Back to School for Teachers

Hello Teachers!

Can you relate to this?  Boxes upon boxes waiting to be unpacked into a new classroom?

My brave teacher friend asked for help from her tribe of girlfriends and we were only too happy to oblige.  Asking for help when faced with this much work is a good idea...Always.

I am so proud of my friend for asking...and receiving.

We got right to work.  School is starting in a few days people!

There were 2 rows of cabinets like these and unfortunately, partially filled with a lot of unorganized stuff that belonged to the school, including 6 cabinets filled with old textbooks.

Now, I found that ironic.  Many schools today have students using chromebooks and smartboards. Who uses textbooks anymore?  But I digress...we had to keep them.

There was some cleaning to be done; wiping out drawers and shelves.  We used old socks - BRILLIANT.

Discoveries were made, like this box full of goggles that aren't being used anymore.

Sorting rocks.  I.Kid.You.Not.  There were egg cartons like these, FILLED with hundreds of assorted rocks.

We all had jobs to do.

And problem-solving.  

There were posters.  A lot of posters!  They were in a very large laundry hamper, but that wasn't very attractive or appropriate for a classroom.

Since they were organized into plastic garbage bags by category, it made sense to keep them that way. There was one cabinet tall enough...and these 2 boxes just fit to hold most of them.  

I have some nice clear bags I intend to gift her because...who wants their beautiful posters kept in trash bags?

The coat closet!  The rest fit on top in a large box.  Phew! 

It was like a treasure trove unpacking the boxes.  

The samples this teacher friend has for the students are marvelous!

I just wanted to touch everything!  
So I did!

And I got to label!  Eeek, my favorite!  

Hmmm...my labels aren't very straight.  And what the heck is a psychrometer?  

Done is better than perfect in most organizing situations.

I love these metal label holders, they were on every cabinet door and drawer.  Get your own here.  I am imagining that these students will be able to put things away as well as my teacher friend being able to locate things easily and quickly.

We were done a few hours later, this is all that was left!  A couple of boxes of binders to be placed on a shelf.

And at the end, we found homes for everything in the boxes and all the things that the school said she had to keep.  AND there was empty storage leftover. When does that ever happen in a classroom?

The only thing left to do is to put away the socks when they're dry.

There is a tendency when moving into a new classroom, to just shove everything in drawers and cabinets and call it done in the hopes of getting organized someday.  Teachers will tell you from experience (there were 3 helping on this project), that someday never comes.

If you need help organizing your classroom, get in touch with me to set up a consultation and get a plan.  I promise I'll stick your labels on straight.

Leave a comment and guess what subject my teacher friend teaches.  

The winner gets a drink gift card from Caribou Coffee!