The time has (finally) come: its classroom packing time. But how can you get everything stored away for the summer without spending your entire summer doing it? Here are a few of our best teacher-suggested tips:
- Pack in Zones: Pack everything that goes in your desk in one box, everything that goes on the bookshelf in one box and everything that goes in your technology center in one box. Seems like a simple concept, but a lot of exhausted teachers just toss everything into boxes and end up with a huge organizational milestone when back-to-school hits.
- Plan Ahead: Set aside all of the things you’ll need first when school starts again—scissors, your stapler, your computer password—and put them into a box. Place that box in an easy-to-find spot so you’ll see it first thing when you come back to school.
- Really Plan Ahead: If you’re really on top of it, put copies of all of the worksheets, papers and lesson plans you’ll use during the first week of school into a binder and put them in your aforementioned box.
- Save Your Kid’s Work: Don’t toss the art projects and reports that your students leave behind. Instead, save them in a big box and you’ll have built-in decorations and examples for next year.
- Toss What you Don’t Use: Don’t be afraid to toss or donate old projects, old lessons or old books that you don’t use anymore. A cluttered classroom is a disorganized classroom.
- Get the Appropriate Storage Containers: Invest in a poster storage box or a sentence strip box so that you can be assured that your stuff will be safe over the summer.
- Get Your Students Involved: See if a couple of your students will stay in afterschool to help you pack (treat them to pizza or a popsicle if they do!) and you’ll not only have some last-minute bonding time with students, but get packed a lot faster.
- Get things fixed now: If something is broken or not working, send a work-order to your summer maintenance staff now. It may seem easier to put it off until later, but come August, you’ll appreciate the fact that everything in your classroom is in working order.