Organization is good for the soul. I am genetically pre-determined to be a de-clutter fiend. It is essential to my very spirit that my surrounds are neat and tidy, with a place for everything and everything in its place. Of course, the fewer ‘everythings’ there are, the easier the job of clearing clutter is. This flies in the face of the average classroom, which is filled to overflowing with backpacks, sweatshirts, folders, texts, teacher’s manuals, charts, graphs, posters, science equipment, student work, art supplies, worksheets to be done, worksheets to be graded, worksheets to be posted…
You get the idea. Most teachers’ rooms look like segments of the A&E television show, Hoarders. Seriously, I get anxious just walking in the door. I have been placed in rooms where there are no surfaces untouched; every counter and desk and each wall from ceiling to floor covered with STUFF. On the floor, boxes and bags and crates and stacks of STUFF! On the teacher’s desk, months of ungraded papers, piles of tardy slips and attendances notes that should have been turned in, even half eaten lunches. STUFF!!
I can’t think straight with all that stuff in the way, and I figure that there’s a population of students that feel the same way. So my first task in any room I work in is to un-stuff the heck out of the space we will be working in. If the teacher is coming back, I box up everything and tuck it away. If I have inherited the room, the dumpster is my friend. I will stay for hours clearing and cleaning the classroom so that, when I am done, there will be space in which to think and breathe and be. Ahhhh.
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