Organize + Energize: Teachers - It’s Time to Organize Your Classroom

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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Kristin MacRae, GoLocalWorcester Organizing Expert

This is the best time of year to get your classroom organized. You still have time to get into your room and transform it and have the best organized year yet!

How did you function in your room last year? Did your room have a good flow to it? What did you like about your space and what didn’t work for you? Ask yourself these questions and carve out some time and get into your classroom and make these changes.  Before you dive head first into this project, sit for a minute and think about how you would like to function going forward. What’s your vision for the room?

Here are 8 things you can to do to get started in the organizing process:

Create your vision. Before you begin to tear apart your room, think about your dream classroom. Write down all of the visions you have for your room. Get the mental clutter out of your head and onto paper. Don’t worry about it being organized. Once you get everything onto paper, then you can categorize and prioritize.

Make a plan. Carve 3 -4 hours out of your day and mark this day on your calendar. Limit your distractions. If you have to put a do not disturb sign on the door while you are working, do it. Your project will take half the time it normally would if you limit your distractions and stay focused.

Break it down. Break your classroom into sections. Don’t look at the classroom as the whole project. If you do, you’ll get overwhelmed and nothing will get done. Take one section at a time. Once you complete one section, you can move onto another.

Declutter.  You have to declutter in order to get organized. Empty the entire section where you are working.  You won’t know what you have until you take everything out of the space and go through each item. The last teacher I helped get organized, we filled 3 garbage cans full of clutter and 2 boxes of donate.  She described it as a cathartic release, as most of my clients do.

Categorize. As you are decluttering, use the classroom desks or floor space to categorize items. As you empty each section and declutter, you will be categorizing everything. By the time you have emptied all closets, cabinets, and shelves, you will have categorizes of items in the middle of the room.  You’ll be able to see everything clearly and wonder, “How did all of this stuff come out of the spaces in this room?” You’ll also notice things you’ve used, things you haven’t used and things you forgot you had.

Think about functionality. Now you can see everything that you have in this classroom categorized in front of you. Take a look at the spaces you have in the room. Look at your cabinets, closets, shelves and other storage spaces. Think about how you want to function. The old way may not have been working so it’s time for new systems.

Incorporate your students in the process. When the school year begins, take your students around the classroom and show them where everything is stored. Teach them if you take something out to put it back where it belongs. Label everything if you must to show that everything has a home.

Work with the systems. Work with the systems for a few months into the school year. If after a few months, the systems aren’t working for you, it’s time to re-evaluate and tweak the systems to work better for you. Don’t continue to work with broken systems.

The less clutter and visual distractions you have in the classroom, the more focused you and your students will be this school year. Organization plays a big role in the classroom and if you and your students are functioning in an organized classroom, everybody will thrive. Remember, less is more and keep it simple.

Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. She has appeared on air on Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio and her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. Kristin's CD, Organizing Basics, is a 1-hour guide for the person who wants to get organized but doesn't know where to start. She is also available for organizing workshops. Tune into her weekly radio show, Organize, Energize! on talkstreamradio.com.

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