Take a Break!!

Just a quick note to remind all of my wonderful readers to take some time out and enjoy the holiday season; you deserve it. Merry Christmas!!


Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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Merry Christmas!

I'm wishing a very, merry Christmas to all of you out in blogland.

Just a few, quick Christmas tips:

• If your teacher mug collection is already brimming, you might consider dropping hints as to what you really want (you know the stereotypical teacher gifts aren't on that list); but at the same time accept any gift gracefully.
• Don't give a huge assignment that is due as soon as they come back, that's just mean.
• Know that there will be Christmas assemblies and snow days, and plan for the missed time (without overworking the kids when they are there).
• Change your word problems to be Christmassy (ie: Sally has saved $12.50 for her brother's Christmas present which costs $11.00 plus tax (insert your local percentage). Does she have enough money for the gift?
• If you have students that celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukkah, let them do similar art projects or stories about their holidays, share what these holidays are with the other students, but don't feel that you have to ignore Christmas; just add in Kwanzaa... Many children may feel awkward because they don't celebrate Christmas and are 'different', make everyone feel welcome.
• Remember that this is a time when many students are highly distracted and excited, so planning a 5 chapter algebra midterm is not the best thing right now.
• Build your repertoire of Christmas (and Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah) materials that fit with your curriculum, you can still teach and the holiday is still celebrated.
• If your school is not having a social for the older students, you may want to consider having a small one in your classroom. Maybe not a dance, as much as a party with games, music, and goodies.

What are your Christmas classroom traditions?


Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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Colour Coding Crazy

I'll admit that perhaps I go a little overboard, but I like to colour code when I can. Use different coloured folders, duotangs, binders, plastic envelopes, sticky flags, and binder clips.

Now, there is no set way to colour code, just pick one way and stick to it. I loosely follow the curriculum documents (which themselves are coloured on the covers) for my main set of colours. Blue is for math, green for science, yellow for language, orange for phys. ed., pink for art, etc. It works for me. You choose the colours that work for you.

So when I have my lessons in the day's folder, I have all of the papers for each lesson clipped together with the right colour clip. So, instead of flipping through, looking for the right lesson, I do a bird's eye view from the top, grab the coloured clip that I want, and I'm ready.

Do you colour code? Do you code by subject or by something else? Do your students need to follow your colour code as well? (Everyone's science work is in their green duotangs?)


Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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Supply Your Substitute

If you plan ahead for your substitute teacher they will know what to do AND you will not get behind when you are away.

Now I know that sometimes you have no clue that you will not be in the day before, but that doesn't mean you can't be prepared. If you follow a basic weekly plan like we talked about before, then your photocopying for the week will be done. If you then have a folder for each day of the week with that day's lessons and handouts (which you can routinely use yourself) then a substitute can just be directed to the day's folder.

I highly recommend a substitute teacher folder. In this folder have class lists, extra paper, easy activities that the teacher can use (that could possibly tie in to a future unit), notes telling them where supplies and the photocopier are, a seating plan, any tips about certain students, notes about special school policies, notes about your daily and weekly routines and schedules, notes about what to do in a fire drill, your yard duty schedule, and anything else that you think would be helpful for them to know.

Please understand that it is much more difficult for substitute teachers to control the students and they may not get as much done as you would have if you were there, but if you don't leave them a plan to follow then they can't get anything useful done.

And if you are a substitute teacher, please follow the instructions left for you to the best of your ability. But always have a bag of tricks (or binder of activities) in case you aren't left much.


Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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Organize Right Now blog post

I saw this post on Organize Right Now, and I HAD to share it with you. Her post is about organizing papers that go back and forth from home to work. These ideas can easily be adapted to the teacher's life.



Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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It's yummy...

In fact, it's delicious! Delicious.com is like bookmarks on your browser, but infinitely better. First of all, it's web-based, so you can access it from any computer just by signing in. (I know, I know, another login.... but if your computer is secure, you can opt to stay signed in for 2 weeks!)

Also, instead of putting your bookmarks into folders that only categorize by one topic, you can tag each website with as many categories as you want! For example, you could tag Organizing Teacher under blog, organize, declutter, ideas, teacher, resource, and more!

I downloaded the plug-in for Mozilla Firefox for using delicious at the click of a button. Now, whenever I'm on a website I want to save, I just click on the tag icon (which is just to the left of the url box) and a new window pops up, all I have to do is pick some tags and hit save. I really like how they pull up a group of your previously used tags and a group of "everyone's" tags to suggest what to tag the site under, you can just click on some options, and/or type in new ones. It's really quite simple.

If you don't want to download the plug-in, you'll have to open a new tab or browser when you want to save a website, log in, cut and paste the url, and then input some tags. It's not difficult this way, but I like having the plug-in.

One more thing, you do have a privacy option, but I like how delicious has lists of the most popular sites, you might find some gems, just browsing there.

I'm sure there are other sites that offer similar services, but this is the one that I found first and use. (It's not broke, so I'm not fixing it.) Feel free to put some links in the comments to other tagging sites that you use.

Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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Shattered Ice

I received a great comment from Karime Diaz, and she wants some ice breaker ideas. She is working with 2-5 year-old children, teaching English to Spanish speakers.

Getting to know you...
Have students sit in a circle and go around having everyone answer one simple question each round. Questions that ask their name, favourite colour, number of siblings, what they had for breakfast, etc. Since Karime is teaching English, she can translate some of the answers and actually teach something during the game.

Name tags.
Have a piece of bristolboard (or similar sturdy paper) about the size of letter paper for each child. Have the students fold their page in half (smaller children will need help) and write their first name on it (oriented so the name tag will stand up and you can read their name). On the underneath of the paper have them draw to represent their favourite game in one corner, something exciting they did recently (What I did this summer...) in another corner, maybe their favourite animal, and their favourite food in the other corners. When this is done, the students can share what they drew on their name tags, and the name tags can be used until you get to know their names.

Yes, no, maybe...
Put three posters up on different walls of the room (or different areas) one will say 'Yes', one will say 'No', and the third will say 'Maybe'. You can also use smilies so they are :) :( :| (but not sideways). Explain that you will ask questions and the students are to move to the area of their answer (you may want to emphasize walk vs. run, or else make sure there is nothing in the way). Then ask a bunch of questions that have yes, no, or maybe answers. ie: I LOVE chocolate. My favourite colour is blue, I have two sisters (start to wonder about kids who answer maybe to that).

Two great sites I found are Kim's Korner and icebreakers.ws; many of these games may need to be simplified/modified for younger students.

Do YOU have any ice breaker ideas for Karime?

Please comment or send your questions to me at organizingteacher@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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