How do you organize your classroom? Is it messy or organized? If you don’t have a good system, then you might find that your classroom begins to become messy and disorganized, which can ultimately impact learning.
This can cause them to miss assignments or even fail tests.
Still, keeping your classroom organized can often be a little easier said than done, which is why we are going to be providing you with a helping hand.
In this article, we are going to be sharing with you some inspiration and tips to ensure that your classroom is optimized for learning and completely organized.
If you’re looking at how to organize your classroom, one of the first things you need to think about is using the walls efficiently. You should use the walls to display posters, pictures, and other items that will help you teach your lessons.
You could even hang important announcements and notices in one area of your classroom so that your students are always aware of upcoming events, homework, quizzes, and more.
2. Create A Visual Schedule
This ties in closely to the point above! Another great idea when thinking about classroom organization is creating a visual schedule. It’s not just something that you create on paper; instead, you can actually make it part of your classroom design.
3. Make Sure Everything Has Its Own Designated Spot
Another great tip when it comes to classroom organization is making sure everything has its own specific area. For example, if you have a bulletin board, make sure that each item has its own spot on it so that no one becomes confused.
4. Hang A Bulletin Board
When it comes to classroom organization, one of the best ways that you can ensure that your classroom will stay organized is to install a bulletin board. This allows you to keep important documents clear and visible for everyone to see.
As a side note, if you have a lot of bulletin boards, you may want to invest in hanging racks so that you can easily access all of your information.
5. Organize Your Bookshelves
When it comes to classroom organization ideas, another great idea is to organize your bookshelves.
You can either organize by subject or alphabetically. Either way, you’ll want to make sure that your shelves are neat and tidy.
When you do this, you end up having a bunch of random items scattered around the room. Instead, you should group similar items together to ensure everything stays organized.
7. Have A Designated Storage Area
One of the easiest ways to keep your classroom organized is to have a designated storage area. This means that you can store any items that you may need throughout the day in one space.
8. Put Away Your Stuff At Night
Another great classroom organization idea is putting away your stuff at night. If you leave your desk messy, then you might find yourself getting distracted and forgetting what you were doing.
By putting away your stuff at the end of the day, you’ll avoid these problems.
9. Clear Off Your Desk Every Morning
The last thing you should do when it comes to classroom organizing is clear off your desk every morning. If you don’t clear off your desk, then you could easily forget where you put down your materials or even begin to build clutter which will only distract you and your students.
10. Label Your Folders
Another great classroom organization tip is labeling your folders. When you label your folders, you’ll know exactly what they contain.
This could be anything from important files regarding your student’s personal information, school field day consent forms, class schedules, worksheets, and plenty more!
11. Use Binders
Binders are a great tool to help you manage your paperwork and an absolute must if you are a teacher! They allow you to store papers neatly without taking up too much space.
Many teachers like to use binders to store important information, including class templates, worksheets, and much more.
If you wanted, you could even provide your students with their very own binders to keep all of their work organized and together!
12. Use Hanging Files
Hanging files are also a great organizational tool for storing paperwork. This will help to prevent documents from becoming mixed together, and can even be used to store your student’s work individually so that you do not accidentally mix them up with each other.
14. Hang A Calendar
A calendar is a great way to stay organized. You can use a wall calendar or even create your very own calendar with you and your students to make it even more personalized.
The calendar will allow you to mark important events relevant to you and your class and will help to make sure that everyone is aware of what is happening.
15. Use Color Coding
Color coding is another great way to organize your classroom. For example, color coding can be used to code individual items and will allow you to quickly identify which supplies belong to which student.
This will also help to prevent any confusion, which means that you will be able to better maintain optimum productivity levels while you are in class.
16. Create A Schedule
You should always create a schedule if you’re looking for more classroom organization tips. A schedule will help you remember what needs to be done each day. Why don’t you create a schedule with your students at the start of each week?
17. Use A Whiteboard
Whiteboards are a great way to display information and reminders. You can write notes on the board or draw pictures to help you remember things.
You could even consider providing your students with a dedicated whiteboard that they will all be able to use to write down important reminders.
18. Organize Your Supplies
Supplies are something that you’ll never run out of as a teacher! So, to ensure that you always have enough supplies, you should organize them in a systematic manner.
Why don’t you consider having a dedicated storage area in your classroom? That way, you will be able to keep all of your supplies stored neatly in one area in order to prevent mess.
Plus, having a dedicated space for supplies will also help to keep your classroom organized, as your students will know exactly where the supplies are kept.
19. Keep Track Of Your Class Schedule
Keeping track of your work is another way to maintain order in your classroom. By ensuring that you are aware of the class timetable, you will be able to help ensure that your classes run smoothly and that everyone is aware of what they need to be focusing on.
This particular tip that we are sharing will help to maintain the smooth running of class each day, and help to ensure that both you and your students are able to stay organized with the topics that you are teaching.
21. Use Bins
While this point should certainly go without saying, using bins is a very effective way to keep your classroom organized and prevent any necessary mess.
Alongside bins for trash, you could also consider including some storage bins, which are perfect for holding items such as books, art projects, and crafts.
22. Use Dividers
Dividers are an excellent way to keep your classroom neat and tidy. They are especially useful when you want to separate different subjects into their own sections.
23. Have a Designated Spot for Homework
One of the most common mistakes made by teachers is not having a dedicated spot for returning homework.
To make sure that your student’s homework does not become lost or mixed up with other documents, why not make sure that you designate a specific place for your students’ homework?
This way, you won’t have to worry about losing it or misplacing it. It will also help you to keep track of who is handing in their homework on time…and who isn’t!
24. Create Lesson Plans!
A lesson plan is a fantastic way to ensure that everything runs smoothly during the course of a school year.
It allows you to prepare ahead of time so that you can focus on other areas of your life while still being prepared for any unexpected events that may occur.
Final Thoughts
You’ve made it to the end! We hope that these tips have helped you to become more organized and given you some inspiration for how you can make your classroom more organized for both you and your students.
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
