Organizational Progress

Well, for some strange reason there were not a lot of students at Saturday School today:)  With only 4 and 1/2 days to go (not that I am counting:), my guess is that most of them slept in and got a head start on summer.  

I did have a few gems show up to try and bring up their grades.  One in particular has made my year with his change in attitude and turn around.  He has been coming to every HW Club and Saturday School for the last 2 months in an effort to bring his grades up.  Last week he was doing some proportions - something that he refused to even try 3 months ago - and as I was watching him work, he looked up at me, grinned and said, "I'm really doing this!" It made my teacher heart swell with pride and I had to wipe away a few tears.  Yep, I am a teacher:)

With so few students, I was able to do some more organizing.  One of my colleagues was good enough to come by this morning and loaded my bookcases in his van, so I made real progress on the closet.  Remember what it looked like?
Now it looks a little bit better:)

There was a metal shop style bookcase in the closet to start with, but I added the two wooden-like-substance bookcases (the other one is to the right) from home.  This one is holding my Social Studies resources on five of the shelves, with one shelf for my Language Arts reference books.  The gray binders are my Interact units (they are so old that the pretty stickers would not stick to them, so I will need to find newer binders).  Some of you might be worried about my Vin poster...not to worry, he will be coming home to inspire me in my yet to be finished home gym:)
The magazine holders for Ikea worked perfectly.  They are divided by civilization with my reference books for each in between.  I have quite a few nice coffee table type books because I worked at a used bookstore while I was doing my student teaching, and I got first pick of the books as they came in to the store.  There was plenty of room for my "teacher materials" for all subjects.
These are the Math shelves.  Our textbook series comes with a ton of books.  All of it has been in two different places, divided up between what I use on a regular basis and what I have to keep track of to return to the librarian.  It makes me feel better to have them in one place.
My regular Language Arts textbooks are numerous and took up almost an entire shelf.  The Read 180 teacher materials took up most of another one.  The blue basket is holding Read 180 worksheets/graphic organizers that we use on a regular basis.  On the bottom shelf (not in picture) are the Bridges literature (leveled) books that I use for reading HW with my kids.  Love those books!  Short stories with coaching tips throughout and perfect for responding to in their Reading Logs. 
This was the middle cupboard behind the white board before...

And this is after...
Now instead of housing all of my teacher workbooks, the space behind the board holds all of my class and lit circle sets of non-fiction and fiction books.  The books are all stacked so I can see what is in the back row.  I had (too) many baskets and tubs to choose from, but I decided that I liked them stacked - easier access.  The smaller (and lower reading level) sets fit into little tubs that I turned onto their sides.  Any novel that I am fortunate enough to have the audio-book for has the audio with it.  The singles (new Harry Potter and Rick Riordan novels) are on the bottom right.  The little baskets hold the tape cassette players and CD players for checkout.  The sliding door on this cupboard is a little difficult to get a grasp on, so it will provide all the security that I need for the audio equipment.

There are two more cupboards behind the boards, one holds all of my class sets of student textbooks and the other is a work in progress.  Most of the rest will have to wait until this week is over.  As much as I would love to turn my back and organize away, that would just be inviting murder and mayhem:)  Did I mention that we just have 4 and 1/2 days to go?

2 comments

  1. Oh... this is LOVELY!
    I've been waiting for an update (Maybe I should get a life.. or organize my OWN closet?!) and I am so impressed with your success!
    I'll be your cheerleader any day!

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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  2. Thank you, I will take all the cheerleaders I can get!

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