Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Things to Improve: Classroom Organisation


At the moment, I'm taking a bit of time to reflect on where I want to improve and what I'm doing well. You can find the master list of reflections here.

Classroom Organisation

I can never find anything in my classroom. Most of the time, this isn't a huge problem - I do a bit of searching, look around a bit, shift the piles of paper and books on my desk (must do something about this or that) and ask my students to help me find whatever it is I'm missing.

But recently, I had a supply teacher in who wasn't able to find my role - which was quite embarrassing. And I hate having the cleanliness of my desk being a joke around the school.

It's become a problem. It means I don't get things done properly or promptly. It's become a stress to me because things are always left to the last moment.

What can I do about it?

I have started to try to Write things Down, which is helping quite a lot - at least I'm not losing details as much as I used to. I need to take 5 minutes at the beginning and end of each day to make sure I have what I need where I need it. I've discovered that I use resources more when I can see them, so I'm going to invest in a file holder that puts things in front of me.

Sometimes, as well, I need to hand over some of the responsibility to the kids. There are parts of the room that they're responsible for. They need to see to that. I need to make sure that there's a system and time to allow them to see to that.

It's not going to happen overnight - and I need to stop expecting that. Small goals, small increments, will help an awful lot. Now I need to take a deep breathe, step out and try to reach them.

What organisation tricks do you use?


Image from http://www.4freephotos.com


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3 comments:

  1. Hi Mrs D, how many kids in your class please?
    (As I thought I read in your post when you were doing Naplan that you had 16 kids in two classes. That sounds small?)
    Do you have a smaller class size because the kids are gifted and talented class?
    Just wondering! Thanks

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  2. I have 25 in my class, but because I have 5/6 the sixes didn't do NAPLAN. I took my 5s and another teachers' 7s.

    I've had bigger and smaller G & T classes.

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  3. Mrs D,
    Thankyou for your reply. Now I understand. All the best to you.

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