Tricks of the Trade Thursdays: Teacher Desk Organization

Time-saving tips for organizing your teacher desk!

This week’s topic is…

How do you organize your desk? Do you even still have a desk?

Make it neat, clean, and inviting:

I didn’t sit at my desk very often during the day, but when I did, I would hold one-on-one conferences there. I worked out a schedule and had a chair and spare desk pulled against my desk so a student could come to talk, go over work, etc.

We completed a fun puzzle-building activity at the beginning of the year. Each student then decorated a puzzle piece and I displayed this on the wall behind my desk

It was a good reminder for the students to treat each other as “important pieces in the puzzle” of our class. I would often ask them, “Were you treating them like an important puzzle piece when you said that comment?” It also reminded me to pray for each of my students by name each day.

The front of my dinosaur of a desk was ugly. I mean really ugly.
So I decorated it with cute “bookshelf” posters 🙂

I also have this poster hanging behind my desk:

Love it!

Keep Your Drawers Organized

Tackle boxes and cutlery organizers make for great organizers and help keep supplies organized. I got one of these at the Dollar store and it has worked wonders!

My teaching partner, Rosie, used one of these awesome bolt and screw organizers to store her supplies. Christy from “Home Celebration” also made a cute one:

Storing Teacher Resources:

Last summer I made the switch from file folders to binders…and it’s been WONDERFUL! But binders do take up more space than manilla folders, so I needed a new place to store all of my paper resources. So I went to Target and bought cute turquoise plastic crates and stacked them on top of one another for a make-shift bookcase. It worked perfectly – and it’s so easy to store over the summer!

This was a bookshelf I had behind my desk
that held other teacher resources:

It’s important to know what you have. I suggest having a list of teacher resource books you’ve bought – because if you don’t remember you have it, you won’t use it. And you might, like someone I know well…ahem…buy a book you already own because you didn’t keep track 🙂

Organizing Copies

I like to plan ahead and make all of my copies for the next week at once. Now, I’m not always completely planned and organized to do this each week, but it really cuts down on wasted time and paper. I liked to make my copies for the following week each Thursday (Fridays were busy days in the copy room). By making them early, I’m guaranteed that I’m staying on top of my planning, that I’ll have what I need when I need it (nothing stinks like the feeling of needing someone copied for that day and their is a line at the copier…or the copier breaks…etc.)

This handy-dandy hanging folder organizer is
on the bookshelf behind my desk:

Everything is copied, organized, and paper-clipped together. Each afternoon, I would look through the next day’s folder to make sure my copies were made. I would stand up the homework that needed to be sorted into the students’ mailboxes and leave the classwork laying down. I would put it order of subject, so I could just reach in and grab the worksheets/activities for the current hour. This cut down on stacks of papers piling up on my desk.

I would also stick picture books or even baggies with task cards in the folder so I wouldn’t have to search for the materials I had planned for that day.

~OR~

You could also organize your copies by subject:

I like how in this Lakeshore organizer, you can fit books or a binder underneath.

Ideas for Next Year:

craft pegboard for behind teacher's desk

This is ADORABLE! I am SO going to create this for behind my desk – it’s a pegboard that holds supplies. I could also use one in my craft room (which I’m so excited to set up once we’re in SEATTLE!!!!)

This cute blogger has TONS of great set-up/storage/organization ideas: