Before Starting My Day..

I find that being organized in an art room every day is crucial!  This year instead of a six day color rotation we have now moved up to a SEVEN day color rotation (.. yikes, you read that right).  With that being said, I have a 45 minute Planning period at the very beginning of my day, which is great (unless of course we are pulled into data meetings or helping with assembly crowd control)!  

Moving to a seven day rotation has its challenges and with it comes my semi-obsession for staying organized. You know the drill as an Art teacher.. six projects (at least) going on at once in your room, all the while labeling/hanging artwork, working on side projects, putting in your supply orders, general housekeeping, favors for coworkers, and probably twenty others things.. am I right?!  Below are some of my daily tricks that help me stay organized; 

1) Dawn vs. Dust:  Come early or stay late every once in a while.  Not every day, of course, but make a point of doing some preparations for the following day before you head home.. or beat the carpool line and come in 20 minutes earlier than usual.  It feels A-mazing to get ahead and have materials ready and accessible!  Like I said, I have Planning at the beginning of the day so this is even better for extra prep for my day ahead.

2) Color Coordinating:  As you will see under my Organization tab at the top of the page, I do lots of organizing with the ROYGBV color spectrum (grade level projects, artwork labels, storage boxes, binder of class rosters, etc).  This year since we are on a seven day rotation, so we've added ole Indigo back into ROYGBIV.  

When it's Red Day, for example, I flip to that section of my binder and pull out the red box of student artwork.  At the end of the day I make sure to pack up student works-in-progress in the Red box and label any hallway worthy art with a Red label!  Easy, breezy.  Onto Orange Day..

3) Hello White Board:  Splitting the white board into grade levels has made a big difference in the overall dynamic of my room over the last few years.  Students know where to look at the start of each class and I make sure to include some (or all of) their 'I Can' statements, project examples, and steps along the way.  It is also helpful for visitors and the administration who may want to know what students are up to in my classroom.

4) Desk Patrol:  I try to limit what is on my desk.  If I want to get something done that day, I make a point of putting it on a sticky or putting the actual document on my desk.. though I confess that some days I play procrastinator and pretend like I don't see it.