How do you keep your desks tidy? I seem to get piles every day of papers to grade, graded papers, late work, answer keys, new student magazines, new lessons, old lessons, notes from home, things from the office, my plan book, and the list goes on...
It ruins my peace.
My partner says it goes along with LA. That is one reason she went to math and science. Her desk is ALWAYS neat. However, I also know other LA teachers who manage to keep their desks neat.
I have a note on my desk that says "My desk was clean yesterday, sorry you missed it." My students tell me that's not true... and they are right.
What to keep and what to throw away ... when to file, when to keep it out? How do you manage to keep your papers from getting the best of you?????
Sometimes I just want to lay across my desk when someone comes into the room.
Go to Office Max or someplace like it, and pick up some stackable trays. You can label them. I would spend a few minutes before school and a few after school organizing papers. Does everything have to go on your desk? Can you use a table or extra student desk for the papers they turn in to be graded? Just make sure you collect them at the end of every day.
I have this problem too, but what I do is have group folders. At the end of the day I take the folders and grade what is in them. After, I finish, I put the things they can take home back in the folder, and stuff that needs to be filed, I put them in stackable trays. I still have piles, but not as many as I used too. One other good thing about this system, is that it keeps me on my grading, I don't wait until the last minute anymore.
I used to have the same situation as you. Don't get me wrong- things still pile once in awhile! But I do grade what needs to be graded each day! I don't mind taking a little home-I can watch TV and grade at the same time. Papers that I check for just being done (like homework) I have a student helper stamp papers and they love it plus it saves me time. I find that I have "originals" of copies I made start to pile. It takes effort, but I try to quickly put them back in the file cabinet. Papers I get about general school stuff that I don't know what to do with I put on a shelf in one of those office stackers. Copies of things I created I put in a labeled section of a cubbie bin. In reality, I have stacks of papers everywhere- but I have the "illusion" of orderliness because putting papers in cubbie slots, file folders, and stackable trays just looks good!!! If I took the time to go through these organizational helpers, I could probably toss half the junk. But there is hardly anything on my desk but my plans and small gifts from the kids! I wonder it that's comparable to lying??
Actually, I really can't give any advice b/c my biggest problems are transparencies!!! I can't ever seem to put them away and then I make some more for morning work to check with the kids. I have stacks on the overhead cart. They are hard to look through several at a time and then you pick them up and they are so slippery!! I know I should put them back the minute I'm done but I don't and then I have so many it's overwhelming. I think I even got the wrong kind b/c I was going to 3-hole punch them & then organize in a binder and the puncher just tore them up!!! They are really expensive too. If anyone has any good advice about transparencies, let me know. I don't have the kind of overhead where the paper is wrapped around it and you can turn it with a crank to keep stuff on there. Does anyone remember those?
I found that the only way for me to maintain my sanity in the classroom was to get alot of organizational tools, as described, and teach my students how to use them. Then handle each paper only once, read it, grade it, mark it, and file it away or place in tray to hand back to student. Utilize students to group grade non-essential papers - use them as much as a teaching activity and review. Master the art of organization and youre on your way to becoming a master teacher. Good luck, and have a great year!
I too struggle with organization however, I am satisfied with my transparency organization. I slip each transparency in a plastic page protector sleeve with three hole punches. I put a small ring (like a plain key ring) in the top hole of all of the sleeves. The transparencies stay in order and I can file them in file folders when I’m done with the units. This is the one idea that I consistently use. It works for me!
Hi there! I have the same exact problem!!!! I love my overhead and use it constantly. Have you heard of an "Elmo" machine? It works similar to an old fashioned opaque projector, so no transparencies are required. I think it is officially called a document camera. Now I have never seen one in action, but my sister in law uses one and loves it. I've been so fed up with the transparencies that I just ordered one of these ELMOs, and it's due to arrive Tuesday. I paid about $500 for it. If you are interested, I'll let you know more about it after I get it working. Maybe someone else here at Pro Teacher has had experience with one. It sure seems like it might be an answer to my prayers. I like to make transparencies of students' work, but it gets expensive, and time consuming! I hope this works, or it will have been an expensive experiment!
Suzanne
I think the binder is a good idea...could you put them in page protectors with a white page behind so you can read them? That way you won't have to punch at all.
What great ideas! How do you keep your trasparencies clean and uscratched? My helpers rinse them, but then they have water stains etc.
