Organizing Classroom Paper

Do you struggle with organizing paper? Paper can be a real clutter maker and some professions, like an elementary teacher, really have a lot of paper to keep track of!

We are heading inside Bethany’s classroom today to conquer her desk and the growing paper pile on the top.

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A to B Updates

First, we are taking care of a few check ins. I had a birthday! And Bethany shared the card she almost sent me. This will be a super cute card for someone else.

If you don’t already, you can follow us on Instagram @AtoBpodcast for all our latest shenanigans.

We also check in on Bethany’s Truck or Treat preparations. In Episode 71, Birthday Parties Made Simple we use the Max/Mod/Min Strategy from Julie Morgenstern’s most recent book, Time to Parent. 

Bethany’s upcoming Trunk or Treat event at her school is the perfect opportunity to apply the Max/Mod/Min Strategy. Bethany ultimately decided on this Cookie Monster themed trunk as the moderate amount of work.

Cute, right? You can even skip the Grouch and Elmo on the side!

Check out Ep 71 to hear how we used Max/Mod/Min strategy for planning parties!

Organizing Classroom Paper

Back in the summer, Bethany posted a full video series on Instagram about setting up her classroom. Now, 2 months in, it is time to check in with her classroom!

She shared this update on A to B Podcast Instagram. (You can see the full update in the highlights section of our Instagram Stories.)

Everything is flowing smoothly except… her desk area has become a dumping ground. Papers are piling up and she is beginning to miss deadlines. Not a good feeling.

The system she was using to organize her papers is not working! The pile has begun out of a fear that she won’t find what she needs when she needs. While a central pile might work for a minute before long it becomes frustrated and time consuming to find what you need.

What I tend to repeat over and over again is, if something isn’t working it is okay to edit and tweak it! Don’t live with an organizing system that is “suppose to work.” The true is, it’s not working.

If it’s not working, change it

I recently changed my homework system because our needs changed. I now have a kindergartener with a homework packet she works on nightly and then we turn it in on Friday.

My daughter’s packet was just sitting out on the dining room table for a week! I needed to set up a permanent home where she could actually put her homework away.

I used a simple Ikea paper divider that I already had on hand. Now she has a spot for her homework plus a mailbox she can turn in papers for me to look at.

We talk all about kids’ schoolwork in Ep 5 Kids’ Paper. In fact, I even made a flow chart to help me think about where the paper will go.

This flowchart got me thinking how we could tackle the paper that comes into Bethany’s classroom on a daily basis.

Let’s break everything down into broad categories and find a home for each type of paper. First up, the curriculum.

Curriculum Papers

Bethany already set up a system to keep track of the papers the students will be working on for the week. She uses two of the 3-drawer plastic storage containers and designated each drawer to a day of the week.

Similar to this example except with the 6th drawer for upcoming items for the following week.

The drawers are working great to keep papers easy to access yet still out of the way.

Now, there are also the master copies of curriculum papers to keep track of so they are easy to find next year.

At Bethany’s last school she filed her papers by season in the filing cabinet. I have also seen teacher sort their curriculum by month in bins.

Whether using a bin or a filing cabinet to organize curriculum, I like having a specific home to organize master copies like this one, especially with one unit out at one time.

I also love keeping filing as simple as possible. If your filling cabinet is too complicated you will avoid (subconsciously or consciously!) putting papers away. It could be as simple as using brightly colored cardstock which is easier to change out and move than the file dividers.

Student Work

Now onto student’s classroom work. This is when the flow of paper becomes really important. Much of the success of this process relies on establishing routines with the students that are practiced constantly.

The steps are:

1. Students turn their work into the Turn-in Basket.

2. Bethany corrects papers daily and decides the next step; either:

1. 1. Send home
   2. Recycle (papers that were just for practice)
   3. Save for Memory book

We talked about creating files to store memory book papers like this one.

4. Assessments saved for student work sample

Student Data and sample work will be organized in a binder similar to this one.

That takes care of student paperwork!

To Do’s and Scheduling

As a teacher, there is always more to do. You don’t want to spend your time looking around for missing papers. So when tasks that she needs to do come across Bethany’s desk, how is she going to process them?

Now I know what some of you might be thinking, throw a small file box on top of the desk and you have a perfect inbox where you can keep track of papers. You can even clip a calendar to the front so you can see what is coming up, similar to a command center you might see in a home.

Like this one Miss Kindergarten made for her classroom.

But the problem is, for Bethany, this would not become a trusted system. She doesn’t work well with hanging files and paper tends to start piling up.

So we have a 3 part process that works better for her piling tendencies.

Step 1– All calendar or scheduling items go straight inside her planner, similar to a bookmark. This way the papers will be right there, front and center, when it is time to schedule.

Step 2 – A inbox will be there to collect all “To Do” items in an organized pile.

Step 3 – Items that are to read go in a seperate “To Read” basket. If there is an action step that needs to be taken after the paper is read, write the to do on the paper with a post-it and drop it in the “To Do” basket.

Now there are two keys to success for this system. First, Bethany has to be sure that only action items get put in her inbox. Second, set day of the week to go through the “To Do” items and DO them.

Professional Development papers

There are lots of conferences and professional development meetings to keep track of as a teacher. Bethany has already decided that she likes having a standard notebook which she take to every professional development event.

There is no reason to reinvent the wheel and try to change something that is already working for her. So to tweak her system only to make it easier to find specific notes within her general professional development notebook ,she is going to use the divider tabs that can stick on to your notebook like these. I also love the ones you can write notes on so you can summarize the most important points right on to the label.

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