Friday, January 7, 2011

Organizing all of our "Stuff"...Part II

So, you thought I had forgotten about part II, did you!?  Oh no, of course not!  Here's the story behind organizing all of our stuff...part II:

About the time I decided I needed to organize ALL of my books, I also happened upon this website: http://www.clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/ .  Needless to say, I went a bit crazy with the organizing!  I'm just being honest.  I WENT CRAZY!  I finally had to admit I had a real problem when I found myself printing out labels for my LABELS!  But, since there is no twelve step program for organizing gone overboard, I kept organizing and created a "teacher binder"! 

This just gives you an idea of how thick my "teacher binder" really is!
Crazy, I know!
The original idea was PURCHASED from the Clutter Free Classroom web site (I only adapted this for my preschool use).   I used the basic set of forms I purchased (VERY affordable) and then added and created the forms I needed for preschool use.


As early childhood educators we know that there are many routines that require procedures when multiple adults are working in the classroom.  In order to make sure everyone is on the same page and following routine procedures in a way that is appropriate for our program, I created a list of 24 general procedures for our classroom. 

While many of these are simply our general program procedures, I added some that I felt were important to address with any new teacher associate and for guest teachers to view when they are new to the classroom. Here are the 24 procedures I ended up writing out:

  1. Anecdotal Notes
  2. Attendance
  3. Bus
  4. Cod Red (lock down)
  5. Daily Notes
  6. Diapering
  7. Dismissal
  8. Face to Name (a school district form)
  9. Fire Drill
  10. Gentle Technique
  11. Gym
  12. Incident/Hurt Alert Forms
  13. Key words
  14. Meal Forms
  15. Outdoor Nature Classroom
  16. Red Alert
  17. Sanitizing Schedule
  18. Sensory Breaks
  19. Sign-in Sheets
  20. Small Groups
  21. Storm Drill
  22. Team Meetings
  23. Transition Out of Classroom
  24. Transition from gym or outdoors to classroom
This section of my "teacher binder" starts with a list of all of the procedures.  Behind this is a page or more as to how to correctly follow each procedure.  This gives me a very quick way to work with new teacher associates on how to handle specific circumstances.  Here's a quick example of one of the procedures I wrote:


                                 Anecdotal Notes

Sticky notes are located in the drawer near the door.

Small Group time, outdoor learning, lunch and center work are all good times to take anecdotal notes

Examples 8-9-10  At Sm. Groups Tommy said "choo, choo" and pushed the car on the carpet. (teacher initials)

Anecdotal notes need:  where or when this happened (small groups, lunch...etc.) what the child did, what the child said (if any) number of times child did this (if more than one)

Anecdotal notes should NOT have: any opinions (he liked to paint, he was fussy, she wanted to play) should NOT describe feelings (he felt left out, she was mad/sad/upset) 

Anecdotal notes should be kept short.  These are just a quick snapshot of what the child did and said.

Place the completed anecdotal note in the child's folder.  Try to figure out what section the anecdotal note would fall under.  If you are not able to fit it under a section, put the note on the back or on a blank sheet.


This binder not only holds the Procedures information, but just about all information a guest teacher would need when coming in to the classroom. Therefore, it's left on my desk each night in case I would need a guest teacher the following day!   I may have gone crazy organizing, but that new teacher associate or guest teacher may be thankful for all my crazy work! 


**This post is linked to Rainbows Within Reach classroom organization linkie!

photo of: Classroom Organization of Materials brought to you by RainbowsWithinReach

8 comments:

  1. That look like it weights 50 pounds!!

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  2. LOL! - have never weighed it, but it might be close to 50 pounds! It does hold lesson plans, info about the children, long range plans, resources, procedures, schedules etc. It just seems to keep growing as I add things! I think I need to stop soon :)

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  3. I would love to have a copy of your procedures. If there is anyway I could share something with you, I would be very willing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sheri- Hope you check back here! Feel free to e-mail me! I would be happy to e-mail the procedures I use!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your organization and love your blog! It was actually the first blog I started following when I started out in blog land. To show my admiration I wanted to give you the One Lovely Blog Award! Thanks for all the great posts for special ed!

    Allison
    Miss Allison's Class

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) oh- I just love to hear that someone is finding something useful in my crazy...sometimes obsessive organization!

      Delete
  6. Pam. Seriously. You deserve an award. I'm so glad that you've taken the time to share your approach and ideas. I'm also happy to have you linking them to my blog hop on all things organizational -- hopefully it will bring you some new readers. So deserving of additional views.

    Thanks again, Debbie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy to participate Debbie! Thanks for setting it up! I can always use more ideas for organizing :)

      Delete

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