Teacher Week - Organization!

Good evening, ya'll! Day 3 of Teacher Week with Blog Hoppin' is all about organizing for instruction. First off, let me deeply apologize to you for the slightly less than perfect crappy pictures... I only had my phone with me. I used to have a nice camera on my iPhone 5, until said iPhone 5 went swimming in the pool. 

Here's a few ways that I'm hoping to keep my STUDENTS organized this year! I'm going to implement the Daily 5 in my room, and had the hardest time figuring out how it was going to work... I want the students to meet with both my aide and myself every day, so I'm treating it as "5 rounds" as opposed to "5 stations." Throughout the morning, they will follow this schedule... I made the "Meet With Mr. Vinton" and "Meet With Mrs. Shope" cards to slide anywhere, and even be removed if I need to do running records, etc... I have 4 reading groups, and they'll track their color through all 5 rounds.

I also made this checklist for my students to keep in their book bins. Since they'll only have time for 3 choices per day, they will use a dry-erase market to check off what they've done. Once the checklist is full, they'll erase it and start over. I'm hoping this will guarantee balance among the 5 components.

As for organizing MYSELF, I found these amazing chevron accordion folders in the dollar spot at Target. I'm using them to organize my "I Can" Statements by category (language, speaking & listening, writing, etc.)

Now for my FAVORITE organizing tip!! I took all the literature standards and informational text standards and grouped them into 2 binders...

First page of each binder has an entire list of those standards...

Now for the REALLY fun part... I used one sheet protector for each standard, and labeled them in the top right corner. Each pocket has the corresponding "I Can" Statement AND graphic organizers that can be used to reinforce each specific standard. I KNOW, RIGHT?! I found this amazing bundle of first grade common core graphic organizers by A Year of Many Firsts, which is one of my favorite blogs to follow!!

One of my favorite pieces of furniture in my room is this amazing Monday thru Friday drawer set, which was in my room when I moved in, so I can't even begin to tell you where it's from! It's fantastic. I use it to prep my materials for the week AND for the following week... I have a laminated piece of paper in each drawer that says "Next Week's Materials," so that I can prep for the next week underneath the current week's materials. It's brilliant. I can' take credit for it, as the dividers were in place when I got there. To whoever put those there -- thank you!!

And FINALLY. The last way that I'm trying to stay organized this year....... Guess what came in the mail today?? I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Erin Condren teacher's planner!!

Off to start filling in my planner! Tune in tomorrow for classroom management tips! I've got a few fun ones :-)