Week 4 - Teacher's Desk

Week 4 over at the Clutter Free Classroom was a challenge to show us your teacher desk. Becuase my teacher desk always ended up being a hazard of about-to-fall-over piles that could crush my first graders I decided to ditch it this year. It is still in the room, just used as the students' computer center. They love sitting at the "big desk"! I spend a good deal of time with my kids at the kidney bean table so I created a little teacher area behind it to store materials I need for the day/week/reading groups and hoped it would work.

This is what it looks like in the morning once I plop all my bags on the table and floor:

And by the end of the day a bomb has somehow gone off and it takes me a good half hour to straighten piles and create some feeling of organization and preparedness for the next day:

I like having my area at the small group table because my supplies are right there and I'm not running around the room trying to get papers off my desk or find supplies. At least in theory that's what I would like. At this point I've become disorganized and am searching aimlessly and losing things.

I've got Mon-Fri shelves on the bookshelf behind for papers and supplies for each day. I think I need to add a "to-do" or "next week" on top of it because it's a flat surface that whatever is in my hand keeps landing on...and getting lost.

Unfortunately I haven't made any changes yet as part of the Clutter Free Classroom project. Actually I did...I looked at what is on the bookshelf because I plopped those things there in August and except for two binders I haven't looked at them yet. So I'm sure I can purge and/or relocate things I might need.

As you can see from the end of the day tips, I've got no advice on keeping a clutter free workarea. Looking at the picture and what is on the table, I realize I haven't trained this class quite well enough to put things where they belong. Because half of their things from Workshop are on my table!!!

I was able to purge two giant bags of felt and this box of red wooden tile things. They were mixed in with Math color tiles, but not the same size! We have a nearby college holding one class a week in our teacher's lounge so I put them in there before class and they were gone by lunch.

One thing I did a decent job at organizing this summer was a drawer in my teacher's desk. Even though the kids use it for the computer I get to keep using the drawers, Organizing drawers with baskets was a great idea I got from Debbie Diller's Spaces and Places. The random 4 packages of post-its are for a teacher RAK. My school needs a pick-me-up big time right about now!

Hopefully I will attack the area behind my teacher's desk soon. I think I will be clearing off the bookshelf behind my group table and when I find the right containers they will hold work for my reading and math groups. Hopefully.

Head over to the Clutter Free Classroom for more great tips!