MAGIC REALLY DOES EXIST: THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP YOUR CLASSROOM (PART ONE)

Image courtesy of KonMari.com

The Inspiration

This past week I signed up for Educators 2 Educators Teacher New Year Reboot Conference. While there was a lot of great information available at this conference, the thing I wanted to see more than anything was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Classroom from Building Book Love.

I'd previously read Marie Kondo's book, but had never thought about applying it to my classroom before. I've been feeling stressed lately about the size of my room, and the lack of storage and wall space, so seeing BBL's post on Instagram seemed serendipitous.

When I watched her presentation, the number one thing that stood out to me was the concept of taking EVERYTHING out and then figuring out how to organize things. I had been trying to organize around the things I had already stored, even though those things had been put away haphazardly in a rush at the beginning of the year and where they were placed really made no sense. No wonder I wasn't making any progress!

Feeling super energized and optimistic, I decided to commit my entire teacher planning day after Winter Break to this challenge.

If you're interested in doing the same in your room, I highly recommend you join Building Book Love's Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Classroom FREE 7 Day Challenge.


Day One

A quick snapshot of what me room looked like daily.

Despite my enthusiasm, it took a little effort to get going. What can I say? Coming back to work after two weeks and hitting the ground running is a little rough. Still, I eventually did start pulling out all of my belongings and stacking them on the desks in the middle of my room. The only things I left in place were student binders and notebooks, because I knew I wanted them to stay where they were. EVERYTHING else came out. EVERYTHING.

It was kind of exhausting removing items from every corner of the room, but it also felt really good to take stock of what I had. In the 7 years I've been teaching I've been through 4 subject areas, 4 classrooms, and combined with a co-teacher with 25 years experience. So while I had a lot of the usual clutter of supplies and materials, I also had a ton of off miscellaneous items around. I honestly could not have told you half of what was in my room.

But with everything pulled out and categorized, things didn't seem so bleak. I realized I had a fair amount of space to store things on shelves if I organized properly, and I had more wall space available once the boxes and bins were out of the way.

All of my sorted piles

The first major thing I did was recognize that I simply could not store our Relay for Life fundraising materials in my room. I had shirts, wristbands, and other materials filling up filing cabinet drawers, bookshelves, and tabletops. Feeling frustrated, I vented to my sister whose own room is one building over from mine. And, like the sound of angels from heaven, she told me:

"I have an empty cabinet this can probably all fit in."

BAM! Big cart, 3 shelves, and 3 filing cabinet drawers were freed! Talk about magic!

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Next I went into my miscellaneous pile. I knew some of it would be tricky to sort and organize, but there was also clearly a lot that I simply did not need. With ruthless precision I yanked out anything I knew right away was unnecessary and started a give away pile.

I also started a return pile because, apparently, I had things that belonged to a number of other people.

Once the pile had grown too big to fit on one desk, I bagged it up and brought it to our planning room and put it on display. Another sigh of relief. I could finally breathe in my classroom.

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I boxed up the rest of the miscellaneous items to deal with another day, then moved on to my novels. I realized just how few I had actually taken to my new room. I stacked them on my nicest bookshelf and planned to get more books from storage. 

Looking around the room I started to see things I hadn't before. My Harry Potter posters, as much as I loved them, did not match my Superhero theme, so them came down.

I had highlighters stored in three different places. They were all combined into one container.

I HATED the sliding draw organizers I used because of course adding an extra level in my desk drawers made sense. Who wouldn't want more room? Except they slid around, blocked access to the other materials in the drawer, and they were ugly. Now I had the clarity to let them go.

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Near the end of the day I found myself looking back to my desk area repeatedly. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, but it definitely did NOT "spark joy" as Marie Kondo would recommend. It felt cramp and cluttered, and despite having a rack organizer, desk drawers, and a 2 drawer filing cabinet, I was constantly stacking papers on random corners and over my printer until I could get to them. It simply wasn't working.

So I yanked out my desk. I didn't even like it to begin with. It's metal, and it doesn't watch the wood of my shelves or the build in shelf that holds the room's electronics. I had made do with it because it was all I had, but after tidying everything else, I felt ready to try removing it completely!

