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When I first started teaching years ago, my organizational
skills were so poor that I probably spent as much time trying to find things as
I spent preparing lessons. When I cleaned my desk, a rare event, I simply raked
all of the stacks of papers off my desk and into a filing cabinet drawer, any
filing cabinet drawer, because one drawer was just as good as any another. When
I filled up one filing cabinet, I asked for another one. Since I was so
disorganized, I never threw away anything because I was so afraid that one day
I might need it. I take that back. When I ran across a stack of ungraded homework
papers that were dated over 2 months before, I tossed them.
I lived amidst clutter in those days: ungraded papers,
graded papers not yet recorded, make-up work, stacks of handouts distributed
weeks before, phone notes (We didn’t have email in those days.), lesson plans, parent
notes, homework, forms to be completed,
forms half completed, forms due weeks before, paycheck stubs, staff development
forms, homeroom forms, attendance forms, forms, forms, forms.
When I returned graded papers to students, inevitably a
student would chime, “Where’s my paper?” and I would have to give the student
credit for the assignment because I knew I had lost papers on my desk, in the
stack of papers on my chair, in my car, or on my desk at home. Sometimes I
suspected that kids had never turned in the work in the first place, but who
was I to challenge them since I never could find all my papers?
I lived amidst clutter.
As much as I hate to admit it today, I truly had no idea how
to organize anything, and I actually believed that I was just fine in my
disorganized state. Besides, creative minds always struggle with organization,
right? I wasn’t disorganized; I was just creative, I often claimed in a feeble
attempt to turn a weakness into an attribute.
Besides, I worked long, long hours, and I didn’t have time
to organize.
It wasn’t until my seventh year as a classroom teacher when
I transferred from a middle school to a high school and had the chance to start
over in a new classroom that I learned to organize myself. As I became
organized, I realized that I didn’t have to work as many hours.
I was happier and more productive.
More students turned in their work on time, and fewer
claimed that I had lost their work.
I no longer worried over all those forms I couldn’t find or
complete on time.
If I had the chance to design a new required course that
teachers would have to complete before achieving certification, I would call it
Teacher Organization 101. I am convinced that organized teachers are happier,
more productive, and more successful.
Since I just started this blog, I have no idea who will read
it and whether or not they might need organizational tips as I did when I first
started teaching, but part of what determines the topics I include on this blog
are tips, suggestions, and information that I wish someone would have shared
with me years ago, and I desperately needed organizational help. Who could
provide better advice to disorganized teachers than a reformed clutterer? (Yes,
I know “clutterer” is not a real word, but it fits my previous state of
disorder.)Today I am an extremely organized person, proof that reform is
possible.
I will entitle future blogs that deal with organization “Teacher Organization 101.” If you need
help with organization or want to learn new tips, I hope you will find these posts
useful. In fact, I hope you will
actually comment on these posts and give me topics to address.
If you have mastered organization, you’ll know that these
posts may not be useful for you.
Tomorrow let’s tackle the clutter on a teacher’s desk!
