This will be my fourth year in third grade and fourth year integrating flexible seating in my classroom. One of the biggest things I have learned in order for you and your students to be successful is staying ORGANIZED! This is something I have struggled with. This year I have made some big changes in order to reach my goal.
BINS
Invest in bins for your lesson plans, copies, materials, etc. The last couple of years I have tried to spend the money I had on student seating options instead of investing some of the money for teacher organization. Well, that is exactly where I went wrong. My papers were always everywhere and I never knew where things were. I invested in 2 10 drawer carts. I am able to keep my guided reading group materials here along with extra school supplies for student use as well as my own. I even labeled them to make them look extra pretty! Here are the labels for free for you to get started!
Group PODS
For the last couple of years I have always struggled with what to do with student materials. I have tried each child getting their own bins. BUT who has space for 26 bins?
I have tried keeping the majority of their materials in their lockers. BUT who wants 26 kids running outside the classroom every 10 minutes.
I ended the year, last year, with getting three drawer bins for groups of 4-5 students. They worked great! Students kept their bag of books on the bottom drawer, white boards and markers in the middle drawer, and their agendas and folders in the top drawer! I loved it as well as the students. Because we are 1:1 with chrome books we were able to keep our Chromebook ontop of the drawers for easy access!
Paper Keeper
Finally, find a spot for students to file papers in a central location. For example, I originally had students keep an additional folder in the group pod bins. In the folder they kept things I wanted to stay at school. You would mostly find things that were unfinished in these folders. However, it was a mess trying to find and get these unfinished papers back! The desired papers were either ripped, lost, or thrown away. This year I have a filing system for students to keep their "keeper papers" in. I am also going to have students turn in any work such as homework in their file as well. This will help when a student forgets to put their name on their paper. This will help me know who has or does not have work complete. It will also allow me to help facilitate organizational strategies with my students. Here are a few ideas you could do:
What other types of organizational tools do you use in the classroom? Comment below!
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