PAPER! ORGANIZATION! WEATHER!

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

I cannot stand paper, well, I guess I do. I like some things-  but sometimes I get over zealous and make a gazillion copies, and then I am stuck with stacks and stacks of PAPER!

This is totally the best selfie I could take with the paper. 

I imagined it much better.

...this also was only one of like 50,000 stacks in my room. It was like Dunder Mifflin up in there.

I LOVE to plan. I love to sort things into groups and organize - BUT if things do not go as I planned, or if I don't have storage, I get frustrated. My room has severely frustrated me since, oh, day one. 

I moved to a new school this year, at least it was the same grade! My room is probably about half the size of my last classroom. It is also an older school, so it came with a lot of stuff. The teacher in the classroom last year has moved to fourth grade, so she left me some great first grade stuff! I also had a friend retire from first grade last year, so I have more stuff from her. HOWEVER, with the move and waiting to get into my room, plus little time to set up, I have not had time to go through it! (Summer plans, woo!)

So I feel like I've just been getting by when it comes to organization, and I think that's okay. I always say - not matter HOW MANY years you've been teaching (helloooo year 13...) I feel that it always takes at least a year for you to get comfortable in your space and know how you want to arrange things or how you want them to flow. 

As for my paper? I spent some time on Monday and today (Wednesday) organizing  cleaning my space. How did I have time for this? Easy. We have had some nasty weather this week. Many counties around us were closed due to the incoming storms. I had 5 kids on Monday, so we didn't move on with anything, or start anything new, and today, I had 9 kids (half of my class) so we did some review and then some independent centers or computer time. 

How am I planning on organizing my life this summer? I am going to try to spend some QT in my classroom, arranging, purging (personally? I have a ton of junk) and getting things the way I want them. I have a small classroom so I am HOPING to invest in some flexible seating and free up some space. 

I am arranging my paper into monthly binders. Those of you who know me know that I plan when I am stressed and I learn my standards quickly. I have next year planned out down to the week and I will be placing my plans in binders and organizing papers that way.

As for copies? I just LOVE Bridget from The Lettered Classroom. I don't know how I found her, but she was down here in the south and moved to my home (well, the other side of my home state,) Pennsylvania! She has talked about a folder system for organizing papers. You have one for each day and one for each month. You place the papers on the day you need them, or you can move them to another day, and also put them in a month that you will need them. Say it is October, but a blogger you follow posts a super cute unit on life cycles, but you don't teach it until April - well, stick it in the April folder!

I also have been inspired by Bridget and other teacher blogger/vloggers to follow through on creating a vlog on YouTube. It may need to wait until summer, but I am determined! I currently only have my iPhone & iPad for a camera, so I don't know how that will turn out! 

Well, its time to go hang out with my little man before his bed time!

Be kind!

Alison :)