Sunday, September 04, 2011

Welcome to My Room - Organization

First graders don't need a ton of stuff - thankfully. We share all our materials, a fact that is made clear on the supply list that goes home in the hopes that parents will buy the basic folders, glue sticks, scissors, and things rather than the ones with Hannah Montana or Cars 2 on them.

My students write only with pens so I have several cups full of those available. The black buckets here will hold crayons, scissors, and glue. The boxes hold their writing folders, handwriting books, agendas, and homework folders.

All of these things are accessible to them whenever they want them. I do keep the markers and colored pencils in reserve for special occasions. Mostly because I hate sharpening pencils and having a ton of markers with no lids.

I work with several primary teachers who don't have a desk.
I find that amazing and I have immense respect for them. However, I also find it impossible for me. I'm just not organized enough for it. There is an intern working in my room for this fall (and likely in the spring) so I have two desks. At the moment we've got them facing each other (they're behind all this stuff near the orange bulletin board) but I'm not sure I'll leave them that way. My goal is to keep all my junk piled back behind these drawers and to keep that area neat. Hopefully that way the room looks neater in spite of my tendency towards chaos. Of course, right now that's not happening.

I'm lucky to have a projector, interactive white board, and document camera in my classroom. This year we got nifty carts for all that equipment. Behind the cart are the two teacher desks and the tall bookcase full of my professional books and a bunch of kids' books I keep for reading aloud. Everything around my carpet is on wheels this year. That made setting it up pretty darn easy but I'm concerned it may mean it all moves around a lot once the kids get at it.

3 comments:

A MilShelb Mom said...

It is so funny to me that you seem to have a desk because you are unorganized and I don't have one for the same reason! lol I have 3 of those 4-drawer rubbermaid containers and those are on the wall behind my kidney table. Everything that would go in a desk goes in those. It just keeps me organized. I have found that when I have a desk it looks like a bomb exploded and I have stacks of papers and junk everywhere. However, when I take that surface away I remove the problem. I am then forced to put things away. haha! It can be annoying at times, but I have learned this is what's best for me. I hope you have a wonderful year this year!
~Maggie

Deb said...

This year I put little plastic cups under the wheels on my rolling book shelf. It seems to be helping. Have a great year! :)

Jenny said...

Maggie, I'm so impressed that you can do that! My desk totally looks like a bomb exploded and I just have to spend time every couple of days clearing it again. But I think if I didn't have the desk then all that stuff would just end up scattered around my chair.

Deb, That's a great idea. Thanks for the tip!