How Tidy is Your Room?

[letsteach]

I try to impress upon new teachers the need to be tidy and organised. My desk is usually covered in stuff and papers which I try to clear by Friday. We have just had the end of the school year and had to clean out our desks and put everything we had into boxes (teachers are changing grades next year). I now have a beautiful clean and clear desk!!

I can get on my soap box when I see teachers using expensive classroom furniture (bag lockers) as their personal shelving space. These lockers cost over $500 each and some kids are putting their bags on the floor! My co-teacher next door used the project block shelf to store her photocopied worksheets and the puzzle/bookshelf she placed against a wall and had the puzzles on a table in the middle of the room. The puzzles weren't made and pieces were everywhere. Being the lead teacher, I did tell her that the shelves should be used for their original purpose and she could use another shelf for her copies. She's not in that class next year and the TA moved everything around.

[letsteach]

I tend to hoard, I should add that in my packing up for the year end, I did throw out quite a bit of paper work. I found papers dating back to 2006! I am getting more ruthless, but you never know when you might need .....

[Starista]

I try!

Luckily, second graders love to help clean and organize the classroom!

[Myrisophilist]

I am a super-organizer/cleaner. My mentor teacher...not so much. But hey, he's been in the same classroom for decades.

New classrooms should be designed with shelves that fold in and out with the push of a button. Between all the talent on this forum, we should be able to find a designer and someone to actually build them, then we can patent it and improve the lives of teachers everywhere!

What is the best organization scheme/strategy you have seen in a classroom? I'm in science, so I'm particularly interested in labs...