Episode 5
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Episode 5. Tips for Getting Organized & A Teacher Author Interview You Don’t Want To Miss!
Today we’re helping you get, AND STAY, organized and we’re interviewing a kindergarten teacher who just published a book that you are going to love!
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Today we’re giving you tips to get organized and we’re interviewing a kindergarten teacher/author that you need to know about!
NEXT EPISODE: ORGANIZATION TIPS/ SHORT INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR (NYASHA) TO PROMOTE HER BOOK!
Ok , let me tell ya , Organization was not my strongest point as a teacher. Caylee, do you remember that big closet that we shared all of our supplies in.
Oh my God I forgot about that closet now I remember….so many tubs! And materials!! No clue what was in there, if I’m honest, just a lot of STUFF. 😂
It was in my room but we would all store stuff in there? Do you remember it? Do you remember how awful it was? I would just shove stuff in there and hope for the best. I remember at some points you had to push the door as hard as you could because I have stacked so much stuff in there. Oh my gosh… it’s giving me anxiety just thinking about it.
I had no organization system. Every few Fridays I’d have to stay late and clean it out only to do the same thing over and over again.
The same thing happened to me at my next school, and the closet was in my room and I would have to stay late every few months to organize that beast… it’s so hard to keep a communal space like that organized.
There would be Easter eggs activities mixed in with Christmas stuff all in a tub of beginning of the year information . It was a big fat mess. I think I drove my poor para nuts . I’d ask him to get something out for me and it would take him well over 30 mins to find it. Sorry , mr. Christian!
Ya, ours too… it things would get so out of control- there’d be things stacked so high, you’d go to grab something and stuff would be falling on your head...
I can’t wait to hear your ideas on organization systems. Right now, I have it pretty easy because I’m a stay at home mom at the moment and don’t have to worry too much about organizing for 16 kids - just my two so it’s a lot more manageable.
Ok so we are going to give you 3 steps to help you with organizing your preschool classroom! Here we go !
1- Got to take time to save time!
Yep, we’re going to say it…. Although we wish we had a magical solution to cure all your organizational needs…you know that easy fix!?!?! Welp…. there’s no such thing.
You’re gonna have to dedicate some time in order to save time in the long run.
So you might as well get your favorite play list or your favorite podcast ( wink wink .. ya) ready to play while you're cleaning things out…
If you can make time for an organization day in the near future, we recommend spending some time figuring out what you have and organizing it to be in places that make sense… like the stuff you use every day should be in the easiest to reach cabinets and should not be stacked on top of each other.. You shouldn’t have to move two tubs to get to whatever it is you’re trying to get to….One of our favorite listeners, Gitty, gave some advice for us to share she said, “Never over stuff a cupboard, if you have to reach behind tons of stuff to get something, chances are you’ll have a big mess...Put stuff you use more often on hand like in the front, on eye level shelves, etc”... thanks Gitty. That is such good advice… even though you might be able to fit more into a cabinet by stuffing and stacking, you’re shooting yourself in the foot because if you can’t quickly access it (AND KNOW WHERE EVERYTHING IS) you’re going to waste so much time!
Ya, make sure to take some time to assess what you’ve got--- What can be trashed? What needs fixing? … Start piles of different categories
You can go a few different ways here.
You can organize by subject, by months , be level…..
Ok, so then, it comes down to actually having a system to KNOW WHERE EVERYTHING IS… and this is a very important step, if you skip it, you’re going to be screwed.
Caylee… how do you do this part?
I found a very simple way to do this… at the beginning of the year, I’d put post-it notes up in my cabinets… and as I put things into the cabinet, I’d write them down on the post-it note… this made it easy to look for things (you’d just flip open the cabinets and check the post-it notes) but it also makes it easy for your para or substitute or anyone that is looking for something in your classroom-- to be able to find it pretty quickly-- that is so helpful… I don't know if you’ve been there, but before I started doing this, it was like I pretty much knew where things were, but if my para asked me for something, I’d try to tell her where it was, but I’d usually end up having to get it myself, because there was no rhyme or reason to the setup… and that’s just inefficient…
Ok, so that’s a great way to organize things in the cabinets… what about the bigger picture… how do you keep things together so you know where they are when that time of the year comes around? Like, it’s almost march.. How did you organize things so that everything you needed during the month of march was in one place?
That’s exactly how I did it Layne, everything I need for each month of the year, is together in one place.
Oh.. ok… tell us more..
#2- get yourself some tubs-- So it took me several years to finally develop a system that worked, but I did it… and the KEY ELEMENT HERE is tubs… They are expensive if you just order them on amazon today, but if you wait for sales after christmas or at lots of other times during the year-- THEY CAN BE SO CHEAP… get yourself some tubs people… and then, from here, you decide to personalize it how you want-- do you want big tubs? Medium tubs? Small tubs? (I will tell you how I did it but it won’t necessarily be the right way for everyone…) So I would look at how much stuff I had for a certain month, like starting at the beginning of the year, I’d have a tub of October/Halloween/Fall stuff (remember, you’re going to get more stuff..so if you decide this is the amount of stuff you have and it fits nicely into this size tub, problem--- it’s going to grow beyond that tub… BUT, two tubs per month, ain’t a bad things… I got tubs out the wazoo...) so don’t worry about having too many tubs, or overthinking the sizes, just start putting stuff into tubs and labeling them, you’re going to be so organized, very soon!
You may already have a few tubs from all the organizing attempts before, but if things are just randomly thrown in there, it’s not going to serve you well...so Clean those out and start over. I’d recommend clear tubs because you can see inside without having to pull things out. But, I have many tubs that are colored and they work just fine. You can add a list of what’s inside on the outside of the tub to make it easy. If you really want to get fancy you can even take pics of the activities and tape it to the our side of the tub.
