A Teacher's Journey in Second Grade

I have been on a quest all year to get organized more in my classroom to help save time.  This week I decided to organize my grading materials.  I took a hanging file organizer such as this

and I labeled each section.  One section is labeled "Need Grade."  This is where I stick all the papers that I need to grade at the end of the day.  Since I can only fit in a stack that is an inch or 2 thick, I must get things graded in a timely manner.  Next, I labeled a pocket with "Needs Recorded" for those moments when I do not have time to record the grade right away.  I labeled the another section with "Needs Returned."  This let's me know that I have graded and recorded these papers already so I don't have to double check.  I labeled one pocket with "Rubrics and Forms" so I have them on hand while I am grading if they are needed.  Then I decided to label a pocket with "Grade Sheets."  I keep a supply of grade sheets printed off so I can quickly record a grade and hand the paper out.  Then all I have to do is take the grade sheet to the computer to enter the grade.  This also allows me to quickly see who has missing work and I can get them a new copy if needed.  The last pocket is labeled "Supplies."  This is where I keep my EZGrader, stickers, and markers to check papers with. 

Since I have been using this system, I have not had to search for my EZGrader or a pen to grade with.  Everything is in one place and the file is portable so I can take it home if needed.  I hope I have helped out some of you on your journey to becoming better organized.

I have three items that I really want from Lakeshore.  I even created a wish list and sent an email about it to my dear, sweet hubby.  In the hopes that he won't make me feel guilty about wanting to spend $120.  I guess if he does make me feel guilty, I can always solicit the family for donations.  I know they just all love and want to donate to my classroom.  It seems that I want more for my classroom than I want for myself.  Does anyone else feel this way?  I mean I don't have desires for materialistic things for myself.  I want things to make my life a little easier at work or to help my students. 

I am very thankful that my husband has dealt with a messy garage full of my teaching files.  I switched grades last year.  I went from kindergarten to fourth grade.  It is a major jump in grade levels, but I did it for several reasons.  The change helped me gain new perspectives on my teaching for one.  I will start in the fall as a second grade teacher.  I am super excited about this change as I have realized I am a primary teacher.  The fourth grades found it humorous when I would call recess, playtime.  And if I really wanted to get their attention, I would sing a kindergarten song.  I had half my class in kindergarten so it did make my transition easier.  Oh yeah, there is nothing like see a line of fourth graders walking down the hallway "hips and lips" because the teacher thought they needed to work on being quieter in the hall. :)

OK, so I am moving to a new school and I will be teaching second grade.  I am lucky because the students at my old school are going as well.  Our school closed.  I did get to pick out all the furniture I wanted before I left and I gained 4 boxes of library books.  Now I need to purchase baskets to organize my classroom library.  I think a lot of my basket were destroyed in the move.  I have been seeing how other teachers are organizing their room and I am so impressed.  I hope I can get it together and organized soon after I move into my house first.

I noticed everyone seemed to be shopping at the dollar section at Target, so today I went to see if I could find some of those items.  I ended up buying two tin pails to put pencils in.  I needed on for sharpened and one for pencils that need sharpened.  I also bought a pack of star student certificates, two different packs of award bookmarks, two packs of star student stickers, two packs of birthday stickers, and four packs of Dr. Seuss erasers.  I plan to give the erasers to the students on the first day of school, and I plan on giving my son's kindergarten teacher some of the stickers to use in her class.  I am not sure exactly who his teacher will be yet.  I just moved and I need to enroll him in school.  I decided not to take him to school with me because I want him to know kids in his neighborhood.  Here is a picture of what I bought.

Target Purchase

Since I am moving to a new house and I moved to a new school (everything is still in boxes there), I have been thinking about organization.  This year when I unpack my classroom, I want to get everything organized.  Let me say that I have a lot of stuff.  I am not even sure what I have.  I packed up my things at the end of the school year, but I also packed up things for another teacher since I am changing grades.  In addition, someone else packed up their second grade materials for me to be moved to the new school.

So I received a phone call a few weeks ago, it seems that I had too many things going into my classroom.  I took my husband along to sort things out.  Needless to say, I had things moved to my room that did not belong to me.  I also had things in my room that were supposed to be removed.  My wonderful husband helped me move all the things that weren't mine into the hallway.  Then he helped me move the furniture into the areas I wanted them.  I didn't unpack anything.  I just shifted the stuff around to make room for my desk and table that still needed to be moved to the new school.

Anyway, I started checking out some other teacher's sites on how they organize their classrooms.  I am so grateful that their are teachers out there that are willing to share this information along with photos.  I plan on taking pictures as I begin to sort out the boxes at school.  I will definately post them on here to show you.  Here are the sites of some wonderfully, organized teachers:

http://www.ourclassweb.com/sites_for_teachers_getting_organized.htm (I tried to use her banner, but it wouldn't work.  This site belongs to Karen A. McDavid.)
http://www.mandygregory.com/index.htm (This site belongs to Mandy Gregory.  She has great organization ideas.  I like how she organizes her classroom library.)
http://www.jmeacham.com/ (This site belongs to J. Meacham.  She has a section on organization with lots of photos.  I also love the photos of how her classroom is set up.  So make sure you take the tour.  She has several years of classroom arrangements and organizations.  I really like her white shelves and the color cordinating book baskets.)

I am sitting here thinking of how I am going to organize materials for my guided reading groups.  In the past, I put all the materials and directions into a large envelop.  On the outside of the envelop, I always wrote the reading unit and story at the top.  Next, I would list the days of the week underlined.  Below each day, I would write activities that I planned on using.  I also wrote the names of all the leveled readers that I would need for the week.  Fridays were review days.  Anything that I did not get to do for the week I could do on Friday.  I also used this day to reread stories previously read.  Inside the folder, I included all the word cards, directions, games, etc.  Since I did this for every week, I made multiple copies of repeated material so everything could stay in the envelop and I would have my materials in one spot.  At the beginning of the week, I just pulled out the folder and returned the materials when I was finished.

I did not keep leveled readers in the envelops.  I usually pulled these out and kept them inside a basket.  I used the books for repeated readings for a few weeks before returning them to their spot.  Inside my basket, I also kept highlighter tape, various pointers, phonics phones, retelling cards, and any other larger nonreproducible item.

I am thinking about modifying things a little this year since I have been reading Debbie Diller's book Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All.  Her book has made me think more about what I am going to focus on during guided reading.

I will post a picture of one of my folders along with the contents so look for this to come soon.