The one with time saver organization tips

I’m a solid type B (or C or D) teacher. It’s just not in me to be super organized. Knowing myself, I’ve found four simple systems that help me save time and stay a little more organized. Set these up at the beginning of the year and you’ll thank yourself later!

Four different ways to organize your classroom, whether you're type A or type B. Easy to implement today!

These birthday cups were a win! Students loved the candy treats and the books.

1. Birthday Cups: I’m the worst at remembering birthdays. I even had my birthday display right near my desk. Didn’t help. So I decided to make birthday cups. I saw this idea on Pinterest or Instagram (can’t remember where) and made my own. Basically, you buy one cup for each student and fill them with goodies at the beginning of the year. Then you have them ready to give out whenever a student’s birthday pops up. I include: smarties, Laffy Taffy, a tootsie pop, starbursts, and a coupon for a book from Scholastic. Scholastic has an amazing deal where teachers can buy birthday coupons for their students. I buy the coupons, but only give my students these certificates to fill out. That way, no one loses the code and I can put in their order for them.

My basket isn’t fancy, but it works fabulously!

2. Important Papers Basket: it’s the one basket where ALL papers get turned in. I introduce it on the very first day and hope by May that no one will be asking me where to turn something in (a girl can dream, right?). Personally, I like this system better than multiple bins because, inevitably, someone turns something into the wrong bin and it gets lost. I’d rather quickly sort or organize.

3. Numbers for Students: Game. Changer. Assign numbers in alphabetical order and then you can number everything! Textbooks, notebooks, novel sets, folders, papers to be turned in, extra supplies…This is very helpful when organizing papers because anyone can put the papers in order and tell you what numbers are missing, whether it’s another student, parent volunteer, or another teacher.

Piles of grading are so much easier to organize with student numbers.

4. Duct Tape Community Supplies: Any supplies that are out for students to borrow or use will inevitably go missing from your collection. They’ll drift into a student’s pencil case or desk by accident. How can you get them all back? Duct tape! I put duct tape on all of my community supplies and it helps me to get everything back (eventually!).

I’m a little obsessed with my dog, so the paw duct tape was perfect.

The duct tape I bought is no longer available on Amazon, but here’s a few other cute designs (affiliate links, so I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you).