Organizational Woes

Last school year, I switched jobs in my building.  I went from being a 7th grade LA teacher to taking on the role of our school's literacy coach.  As part of the transition, I downsized from a full-size classroom to an office that doubles as our school's book room.  Once my bookshelves arrived, I organized our leveled books, my picture book collection, and the professional book collection in a way that I thought made sense.  I crammed all of the "But I might need this someday" stuff into the bookshelves and muddled through my first year.

This year, our assistant superintendent ordered me some more leveled texts, and I had to figure out how to make them fit.  I decided to do a complete overhaul of my office.  It's taken me weeks, and I'm still not finished.

The most frustrating part of this whole endeavor has been the MESS that I'm living in as I work my way through all of the STUFF that is taking up so much space.  Last year, I was afraid to get rid of anything, not knowing what I might need at any given time.  This year, I'm purging... getting rid of things that I'm pretty sure I'm not going to need, making digital files for the things that MIGHT come up.  I'm hoping that by the beginning of April I'll be working in a space that makes sense for me, the kids I work with in intervention small groups, and the teachers who come looking for resources.

Wish me luck.

Behind me you can see my newly organized leveled texts, put neatly into magazine files.  The other bookcases have yet to be tackled!