Trying to Organize My Classroom

  My biggest goal this year (other than trying to survive) has been to finally get my classroom organized.  I was fortunate to inherit a wide selection of classroom library books, classroom materials, and teaching strategy books from the previous teacher, which is great!  But, even at this point in the year, I'm not entirely sure what I have and what I don't.  Now after nearly three quarters of the year has passed, I have finally found some tricks that are helping me and my kids to stay organized and on track.

These are just a few pictures that show the overall layout and placement of my classroom.  I'll take you through the room explaining where I keep everything and how I make it work.











This is hub of our small group time.  I teach three 90 minute blocks each day, and I color code each block to help with organization.  As you can see below, 1st block is Yellow, 2nd block is Purple, and 3rd block is Red.  During the last 45 minutes of class, we work in small groups.  Students are in one of four groups from A to D, and each day (Monday-Thursday) each group makes two rotations.  The wheel rotates so each groups knows exactly where they are supposed to be, and a schedule on the bulletin board reminds them what happens each day of the week.  By the end of the second day, each group has rotated through the four stations which include Centers, teacher, MIRP, and collaborative teacher.  My collaborative teacher and I work on reinforcing skills when we meet with our groups. 

When the students go to Centers, they each choose a folder from the pink crate on the right and complete the directions on the folder in their Center notebook (found in the crate with their corresponding block).  The Center activities all work to either review skills students should have learned from previous years, reinforce something we have learned during the current year, or teach them something we haven't covered yet in class.  Topics rage from Author's Purpose, Sequencing, Cause & Effect, and Summarizing, to Writing, WESTEST Review, computer activities, and Grammar.  Each student chooses which Center they want to complete for the week and works on it whenever their group is in Centers.  If their centers requires reading a book, they choose a picture book from the book bin on the far left.

Below is half of our classroom library.  Each student chooses a book from the classroom library to read during their MIRP (Monitored Independent Reading Practice) time, which is one of their small group rotations.  Each student keeps their MIRP book on the third shelf with a laminated bookmark that has their name on it.  The books from each block are separated by dividers (although it's hard to see them here), and the colors of the bookmarks correspond to the block the student is in, as stated above.  We work to work to keep track of where students are in their MIRP books, what they're enjoying, and what they are confused about.

 

 I finally have a record of what books are in my classroom library, and students helped organize them into bins by the author's last name.  It took a while to complete, but I finally feel accomplished! (At least momentarily haha!)

 

 

 We have a Language Arts Terms area on our back wall that allows us to keep track of terms we have learned throughout the year.  As we learn new terms, we add to the wall.  This acts as a review for students throughout the year when I mention a term, and they can't quite pinpoint its meaning.

The top shelf of a bookshelf behind my desk serves as an area for me to keep papers that I still need to grade.  I again have three boxes to keep each of the classes separated.  When I want to take them home, they easily stack inside of each other and fit into my bag.

By the way, I found them at Target in the dollar section!

Markers, colored pencils, tape, and staples are available on this table for students to use freely.  The shelves on the right hold papers that need to be returned to students.  It's currently separated into three sections for the three blocks, but I'm hoping to paint each of them the color of each block.

The D group always works on enrichment activities, like a 7th grade newsletter, so I keep a tote for their group items here separate from everything else in the classroom for easy access.

When a student is absent and misses a test, homework, or needs to catch up on bell ringers, I have folders for each class that students know to automatically go check.  Similarly, I give out Scholastic Book Orders every month, and if students lose theirs or need an extra copy, they can check the crate for new order forms.

















We had a classroom Twitter board in the back of the room for the first half of the school year.  It was a huge hit!  Students from different classes would post to one another and on occasion they actually would write about what they were learning and enjoying in class.  I removed the sticky notes about once a nine weeks to add some new space, but after the last time I took them off, I found a few inappropriate stickys.  I decided to just take the entire board down since there's only about a nine weeks left of school anyway. 

There are still several things that I would like to work on to help with some efficiency, but compared to the beginning of the year, I feel pretty good.  What tricks do you use in your classroom?  How do you manage you class periods and keep from being completely overwhelmed?