good rules for organization

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good rules for organization
By teachfla

I am known for my (rather anal) organization. Here are some tips that have helped me:

1. Those plastic stackable trays are great. I have one for each day of the week and an In Box on top.
1A. Invest in lots of
plastic dish pans. They are cheap, they stack, they fit books and folders perfectly.
2. Color coordinate everything. In my world, pink is reading/LA, orange math, green social studies, blue science, and yellow my stuff (like parent communication, common copy masters, etc.) All of my masters for everything are sleeved and put into binders labeled by color. The colors are grouped together.

I can find anything in under 30 seconds.
3. Touch papers as little as possible. Get your mail from your mailbox and file immediately. (Ex. Most flyers go into garbage, meeting announcements go under last page of plan book to be looked at when I plan, notes on specific children get tossed in a dishpan that I sift through once a week or so to file in correct spots.) If I want to look at something more closely, it goes in the In Box, which is cleaned out at the end of every day (be strict with yourself.)
4. Have a Done Box for kids' papers and train them to use it. I just use a dishpan. That way I can grab just the dishpan, my grade book and take it all home.
5. Don't let anything touch your desk. It sounds strange, but if your mail has a home (In Box), kids' papers have a home (Done Box) and TEs have a home (color coordinated on a shelf) your desk won't need to be a home for all of that.
6. Take it one step at a time. Organization of this magnitude did not happen overnight. Choose one thing to focus on and when you get it tweeked the way you like it, add something else.