End of the Year Organization

Hello, my name is Mrs. Sweet and I am a hoarder. :-)

Good grief I have a lot of stuff! Every year I throw out tons of stuff and every year it seems like I have more!

This week I'm linking up with Mrs. King's Music Room to talk about how I organize at the end of the year to help myself start the next year right! I'm super excited about this because I am one of those teachers that comes in 2 weeks before teacher meetings start to get set up. I'd really like to avoid that this year, so I'm going to think about things that I want to take care of now.

Here are my goals:

1. Leave bulletin board backgrounds and borders up! I'm really lucky to be in the same room again next year, so the first thing I will do to help myself is leave up my beautiful background paper and fabric that I used this year.

I moved to a new school this year, so I splurged and bought some gorgeous paper to put up and coordinating borders. I'd had the same purple fabric for the past 8 years, so it was time for a change! Plus my old stuff didn't fit my new boards!

2. Clean out my paper files! I'm a paper hog (apparently), so if I don't keep up with it, it eats me alive! And, I tried out something new this year - I do not bring "junk mail" into my class. Either it stays in my box until I have time to sort it, or it goes in the trash before I leave the workroom. It worked great!

3. Throw out / Give away junk! You know those mardi gras beads that I just knew would be useful? And that pair of silly sunglasses that's been stored for 3 years? And those santa hats that were too small for the choir kids? I have a new mantra - Let it go!!! Let it go!!! My kinders will love these junk prizes on the last day of school.

Our school even has a "Free For All" in the gym after the kids leave on the last day. I think those VHS tapes from 10 music teachers ago will make it to the gym, as well as the old buckets and containers that don't really fit my space.

The reason I am letting go? Because I can't find what I need and use through all the "extra" stuff that I don't use! And I have found that getting rid of stuff creates visual (and mental) space. Peace of mind and less stress go hand in hand with mental white space.

4. Print out and laminate stuff for next year! I know that I will need a fresh set of dynamics posters since my old ones died and I have new colorful hand signs posters to make for my tone ladder.

Why not do it now? I know I'm super tired now but just thinking about how tired I will be in August gives me inspiration to go ahead and make them now while the ideas are still fresh.

These aren't really groundbreaking ideas, but maybe they are simple enough to help me get next year started off right!

What are you doing NOW that will help your class be more organized LATER?

Monday, June 2, 2014

End of the Year Organization

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