At the end of each school year, I like to reflect on what I did that worked, and what I did that did not work. When it comes to lesson reflection, I generally do that as I go along, but classroom organization is a whole other issue in itself.
In the past, I have tried the colored baskets to turn in work, and it didn’t work effectively. Students failed to remember what color basket was their grade level. I have even tried the lovely mail sort shelves, but even that didn’t work.
This year I decided to have almost everything online, and those things that were not, would have their own space in the room. For example, each class would have their own bellwork folders that were color coded. Writing notebooks or folders would have a space of their own separate from the bellwork folders. Plus, the iReady sheets would have their own space in class labeled file boxes.
Throughout the year, what I found was that bellwork folders did not get returned to their space, or they were placed in another class (which was obvious since they were color coded). The writing folders were placed in the wrong spot, and this was problematic due to the fact that these were NOT color coded. And as for the iReady section? Don’t get me started about how students shoved their trash and unwanted food into the file boxes.
I would have had better luck if I had just kept everything online, but unfortunately I had a few that lost their computer privileges and had to have paper copies of everything.
Even the lovely supplies that I put out in their own individual containers were stolen from said containers. If someone finds a solution for organization that truly works in middle school, let me know. I’d love to see it.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
