B.Y.O.O. #2 - B.ring Y.our O.wn O.rganization

Now if only my laundry could organize itself.

Curriculum and Cupboards

Let's start with some perspective. This was my counter last year. Look at how gross it looks. 

I showed you my ugliness in hopes that my swan-ness while shine ever brighter when you see my pics below (No! Don't Peek! Shenangins!)

It's not so bad, right? Except that those bottles of green juice had been sitting there 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS! And that stack of paper? Like, months. 

How many times have you had to dig through cupboard after cupboard, swearing under your breath that "I know I put it in here!", while a colleague stood by and waited for you to find what she needed to borrow?

That is the story of my life. 

Before brand-new-chances, that is.

When I inherited my brand-new-chances classroom it was delightfully empty. In this photo you can see the few things that are in the room, and they are actually mine. 

But look closer. Look in the bottom right hand corner. Those are boxes of curriculum. From storage. They were all brought down for me. All? "But," you say, "there are only 7." well, the boxes were like an iceberg. You can only see a small portion. The rest is hiding off camera, waiting to take me down. Like the Titanic.

There were 20-some boxes in all. Just curriculum. Boy, 4th grade sure does teach a lot of stuff!. It needed a home.

Goal: To have things *findable* in my classroom. No Map Required. No digging necessary.

Objective: Teaching materials have a home

• I started by checking the cupboards to make sure any last little thing had been taken out.
• Next I opened boxes and made piles. Math over here, writing here, social studies there.
• I threw out the stuff that looked like junk. (This later was cause for dumpster diving.)
• I looked at my piles, and then at my open cupboards. Piles, cupboards. Piles, cupboards. It was like a tennis match.
• When I knew where I thought things should go, I marked each door with the subject. There would be no mistaking where things were going to live, and I wouldn't accidentally put math where writing should be.

It was easy to stick things in the right cupboards. But what about the right shelves?

I labeled those, too.

(I am almost vibrating with glee just looking at these pictures!)

Everything was put away. I wanted anyone who came into my room to be able to find what they needed. I made labels for the cabinets, and then for the shelves.

Boy, looking at these makes me feel all tightened up like a squirrel. I've never been so organized EVER. '

This may seem like a little thing, and it is. But little things eventually add up to big things.

Soooo.......FREEBIES for you!! 
Ahem..let me clear my throat and put on my best Vidal Sassoon voice.

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. These too can be yours, dahlings."

Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent avenue for sharing the items we all create. I love that I have a website store that was so simple to set up, and is straightforward and easy to post items.  Interested in sharing or selling your own items on Teachers Pay Teachers? I'd love to see you there! Please use my referral code if you decide to check it out! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:bhmathews

Here's a plug for the newest blog I'm following. 

Think for a moment.....how nice would it be to be able to laminate at home? Seriously. Raise your hand if your school laminator is a dinosaur. Raise your other hand if it requires all kinds of begging, pleading, petting, complimenting, pulling, pushing, and swearing. 

Problem SOLVED. Check out Sara from Swimming in Second. She is doing a {drum roll, please} LAMINATOR give-away! Now rush on over and get yourself entered!

B.Y.O.O. (becoming a better organizer) #1

Dear friends from

This truly is a "Made it Monday" post. Just keep reading! If you make it to the end there is a **FLASH FREEBIE** waiting for you!!

Have you ever seen photos of my classroom?

Ok, so that's not really me. But it could be. My favorite story is

I'm not joking. I am Sophie. 

But here's the thing: I have a brand new chance this year. The last time I had a brand new chance was when I had to opportunity to go back to college, and look what came of that! So needless to say I take brand new chances very seriously. 

What is my brand new chance exactly? Why, I have a new classroom. Here's the best part: The person before me retired and left nothing  hardly anything in the room! That means "A Whole New Beginning" for me and my classroom. 

I have some issues with organization. I don't think I'll ever be a separate-colors-and-whites kind of girl, but I really do need to make some improvements. Brand new chances mean brand new habits, right? In that spirit, I am launching my series B.Y.O.O. (Bring Your Own Organization). It's alias is "becoming a better organizer". Look for installments on my blog; they'll be labeled B.Y.O.O.

Goal: To have things *findable* in my classroom

Objective: To have clear, easy to find and use sub plans.

One of my biggest issues is leaving my room ready for a sub. I write up killer plans, but most of the time they are unprinted, scattered, spilled on. Sometimes I forget to leave notes about who is getting picked up that day, or the slip for attendance and lunch. Poor subs! And is there anything worse than not having "Puke Plans"? Lordy help anyone who tries to come into my room unplanned and without a map!

I came up with a solution. Note: this is not my original idea, but these are my original plans and designs. 

I started with a brand-new-chances binder. See how glittery and pink it is? See the fancy duct tape that not only matches my room but reinforces the binder? Genius. 

I bought cheapy paper tab dividers at Wally's. They were so plain that I had to spruce them up! I did that by getting a pack of scrapbooking papers in the colors of my classroom: black and white. I also bought some polka-dot decorative tape. 

The letter dots spell "Nurse", "lunch" and "attendance". I used the front pocket for the nurse passes, but I made the inside pockets by folding scrapping paper and gluing them in. I finished them off with the decorative tape, which I also used to line the edges of the divider pages. The lunch and attendance notes look like this:

The next tab features information the sub needs to know. 

The pages included are:

Contact and Important Numbers

Schedule (for the day)

Lesson Plans 

Special Notes

Class Seating

Attendance notes

Lunch notes

The best part is that this is a digital file that I can keep at school, at home, on my ipad, in our secretaries folder, wherever. It is a Word file with all the backgrounds, art and forms in place; I only need to go in and type the info I need into the forms. 

I loved this B.Y.O.O. idea so much that I just had to share! It's at my TPT Store, and for today it's absolutely FREE. You can customize it for YOU. And you subs, of course.

If you aren't crazy about the mustaches, then my Owls theme might be more to your liking! Check them both out...

See, already on my way to B.Y.O.O.!

Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent avenue for sharing the items we all create. I love that I have a website store that was so simple to set up, and is straightforward and easy to post items.  Interested in sharing or selling your own items on Teachers Pay Teachers? I'd love to see you there! Please use my referral code if you decide to check it out! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:bhmathews