Teacher Week '13- Now Teach! Organizing for Instruction

First I would like to start by telling you how grateful I am to have so many great supporters! I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to have great feedback from all of you, especially when i feel like I have NO CLUE what I am doing! So, THANK YOU...a million times, you have made this adventure amazing so far! Now, let's keep it going!

Okay...so I have to admit that my 'style' of organization may cause anyone with a Type A personality to have an extreme heart attack. Nonetheless, I will graciously share my magnificent organization style of "Organized Piles".  


Alright...let's start with my Weekly Organization. For the first couple years of teaching I used colored pocket folders labeled with each day of the week, 'papers to pass out' and  a 'to be graded' file folder (which I still use).  My folders worked well as long as I didn't have to put any craftivities, large amounts of paper, or construction paper into them.  Being in First Grade, you know you have a lot of paper involved daily, sooooooooo.....here is where my "organized pile' method began. Let me tell ya'....I am PRETTY good at this method of organization.  This method worked through my jump up to 4th grade and this year when I came back down to First I realized I needed to step up my game....so now.......I use........


THESE AWESOME RAINBOW DRAWERS!! I even got them on sale at Shopko for $30.00!  I love my rainbow drawers for two reasons:

1) I can still use my "organized pile" method and it is hidden. 

2) They are so colorful! 

My weekly labels were a purchase from TPT and were also used in another project that is coming up. The labels are from Kristen Doyle ( I love her shop!) click here to go checkout her awesome creations!


Now that I had my paper piles hidden in my nifty rainbow drawers I needed to turn my focus to my desk and utensils that had been shoved  nicely placed in my drawers. Since my new desk only has one very small drawer I decided to start searching on Pinterest and other teaching blogs for a solution.  

Behold.....my TEACHERS TOOLBOX!! This is one of the best ideas I have ever come across. Everything I could possibly need is all conveniently located in these lovely labeled drawers! The best part is that if I am gone my sub will have no problem finding supplies. This is much better considering my sub's will no longer have to pray that some small animal doesn't come flying out of the drawer at them. 


To keep my kiddos organized I made them D.O.T Binders, and let me tell you, they are amazing! Now, I created my own binder covers and all of the images used were free downloads. YAY for free stuff! 

I love my binder covers! I was worried that my little boys would think they were too 'girly', but they actually love them more than my girls do! Now, for the credits....

Background image and circle image can be found at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Bunting Banners can be found at Cat Lady Graphics.

The font ' Girls are Weird' can be found at Dafont.com.

Last, but not least, we have my plan book. No, sadly I do not have an amazing Erin Condren plan book (but I am keeping my fingers crossed just in case). Instead I have this nifty, plain-jane  plan book. 

I do try to add a little bit of color by color coding my plans by each subject, but I guess when it comes down to it, this plan book was free and it gets the job done.  Don't worry though, I will keep my fingers crossed for the day that I finally get an Erin Condren Teacher planner! Ohhh...to dream! 

That is all I have for today! I hope enjoyed my ideas and "organized pile" method of organization. I'm tellin' ya....it's a true art form, people! I just want to thank all of you that have left such positive comments. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to get such positive feedback from some of you seasoned bloggers. I am very blessed and humbled. 

 I can't wait to share with you how I tame my WILD firsties! See you tomorrow!