Home > Professional Development Channel > Professional Development Archives > Organization Tips Archive > Organization Tips Article

De-Clutter Students' Desks

If your students constantly complain about not having enough room in their desks, help them stay organized by keeping seldom-used texts on an easily-accessible shelf elsewhere in the classroom.

You can keep all like workbooks together and have student helpers pass out/collect them as needed. Or keep each child's workbooks together in one place (student #1's books all together, student #2, and so on.) so multiple children can quickly access the shelf and maintain responsibility for their own materials. Older students can keep their texts in a specified order as shown by referencing an index card on the shelf above (blue, purple, green, and then yellow), which makes the shelf look neater and makes materials easier to find. Provide lots of modeling for this system when first introducing it, and supervise book removal and re-shelving regularly in the beginning, have student helpers straighten the shelf every other week.

About the Author Angela Powell has been an educator for nine years. She worked for the first five years of her career in Washington, D.C., and currently teaches third grade in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Powell, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Art from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Western Maryland College, earned National Board Certification as an Early Childhood Generalist in 2006. She continues to maintain Ms. Powell’s Management Ideas for Teachers, a Web site she created in 2003, to share teaching techniques, behavior management strategies, and organizational tips that can help make teaching more efficient, effective, and enjoyable.

Article by Angela Powell
Education World®
Copyright © 2007 Education World