So I have my tubs by month-- october, christmas/december, february/valentines, january/winter, easter/spring/april/may…. But, it’s not always as easy as separating things by months, for some months it is and for other times of the year you have to break it up however it makes the most sense for you.. (and you just want to think about times of the year and stuff you’ll need...then put that all together and make it a tub…) like I had a montessori inspired teaching style so I had tons of “works” which would be individual tasks the children would do… so I would have a tub of “beginning of the year works… middle of the year works…. And “end of the year works.”
But also, i’ll tell you what, Layne, what you said about labeling the tubs with everything that’s in them is A GREAT IDEA… when I was moving, there was SO MUCH STUFF that was not initially in an organized tub because I had to move everything..and I just took a piece of paper and wrote on the top of the box each thing that I was putting inside, and then, when it comes to unpacking or looking for something, you just have to scan the piece of paper on the top of the box… and you’ll find which box whatever you’re looking for is in! (Make sure to get specific on that part of organizing -- label things thoroughly, you’ll thank yourself later!)
ALSO-- another great idea I came up with, and mind you, I am not a pinterest, everything has to look perfect and organized kind of teacher… this tip might drive some of you nuts… I know because I’ve posted about it before and some people were commenting, I COULD NEVER HAVE MY CABINETS LOOKING LIKE THAT…. But I had to smirk, because I feel like I’m winning in this battle… so I had a genius idea to use ziplock baggies and clothespins… I would hotglue clothespins all over the inside of my cabinet… and then I would put things into ziplock baggies and hang them, all over my cabinet… if you don’t care about looks- the functionality here is UNDENIABLE… you open the cabinet and yOU SEE EVERYTHING… before I used this system, I would have stuff stacked on top of each other and there would be so much unused space at the top..like when you open a cabinet, and look back, there’s so much open space at the top and in the back… I filled all that space with clear ziplocks hanging of items I could instantly see and REACH… I mean the more I used this, the more I felt SUPER organized and the more cabinets i spread the trend to… and come on, the cabinets are closed all day, no one even sees in there… who cares how it looks? If it’s helping you FUNCTION and be organized… DO IT… I am so excited to see who takes this tip and tries it out… I will post more pics on my instagram.... I have a feeling some of you might trust me enough to give it a chance, and then little by little, this trend will grow and spread!!! And I am sure there’s a cuter way to do it..maybe some of you will come up with a pinterest’y way to make it look real nice… that will be awesome...I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.. Please send us pics!!!
3- Maintaining -- don’t put it off..
This was always the HARD part for us.
I know sometimes it’s easier to start stacking stuff up in the closet or by your desk with the intention of putting it away in the correct spot at a later time. But that time never comes and that little pile becomes a big pile and before you know it you’re reorganizing your stuff on the weekend again! It’s a vicious cycle.
Again, Gitty shared some great advice with us, she said “If it takes a minute to put it away, do it now. You’d be surprised how much less clutter you’ll have.” That’s another great point… it can be so tempting to leave things all over your desk or the counter tops in the hustle and bustle of the school day, but if you can find a few minutes to chip away at that, RATHER THAN waiting for a planning day or staying late to knock it all out-- you’ll be so much better off… it’s just these little atomic habits of avoiding clutter, putting things away, knowing where things are, and being able to easily access them-- that will keep you ahead and organized!!!
Another good idea is from the montessori method, which has to do with a prepared environment, caylee and I did some trainings on the montessori method and went on to incorporate it into our classrooms more and more each year… the idea that kids know where the materials are, they can access them without needing the teacher
Ya, like you don’t have to be the one in charge of every art supply that you want to open up to the kids, but instead, you have them set up in a way that the kids can access them and know the right way to use them, and put them back… just putting thought into how kids can help with cleaning up, organizing and being responsible for the space… another awesome teacher shared a good tip with us, Jake said, “Have the kids help set the finishing touches and involve them in finding places for things.”
RECAP-
#1- You’ve gotta take time to save time, we know a lot of you were listening to this episode hoping for some magic secrets that would POOF make your classroom organized… but those just don’t exist… you have to put in the time and it definitely helps to minimize the clutter… the less you have to organize the less time it will take you.
#2-“CONTAINERs. CONTAINERS. And more CONTAINERS.” - Gitty said it best.. And we’ve added to her advice with LABELS LABELS LABELS. LABEL THOSE CONTAINERS :)
#3-Stay on top of it- don’t put it off for that planning day or staying after school... it’s these little atomic habits of avoiding clutter, putting things away, knowing where things are, and being able to easily access them-- that will keep you ahead and organized!!!
We will close out with a quick reminder about the Pre-K Teacher Family...
This week we are bringing you a message from Amy, she said, “My favorite part of the Pre-K Teacher Family is how affordable it is to have access to SO MANY learning resources. These tools aid my teaching, free up my weekends, and most importantly help my students to learn!”
Thank you Amy… we love seeing your photos of all the fun ways you use the pre-k teacher family resources in your classroom, thank you so much for taking the time to snap pics and share them with us… and before we say goodbye, we want to invite you, to free up your weekends… give yourself a break, but joining the pre-k teacher family, so you can easily access hundreds of resources that are organized and ready to go for you… stop spending your sundays searching pinterest for free downloads… we got you covered, join the fam… we’ll be waiting for you!
Ok everyone, we have a special second part to this epsiode where we are interviewing a kindergarten teacher friend of ours who recently published a book about mermaids and the ocean… you’re going to love her, and her book!… here it is…