Monday, February 25, 2013

MTSS Monday: Organization

Do you thrive on classroom chaos and find order in disorder?

Do you believe there is a place for everything and everything belongs in it's place?

I lean toward the "place for everything" mentality, especially at work.  During our last planning day, I spent 4 hours in my classroom closet getting organized (it was a disaster, I'd like to blame it on my students but they don't go in there).  I do this every 2 years or so.  Stuff piles up and I need to change the way I store it so that I can find it/get rid of things I don't use anymore (I hate clutter!).

Since I've found, created, and bought (thanks Pinterest and TPT!) multiple reading and math activities for almost every skill I teach, it made sense to put them all in Ziploc bags and group them into magazine holders.  I've been collecting the wonderful array of magazine holders in each picture from the Tar-jay dollar spot :).

Reading activities
Math activities
As you can see I labeled the front of each box and grouped my games and activities according to the labels.

This has made MTSS (formerly RTI) a lot simpler for me.  Games and activities are easy to find and already bagged and prepared to go into each groups bucket.  It literally cut my planning/prep time in half.

Tier 1-enrichment, Tier 1-practice, and Tier 2-remediation buckets containing MTSS activities.
Beyond MTSS, it's made literacy and math centers a breeze as well.  I might be married to this plan for more than 2 years (I hope)!  It took me a while to find, print, laminate, cut out, and prepare all of these activities but it was time well spent.

My go-to places to find new games and activities are:





My questions for you are:

*How do you stay organized?

*Where do you find your games and activities?

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4 comments:

  1. Mrs. SaoudFebruary 25, 2013 at 6:25 PM

    I'd love to do a better job at organization of my games. I've got every other inch of the classroom covered. I really like how you are able to pick and pull games easily.

    TpT is my go to for games and activities! Kathy Law has some amazing, ready to go games! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kathy-Law

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  2. Miss DanielleFebruary 25, 2013 at 10:50 PM

    I love your organisation!!! Mine is all over the dining table, coffee table and computer room 'work table'. My poor husband had to buy another dinner table as our formal table was so cluttered.
    My mission this year, is to get ORGANISED. I am currently attempting to group my activities by 'theme' and am storing my books that correlate in with them.
    I think I am now going to go with the magazine holders. Thanks for the tip. Time to clear some much needed spcae on my bookshelves :)
    Great post and I am off to 'stalk' your other posts. I think that I might become your newest follower :)

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  3. Kaitlin EdmundsMarch 16, 2013 at 4:00 PM

    Love the way your resources are organized in your magazine boxes! Awesome! :)
    Kaitlin E.
    http://kandclovegrade3.blogspot.ca/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jessica EhlingerMarch 18, 2013 at 2:28 PM

    Thank you Kaitlin and Miss Danielle! It took a while and I'm still adding and reorganizing them as my resources go but it's definitely been worth it!

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