Teacher Supplies/Books

[Gray's Mommy]

I am a teacher and have taught for 15 years. I am not currently teaching & having the pleasure of staying home with my two youngest littles

Anyways, I am planning on sorting through all my teaching stash at the end of September. What suggestions do you have for organization?

I currently have my units in themed monthly containers (Aug = back to school, all about me, ice cream parlor Sept = fall, leaves, etc.) It just isn't quite working as well as I thought. I keep most of my teaching books and children's literature together too.

It is just too much!

[newbymom05]

I taught for 10 years and have a garage wall full of stuff. My only advice would be to have a master list of exactly what's in each box, and/or a itemized list for each box (ideally in a sheet protector) taped to each box. Oh, and how I wish I'd invested in plastic boxes. My paper ones are falling apart and probably full of critters.

You never know, though--I quit 6 yrs ago to raise our kids and now can't imagine ever returning to the classroom. I have so much good stuff that I can't possibly throw it away, yet it's taking up valuable storage real estate...it's a real dilemma.

ETA You might want to store stuff you might use as reference, or could use w/ your own children together or at least make it the most accessible.

[proudmomof4]

Originally Posted by Gray's Mommy

(...)
I currently have my units in themed monthly containers (Aug = back to school, all about me, ice cream parlor Sept = fall, leaves, etc.) It just isn't quite working as well as I thought. I keep most of my teaching books and children's literature together too.

It is just too much!

Why isn't it working? Maybe it would help to go through them month by month and toss what you ended up not really liking, not using etc.?

[goddessjulia]

keeping in mind that I've been purging hardcore all summer and I'm definitely still in that mode I would be asking myself, do I really need this stuff? even if I go back to work, will my materials be dated and not useful? can I at least donate/sell/recycle/toss enough to cut the volume in half?

I would separate out anything that I thought I would use with my own kids and put that in an accessible place in the house that isn't a not-using-this-now type of storage area (maybe bookshelves, craft area, etc). if you find you aren't willing to part with some or all of it, and it's only going to be in storage until some future time when you go back to work, plastic boxes with lids that snap on are a good idea to keep critters and water out, no matter where you're storing the boxes. but, if it's only going to be stored, I would very seriously consider why in the world should you burden yourself with the keeping of it!