TBT: Organization!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

Yesterday, it finally happened...

We still have 13 school days left and I haven't even felt the slightest urge to pack up anything. This really worries me because I'm usually meticulously weeding out files, updating binders, etc. by this time in preparation for next year. 

I saw a few teachers being sneaky about it earlier this week: "Oh no, this fell off the wall. I'll go ahead and pack it up" :) 

But still, nothing at my end. 

Until now. After school yesterday I received exciting news! My office is MOVING into the space I use for intervention! Hallelujah, I'm moving into the first grade hall! Right now, my office is on the second grade hall, then I have my mini-intervention room set-up, and I have mini-corners set up in two classrooms. That's a lot of "stuff" everywhere. I had even broken down and purchased many duplicates so I had supplies in all four places. Now I'm down to three and have TONS of ideas to reorganize my space!

This TBT post from January has pictures from both my office and intervention room. I'm going in early this morning and taking pictures of the entire space, so I can get cracking on new plans. I'll have room for a word wall, classroom library, Guided Reading table, etc. 

I'll be sharing the room (it's huge!) with two lovely people who will use it for an office. They will probably only be there to drop off belongings and work during their planning period. They are both wonderful and (luckily) also neat-freaks and don't mind going with my black & white color scheme :)

Here's the TBT post...stay tuned for exciting updates! I'm off to TPT to check out more black and white decor! If you have a favorite product that would help, please leave a link in the comments. Thanks!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2014

Day 4 and 5: Professional & Organizational Goals

Happy Sunday!

Today I'm wrapping up Blog Hoppin's Welcome 2014 Linky 

by combining Days 4 and 5:

I'm combining the two because I was out of town and missed my blogpost yesterday. It was totally worth it though...I had such an amazing day at the Whole Athlete Seminar!

I've been thinking about my Professional goals a lot lately.  The last few months I've been having conversations with my supervisor (she's one of the assistant principals and has taught me everything I know). She knows my strengths and areas of growth and is able to ask really thought-provoking questions to push my thinking. Can you tell I admire her? We meet on a weekly basis to go over my students' data, progress, and any lingering issues. I know I'm so lucky to have someone like this, but sometimes it feels stressful because I don't want to let her down. And did I mention she's my supervisor?! She's all sorts of awesome. 

Lately we've been talking about formal and informal leadership roles (NOT administrative). We have TDL's (Teacher Development Leaders) at our school. I became interested because I had a difficult time effectively managing my student teacher this past fall and was looking for more guidance. Although I'm not a TDL, I've been included in the training and it's really helped me grow as both a mentor/coach and as a teacher. I've been doing some side reading and still trying to decide if this is an area I want to pursue. 

If anyone else has thoughts/suggestions or would like to share experiences (positive/negative), I'd love to hear from you! A huge area of concern for me (besides totally failing as a mentor) is the time constraint for my own teaching. My little 6 year-old friends deserve the very best teaching available and I don't want to be stretched any thinner than all teachers already are! 

So I'm still developing my Professional goals looking ahead to the entire year (and beyond). Besides being a Teacher Development Leader, I have the usual goals: be the best teacher I can possibly be, have all my students love learning while achieving 100% mastery of their growth goals, and sharing resources with the entire world to help other teachers/families reach their students.

No big deal :)

Organization is one of my main tools in achieving my goals. Plus I ♥ organizing! I have definitely dreamed of being a professional organizer! I've tried everything...going paperless (I let go of that dream quickly), labeling, fine-tuning scope & sequences,

and more labeling!

My big take-away from the past year was finally organizing my office space! It took awhile because 1) I shared a closet for the first couple years and 2) I really didn't know what I wanted on-hand. I finally had a tearful-throw-your-hands-up moment last spring when I couldn't find something I needed quickly for the umpteenth time. I made a plan and it literally took all summer to fine-tune and implement. So worth it!

This is a wall across from my desk. All the spaces have been since filled in with matching labeled containers. The first column is resources for phonics, the next is math, etc. The clear containers with lids are from Ikea. I spent a long time researching and they were the most cost-effective. I made black/white labels because there's already so much color in the stored materials. 

Here's a close-up from my desk on the opposite wall:

We are so lucky to have these wall-size corkboards above our desks. I used hooks to hang my "go-to" items, like my Fry Words. Our first graders end the year by learning the first 400 (!!!) words, but I'm currently working with a group struggling with retention. I keep four sets organized 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, and 301-400 hanging where I can grab them quickly depending on what we're focusing on.

I teach inclusion and also pull-outs using a separate intervention space. To save money and keep everything as organized as a first grade special educator can (lol), I use the same easy-peasy B/W for all my storage:

This picture makes me laugh (sort of), because on the very first day I had to remove the seat cushions because my students were literally rolling off them :(  I replaced them with zebra duct tape marking our own little spaces on the floor. The seat cushions are now stacked in the corner. Maybe next year!

I find it's easy to keep my tangible resources organized so I can keep my focus on teaching. However, the same can definitely not be said for my electronics. I won't share the number of photos I have on my iphone and emails in my personal & school accounts. It's in the THOUSANDS, and then some. I literally have to search my email to find anything. It wastes so much time and I need to find a better system! I did upgrade my dropbox and dragged over every single file I own. So now I also have to creatively search to figure out where my files are there. I imagine it would take me approximately 3 months to organize and delete duplicates. I'm going to be reading other bloggers' organizational tips for help!