Also - here's an idea. I have my kids do as much as they can! They do their jobs after recess -- empty pencil sharpener, staighten library etc. My mayor also comes in before other kids in the morning and puts up the daily schedule(I have a master on paper they follow -- I add and cross things out for the week when I plan over the weekend) Now I never need to worry about it when I'm there or when there's a sub. They change the helpers for the next week on Friday and we go over the new helpers.
It is so nice because I am SO forgetful and they are not saying YOU forgot to change the schedule when I'm in the middle of attendance or something. Just that little bit gives me a few more minutes to what I need to do and I'm not interupted during the first ten minutes of school.
For plain transparencies that you do a lesson on and then wipe clean and do not need to revisit at some time with the class,,, simply keep a roll of clear glad wrap on the side of the overhead and pull a piece over the transparency sheet... when you're done,, just roll the used portion over and you have another sheet clean and ready for the next lesson!!! hard to explain. get it?
Could you please let us know where you found an Elmo for 500. I have been wanting one for my class for a couple of years, but haven't been able to find them that cheap.
If my desk is a wreck, I can't function. I use lots of letter trays, organizer folders, 3-ring binders, and file boxes. I have 75 7th graders in reading/language arts class. That makes for a LOT of papers!
I have letter trays on the student table. I have two for each class, one "in" box and one "out" box. When students have a paper to turn in, they put them in the "in" box. When I get them graded, I put them in the "out" box and the kids get them from there. I have a plastic multi-compartment file folder/organizer that I use as a take-home/to-grade folder. I have a compartment for each class and two for other things--meetings, etc. Writing pieces are a whole other issue. I have two file-folder boxes. One is for works in progress and one is for finished pieces. I have a bookshelf behind my desk, and I have several file folders there. Those hold various things I need on a daily basis. My unit plans are all in 3-ring binders. Those binders include lesson plans, worksheets, notes, keys, etc.
I am known for my (rather anal) organization. Here are some tips that have helped me:
1. Those plastic stackable trays are great. I have one for each day of the week and an In Box on top.
1A. Invest in lots of plastic dish pans. They are cheap, they stack, they fit books and folders perfectly.
2. Color coordinate everything. In my world, pink is reading/LA, orange math, green social studies, blue science, and yellow my stuff (like parent communication, common copy masters, etc.) All of my masters for everything are sleeved and put into binders labeled by color. The colors are grouped together. I can find anything in under 30 seconds.
3. Touch papers as little as possible. Get your mail from your mailbox and file immediately. (Ex. Most flyers go into garbage, meeting announcements go under last page of plan book to be looked at when I plan, notes on specific children get tossed in a dishpan that I sift through once a week or so to file in correct spots.) If I want to look at something more closely, it goes in the In Box, which is cleaned out at the end of every day (be strict with yourself.)
4. Have a Done Box for kids' papers and train them to use it. I just use a dishpan. That way I can grab just the dishpan, my grade book and take it all home.
5. Don't let anything touch your desk. It sounds strange, but if your mail has a home (In Box), kids' papers have a home (Done Box) and TEs have a home (color coordinated on a shelf) your desk won't need to be a home for all of that.
6. Take it one step at a time. Organization of this magnitude did not happen overnight. Choose one thing to focus on and when you get it tweeked the way you like it, add something else.
I don't know what grade you teach, so I guess your system depends on that. I teach second - all subjects, but only 22 kids. We send all graded papers home once a week to be signed. I came up with a much improved system this year. I have a box from Office Depot that looks something like a milk crate, that holds hanging folders. I have one set of green folders labeled #1 through #22. After I grade and record a set of papers, I file them into each students folder, or I leave them on top of the box and the aide who comes in does it for me. I keep the box on an old flat top student desk I found in our school storage closet. It just sits right next to my desk. When signed paper day (Tuesday) comes around, I just pull each student's set of papers out and staple them together. The kids have an envelope that they slip them into after they look them over on Tuesday afternoon. I have another set of yellow folders also labeled #1 through #22, which I use as student portfolios, to put in selected work samples, and other portfolio materials. I have a plastic folder that has six pockets in it which I use to put sets of ungraded papers in. When kids have a test or a graded assignment, I make them keep it at their desks until everyone finishes. Then I call out students' numbers to collect them all at once in number order. I had to start this method because I kept having missing work for students who shoved the paper in their desk, forgetting to put it in the in-box. I just slip each set of finished work in my folder to grade later. I just grab it and my grade book on my way out the door, and grade at home.
I have a basket on my desk for everything else, and I just sort through it as I have time. I have a mailbox on the wall for my kids to put in notes from home, which I check each day. I like this idea because my kids give me lots of little happy notes and pictures in my mailbox, too.
