7 Steps to Declutter Your Classroom Workspace Fast!

Hey, Teachers!

IS YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE A MESS? 🗑 😯

7 STEPS TO DECLUTTER YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE FAST 

WANT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT TEACHING? BOOK YOUR FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH DR. SHEA

If you're working from a classroom desk, cabinet, or corner in the teachers' workroom or even another classroom, IT'S TIME TO GET ORGANIZED.

Your mind works better in a decluttered space! 🍎

Following are some classroom organization TIPS before you leave for holiday break, after you get back from holiday break, OR RIGHT NOW.

NEW TEACHERS, GET ORGANIZED EARLY IN YOUR CAREER! ⬇️

1. ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO FUNCTION IN YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE?

When you arrive to work, is your workspace (desk, counter, cabinet, closet, or other area) piled with papers, student submissions, mementos, to-do lists, books, tools, food, or trash? 🍫 Are you dropping notes, notebooks, curriculum, folders, memos, copies, and student work on your "desk" regularly...and just leaving it?

Stuff piles up fast! Our days move fast too, and more and more demands take precedence on the list of responsibilities. It's a lot to juggle in a week.

Tips: How are you leaving your workspace at 3:30 p.m. when school's over? The only person who can ensure it is neat and presentable for the next morning is...you.

Create a new good habit of investing 5 minutes after school to discard what you don't need and place the day's papers and projects where they go (do this each day and watch the clutter go down).

Wipe down your teacher area with a cloth for increased cleanliness, especially if you're like most teachers spending lunch on the clock with students.

A cleaner environment makes a difference in how we feel.

7 STEPS TO DECLUTTER YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE FAST 

WANT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT TEACHING? BOOK YOUR FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH DR. SHEA

2. ARE YOUR TEACHING SUPPLIES EASY TO FIND OR OFTEN MISPLACED?

Do you know where some of your important documents are, but not all of them? This goes for online teachers too (or in-person teachers storing data online or on classroom desktops or tablets).

Tips: Where are you housing that important information? Do you have a system down?

Create folders for the most important categories, teaching duties, and unit lessons. Seems like an obvious thing to do, but by the time we're midyear with kids, and we've gathered several new ideas and tips from colleagues, attended PD workshops with handouts, goodies, and documents, and collected numerous projects students didn't take home, we may not have kept up very well with our filing system. 

Mark your calendar with organization as a check-off item until it becomes a daily/weekly habit. How can you be more timely each week or month with the NEW materials flooding your teaching world that you should be housing physically or digitally?

7 STEPS TO DECLUTTER YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE FAST 

WANT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT TEACHING? BOOK YOUR FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH DR. SHEA

3. IS LESSON PLANNING, ASSESSMENT, AND RECORD-KEEPING A MAJOR FEAT OR TAKING LONGER THAN IT SHOULD?

Are you BOGGED DOWN with lesson planning, creating meaningful assessments, or reporting data your school administration requires you to produce? One of the causes could be your cluttered workspace. If this is the case, cleaning up the mess (developing stronger classroom organizational skills alongside stellar classroom management skills) is imperative!

Tips:

In a cleaner, more organized classroom workspace, we are more likely to:

• feel less stressed 😣
• feel less overwhelmed 😩
• think more clearly 🧐
• see the broader scope and sequence of our planning 🔍
• be more of an authority in the classroom ✅
• appear more professional ✅
• save time ⏰

7 STEPS TO DECLUTTER YOUR CLASSROOM WORKSPACE FAST 

WANT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT TEACHING? BOOK YOUR FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH DR. SHEA