Setting Up

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Home : 2002 : July : 31

Setting Up
By sue d.

Congratulations! As the resident organization freak, my advice is to start prepping your systems early. Here are the things I do in order:
1. I attend the end-of-the year blow-out sales in June at the school supply store
and purchase name plates, book marks, erasers, and sticky-tak... staples for setting up.
2. In July, I spend a few hours of time ONE DAY ordering new posters, bordette, bulletin board sets, teacher resource books and prizes for my prize box online. My favorite sites are: reallygoodstuff.com, classroomdirect.com, and orientaltradingcompany.com (the latter for prizes only). My key

advice here is to only buy teacher resource books applicable to the units you are required to teach, all except for a book called "Forms for all Reasons," as the ready-made communications and graphic organizers are wonderful. Don't let your file cabinet at school get bogged down with worksheet mish-mash. If you have to teach a unit on plants for example, buy a few worksheet filled books on plants, no need to reinvent the wheel. Don't collect crap from grad school or other teachers' hand-me-downs unless they are of great quality. Little poems and every piece of paper you get at orientation usually can be thrown away, although I know veteran teachers who have to keep three file cabinets in their rooms to storeall of their junk (their rooms look tacky)!
I store these things in a box and tape on a list of reminders to myself about what I might want to change from what I did the previous year. I set it aside and enjoy the end of my summer.

3. In August, I update my class web page. I also spend ONE DAY thumbing through teacher magazines and trying to get inspiration for clever new bulletin boards for the welcome period. You should always have the children's names posted outside your door, as well as your own. I think of a theme each year which is different. I also put together little colored bags which contain objects that relate to a speech I give on the first day to explain my classroom (this always gets raves from parents and there are many teachers out there with diff. versions of welcome bags). I plot out a desk arrangement, buy a plant or two for the window area, and make little name/subject labels for student folders, their behavior chart, and portfolios. Believe it or not, after seven years, I can get that done in several hours or less! Finally, I reread Harry Wong's book for motivation and pick out my outfit for the first day (mentally, I told you I was an organization freak!).