It didn't work. Or rather, removing my desk and shifting my computer to the side counter didn't work, because then I would be putting my back to the room any time I took attendance or loaded a presentation. No bueno.

Still, removing that desk had felt so good, I simply refused to put it back. After playing around with a number of ideas, I condensed two of the student computers to one table, and dragged the other table over. I tried it in a few spots and finally placed it in a spot that DID spark joy.

With only a few minutes before I would have to leave for my doctorate classes, I rewired my computer, not even caring that the wires were in a cluttered pile. Somehow it still felt better than my old desk and it's hidden wires ever had.

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Several students came in the next day and commented on how much bigger the room looks and how open it is! I really expected them to be chiding me about the massive pile of things I had waiting on our small group table but I guess the overall effect of my tidying and rearranging overrode that.

Their enthusiasm gave me the energy to push through a 12 hour day the next day.

Coming Soon: Day Two

8 AWESOME GIFTS FOR NEW TEACHERS

Today at work we threw a surprise party for my sister Momo for both her 30th birthday and to congratulate her for getting her first teaching job. Unfortunately I have no pictures because I was too bust setting up and then trying to keep everyone quiet, lest we lose the surprise aspect of the party. lol

Naturally, I wanted to give my sister a gift that was both useful and meaningful so I put together a gift basket (or rather several gift bags) of items that I find essential as a teacher. I've decided to share that list with you, both for people looking for good gifts for teachers, and for teachers themselves on the look out for some tools to add to their arsenal.

Note: this post contains affiliate links, which means I receive small commission if you decide to purchase anything through Amazon using my links. I only recommend items I've purchased and used myself, so trust that everything I post is legit, and I haven't received anything free or been asked to post any of these items : )

So without further ado:

Paper Mate Flair Pens

 

An absolute must for any teacher! Perfect for color coding, annotating, or just grading with something other than red! I use these babies EVERY day in my classroom and I love, love, love them. They write beautifully, the colors are vibrant, they don't bleed through, and they seem to last a long time. I’ve had mine for a couple of years and haven’t had to replace them yet.




Seville Mesh Desk Organizer

I love this organizer so much I bought a second one for my co-teacher so she could revel in its magic (and so our desks could match). I actually got mine at Costco but it seems they no longer carry it so Amazon to the rescue! I really like that it has both horizontal pull out drawers which are great for loose papers, and vertical dividers for file folders and notebooks.



Officemate Deluxe Rotary Organizer

Is there a single teacher who doesn’t have one of these spinny dervish organizer things on their desk? They’re super useful and this one I found is even better than my own. In fact it was the highlight of the party and everyone was asking where they could get one. It's no surprise. I mean it’s got a built in tape dispenser and Post-it compartment. How cool is that?



What Teachers Make:
In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World

I picked this one up on a whim since I love Taylor Mali’s poem What Teachers Make. If you haven't seen the video, check it out here:

I think every teacher needs a little motivation, especially when you're first starting out. Mali understands what really matters as a teacher and always gets me pumped.




Lined Easel Pads

These are great for making anchor charts, and the fact that they’re lined makes my OCD heart happy. No crooked anchor charts!



Sharpie Flip Chart Markers

Because you need good markers to make good charts : )



PaperPro One Finger Stapler

I LOVE this stapler... and apparently so do other people since it's always going missing from my desk. It's super easy to use, which is great for those times when the copier decides it doesn't want to staple your 100 packets and you have to do it by hand.


Adorable Sticky Notes

Because OMG how cute!

Bees Page Tabs

Chick Page Tabs

Animal Sticky Notes



Honorable Mentions

These items I didn’t buy because we’d already picked them up during summer sales, or she has easy access to them from supplies at work. I’m posting them anyway, in case you found this post while looking for teacher gift ideas and need a bit more. Any teacher would be happy to receive these.


Pencils: Teachers can never, ever, EVER have enough pencils.

Dry Erase Markers: Go for a variety of colors instead of the boring old black, red, blue and green. I like choosing two main colors each month to punch up our daily agenda.

Dry Erase Board Cleaner: Please, don't use anything else to clean a white board. You eventually ruin the finish and the board is never the same.

