Classroom Set-up Part 1: Teacher space

Are you dreaming of your classroom yet? I mean that in a good way.. not in a scary nightmare way like my post yesterday. Well, I have been working in my room yesterday and today and have gotten a ton accomplished! I worked on unpacking a lot (almost all) of my stuff plus figure out what to do with all the Kindergarten things too. That's a whole lot of stuff! I'm excited to say that I have my meeting area, manipulatives, and student tables pretty much where I want them. But I will definitely be continuing to organize over the next few days to make it even better!

While I know that the student areas of the classroom (tables and meeting area) are definitely the most important areas. I also know that (my personality) I have to have my own space organized so that I can find all of my materials and have a work space to be able to finish creating things for my students in their area (labels, tags, etc.). So, my first focus after unpacking and putting things away was to really focus on organizing my desk, bookcases, and weekly organizing spots. So, without further ado, here is my teacher area:

I have to tell you that I have never, ever in my life had my desk this cleared off before! I am that teacher with the calendar that takes up half her desk, a lesson plan book, huge pot of writing utensils, stacks of notepads, cups or drinks, and any other various items crowding the desk. It has always looked very neat but I wanted to make sure that this year it doesn't get cluttered or have things that will easily go missing or get lost in piles.

In my top desk drawer that pulls out over my lap, I bought an organizer so that things don't get all shuffled together. I put things up here like change for the vending machine, keys for my various cabinets, lead for my pencils, magnetic tape, gum, a forehead thermometer, lotion, PTA card, bus change slips, etc.

I have two desk drawers on the right hand side of the desk. Inside I have individual baskets for each pens/pencils, grading markers, permanent markers. Behind those I put my 3-hole puncher, push pins, and paper clips. I also have room spray, white out, staples, and page markers.

This is the lower desk drawer. I used the partion in it to create a space for my purse. Since I'm using my largest purse right now, I know that all of my others will also fit! In the back I have two plastic contatiners to hold items. The front one has essential personal items such as deoderant, toothbrush, tooth paste, hand sanitizer, and a flash light. In the second one, I have extra pencils, pencils, post-its, and notepads so that I don't have to go across the room to get them during conferences with kids or teachers.

 Behind my desk I have two bookcases stacked one on the other, a stacking tower of drawers, filing cabinet, and cork board squares.

On my very bottom shelf are all of my teacher's editions. I'm not quite sure how much I will use them since we teach workshop style. But at least here they are easily accessible! The second shelf has the smaller teacher resource books that come with my TEs as well as other teacher resource books. My top shelf houses my stickers, birthday essentials, stamps/ink pads, and several other teacher resources. The Comprehension Toolkit is for the upper grades but I couldn't bear to pack it up!

My upper bookcase holds two crates (one for each daily and Friday folders), magazine holders, and personal momentos. If you were to turn around the magazine holders I have one with awards, certificates, and ribbons; another with lots and lots of baggies of stickers from the previous teacher; and two that are empty for now :)

This is my own little corner :) I still need to label my drawers of my filing cabinet and stacking drawers. But in order to do that, I need my computer to be synced with my new printer... and my printer to have a power cord. But that's something for another day! Tomorrow I plan on doing lots of printing (in the computer lab) and laminating so that I can decorate my room a bit.... I can't wait to put up my Alphabet with the cute pictures! I'd love to hear if any of this helps you get more organized this year too!

Have a blessed day,