Smartly Organizing your Students for Success

One of the elements that surprised me most when I entered teaching many years ago was how much time had to be spent on teaching kids to be organized!  I grew up in a home where my mother was an amazing organizer.  I am still in awe at how she managed and organized our household of five children!

 Many students come to school either lacking organizational skills because they haven't been exposed to such an environment,  a parent tends to do "too much" for them, or the student just doesn't make organizing a priority.

To help organize a student's day many teachers put up a schedule or schedule cards.  Today, I was lucky enough to spend time in my classroom (all cleaned, floors waxed!) and I mainly worked on setting up my schedule board.

My calendar dates head my schedule board.  Since its my sister's birthday today I hung up the birthday cupcake above the number, snapped a picture and sent it to her. (She texted back that teachers shouldn't be at school in July and that I should go home and celebrate her birthday--she's a teacher too--who practically lives at school!)

My schedule cards stick with magnets to my whiteboard. After laminating and cutting them out I discovered I was missing my Social Studies/Science page--guess I need to get organized!  So I will need to reprint or search for them.

Each morning I write the students' assignments on the whiteboard after each schedule card.  When they arrive at school they copy down the assignments in their assignment notebooks.  Sometimes the assignments may change depending on how the day goes, but at least the students have a good start to organizing their day when they arrive in the morning. I check their assignment books once before lunch and at the end of the day to make sure they are completing this important organizational task.

My nautical theme schedule cards and calendar are available at my  TpT store.

What new things are you doing to help organize your students this year?

Amy