Sharpies: A mix of round and fine tip is best, to provide versatility, as well as multiple colors.

Highlighters: The old standard yellow can be great, but multi-colored highlighters are amazing for annotating text and coding evidence. I bought 20 5-packs of highlights this summer!

Post-Its: Another supply teachers use and need ALL THE TIME.

Tool Kit: You'd be surprised how often this comes in handy. Make sure whatever you get has a hammer, needle nose pliers, measuring tape, and a ratcheting screwdriver with multiple bit types and sizes. A level is a great one too, especially if the teacher is your life is a bit OCD.

Sewing Kit: If you're anything like me, then chances are kids come running to you when they have wardrobe issues. Not only can you fix it for them with basic sewing supplies, but it gives you an opportunity to teach them a valuable life skill.

Paper Trimmer: I HIGHLY recommend getting a sliding blade trimmer versus a guillotine style. I have yet to meet a guillotine cutter that's aligned at a correct 90 degree angle.

Microwave: This can literally change a teacher's life. It opens up a new world of options for lunch and snacks, plus it can save that cup of coffee you forgot about an hour earlier.

The Sales are Starting - Tips for Buying and Saving on Classroom Supplies

Oh yes, it's that time of summer we all look forward to/dread. Supplies are going on sale and we have to grab them while we can!

Did you know that most office supply stores post their weekly ads online before the sales go live?
Staples posts their ad at 10:00am on Thursday.
Office Depot/Max posts their weekly ad at Midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning
Totally Target posts early scans of the flyer.

Now, why do you care about viewing ads early? So you can map out your plan of course! Every summer these stores put out some really good sales (and a good deal of not so good ones), but quantities are limited and stores often only have a few of each item in stock. So, if you don't want to miss anything, you have to plan ahead and get to the store early on Sunday. This is my sister's first sale season as a teacher so we'll be at Office Depot/Max when they open this week and hopping over to Staples right after : )

One thing to keep in mind is that you CAN purchase over the customer limit as teacher. You generally need to speak to manager to do this, although some cashiers will ring you up and just get the manager to override for you. I've heard that managers do have a certain level of discretion regarding this policy and they can make you wait until later in the week so other customer's get a chance to get the deals first, but this hasn't happened to me yet.

UPDATE: Apparently my local Office Depot no longer does this. You can get around the limit by making multiple purchases at different stores or at different times. Not as easy but worth the effort for some deals. Staples used to let you buy more and get the deal back as a rebate but they have discontinued that option.


As I said, there are some really good deals out there, and some that aren't worth your time. So here are the supplies I look for and the price I aim for:

• Binders - 50¢ or less
• Copy Paper - free
• Colored Copy Paper - $1 or less
• Loose Leaf Paper - 25¢ or less
• Spiral Notebooks - 25¢ or less
• Composition Books - 50¢ or less 
• Pocket Folders - 15¢ or less
• 3 Prong Folders - 25¢ or less
• Pencils - 50¢ or less
• Pens - 25¢ or less
• Crayons - 25¢ or less (may pay higher for Crayola)
• Colored Pencils - $1 or less (you'll see some off brands for sale way cheaper, but they're not worth it)
• Markers - $1 or less per pack
• Highlighters - $1 or less for multipack
• Liquid Glue -  25¢ or less for small bottles, 50¢ or less for large bottles
• I no longer buy stick glue. Even though it's less messy, it doesn't last.
• Rulers - 25¢ or less
• Scissors - 50¢ or less

A note on Free Items:

You can get some awesome freebies during school supply sales. Before merging with Office Depot, Office Max definitely gave the best deals in this regard for MaxPerks members online so I'm curious to see what Office Depot does this year.

Free items are often free after getting store rewards back. In other words you pay out of pocket for the item, then get rewards on your loyalty card which equal what you paid for the item. These rewards often expire within 1-3 months, and sometimes may not post to your account until summer sales are over, so be cautious about picking up things you don't need. You may end up buying even more stuff you don't need just to spend your reward credit.



One last tip. Passion for Savings has a back-to-school deals page. It's worth following to catch some lesser known sales, especially if you have kids yourself as they post deals on clothes and backpacks, etc.


So, what summer sales do you look for? Tell me in the comments!