Sunday @druinok from  Teaching Statistics will host a 3-2-1 Summary prompt where you can blog about anything you choose.   Feel free to join the blogging challenge on either Saturday, Sunday, or both days.  We really hope you join the challenge!

The prompt for this week is to share any organization tips you have.  Please check all the blogs that link up and leave comments.  

Previous Posts on Classroom Organization:

• Papers
• After School Routine
• Daily and Class Files for Absent Work
• Classroom Conduct
• Passes
• Photos of Classroom Set-Up
• Managing Paperwork

Last Spring I ordered a kidney table with some voucher money I had from mentoring another teacher.  Unfortunately the person who was supposed to order the table never did so I came back to school this August to discover it had never been ordered.

It finally came in a couple weeks ago and I had to figure out how to organize things so I would be able to use it for small groups (the whole point of ordering the table), but also have necessary supplies at my fingertips.

I <3 this table!

I can fit five students around the table which is the maximum size of a small group I would pull.  I love that when students have questions now they come and sit right down at the table. This is for sure my favorite piece of furniture in my classroom.

My planner, MATHia folders by class, other files

I keep my desk pad on the table and put everything out at the end of the day to get ready for the next morning. 

Desk pad, Seating Chart/Class List Binder, Daily File

I struggled with where to put my daily files, but decided I needed them right near me because throughout a lesson I will grab what I need from the file and that way I never misplace anything important. I love my pop up post-it holder,  I am constantly grabbing a post-it to write something down.  I now need to stock up on pop-it post its because despite my vast collection of post-it notes I have very few pop-up notes.  If you know me, you know I love any excuse to buy post-it notes.  LOL  I also keep a stapler close by.

Daily File, Stapler, Pop Up Post-Its, Supply Caddy

Mailbox, Passes, etc

I knew I needed some sort of caddy for supplies.  I bought this at Office Depot/Max and I am loving it.  My favorite thing about it is that it spins around.  Everything that I consider a necessity is at my fingertips. It doesn't hold my full marker collection, but it's a start.

Pencils, Highlighters, Ruler, Scissors, Eraser, Passes, Binder Clips

Classroom Key Chain, Paper Pads

Paper clips and Post-Its

Birds eye view of my spinning organizer

Nameplate, paper, mailbox

I have a small trapezoid table next to my corner bookcase where I keep absent work files, kleenex, and the electric pencil sharpener.  I need to get some hand sanitizer ASAP based on the amount of coughing in my classroom lately.  Some days I feel like I'm teaching in a petri dish full of germs. I put a fun little pumpkin decoration on the table.  I'm going to do a separate post this week on all the cute fall/Halloween decor I've put up in my room.

Absent work files, kleenex, pencil sharpener

Close up of the absent work files

Turn in basket and Extra copies file

Another view from behind

I'm looking forward to reading everyone's posts on organization.  I'm always looking for tips to make myself more organized so I can maximize my time at school.

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