And finally-- my mantra this year is "The trash can is my friend!"
I use dry erase markers on my transparencies & directly on my overhead glass. It is so much nicer than having to use water to rinse & then dry the transparencies. You need good markers, Expo 2 (the low-odor ones) are my favorites. Try it out! You'll never need a blank transparency again.
When you say: "All of my masters for everything are sleeved and put into binders labeled by color. The colors are grouped together. I can find anything in under 30 seconds."
Do you put your master's for science in a blue folder andd what are the sleeves? Are they the plastic things you can get for binders? Do you akso use file cabinets? Just want to get a clearer picture as I am organizationally challenged :-)
I also use the white plastic wash tubs from WalMart. I used a sharpie to write the subjects on them and they sit on my counter at school. This is where students turn in all papers, notebooks, etc. THey work great because they are big enough for thicker things and for notebooks, etc. I usually just grab a tub and throw my lesson plan binder in it to take home.Easy to carry around.
To the person who mentioned dry erase on overheads - that's ok to do? No damage? If so, then I'm going to switch to that!!!
Start with a piece of paper and make a list of your tasks you do the most down to the once-a-month stuff. Include everything: homework/papers to grade, lesson planning materials, school information, etc. Organize your biggest time consuming tasks first. Is it grading papers? Is it take home folders for each student? Is it finding filed information at a moment's notice?
Figure out your system for the biggest task first over the rest of this week and get it in place. Then move on to organizing a system for everything on your list. Give yourself time for each task-it takes time, but time goes on!! And you should have more time b/c you'll be more organized in the next couple of weeks. As you get to the bottom of your list, you will be able to tackle several things at once and you can then go back and improve or fine tune everything.
I like the color coding idea--I color code my monthly stuff. Faculty meeting-a red notebook for notes and a red folder for materials received. The same goes for any committees I'm on, and so on.
I am always seem to just let my desk pile up too. I admit to having clean desk jealousy!!
I have found the past couple of months that if I set the timer for 10 to 15 minutes and do nothing but file I am starting to be where I want to be. During that time I only touch papers one time. If it does not have a home, I either trash it or make a file folder for it.
I have been doing this once a day and it helps. If it isn't time to file I will put it in the "to be filed file."
I have also designated one spot for things that need to be delivered to the office, taken to the library, etc. When I walk out the door I pick it up and take it with me.
I've been using the dry erase markers on my overhead for about 10 years now, no damage yet. I went to a workshop where the presenter was using them, we were all amazed & we asked her about it & she said she had been using them for a few years, so we all went back & switched to dry erase. Some flakes collect in the overhead & need to be cleaned at the end of the school year, but it's no worse than any other dust.
Keeping transparencies in page protectors works well. You can keep them in a binder so they're easy to look through. When you want to use one you don't pull out the transparency; instead, you put the whole page protector and transparency on the overhead and write on the page protector.
I use those three-ring binders with a clear sleeve so I can slip papers into the side. I use blue paper and label it according to what's inside. We do specific units in my grade, so I might have "Plants and Rocks" written on a blue piece of cardstock slipped into the spine of the binder.
The sleeves are those plastic things to slip papers in (very expensive initially, but reusable forever!) At my school we have this amazing copier where I can simply put the clear seelve on the glass and it copies without any shading. I have no filing cabinet because I am so visual. I tried the cabinet, but kept forgeting what I had.
02-18-2006, 01:56 PM
But I do grade what needs to be graded each day! I don't mind taking a little home-I can watch TV and grade at the same time. Papers that I check for just being done (like homework) I have a student helper stamp papers and they love it plus it saves me time. I find that I have "originals" of copies I made start to pile. It takes effort, but I try to quickly put them back in the file cabinet. Papers I get about general school stuff that I don't know what to do with I put on a shelf in one of those office stackers. Copies of things I created I put in a labeled section of a cubbie bin. In reality, I have stacks of papers everywhere- but I have the "illusion" of orderliness because putting papers in cubbie slots, file folders, and stackable trays just looks good!!! If I took the time to go through these organizational helpers, I could probably toss half the junk. But there is hardly anything on my desk but my plans and small gifts from the kids! I wonder it that's comparable to lying?? 
They are really expensive too. If anyone has any good advice about transparencies, let me know. I don't have the kind of overhead where the paper is wrapped around it and you can turn it with a crank to keep stuff on there. Does anyone remember those?
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