Progress not Perfection

The garage is clear of my teaching stuff, almost. My daughter decided to play with my letter tubs and I decided to leave all those teaching books that are full of various resources in a crate. You know those books you flip through and say this is full of great ideas, then you maybe do one of two and then the book live on the shelf forever. My goal is to go through one of these books a week and add the great ideas to my files. It feels so good to see the floor again. Now lets see how I did with my own advice.

#1 Too much stuff is worse than not enough (if you can't remember you have it or access it easily then you won't use it, BIG waste) Okay so I didn't get rid of many things :(
#2 One teacher's trash is someone else treasure, don't throw anything away without first offering it to other teachers or even students I did reassign somethings to use at home with my own daughter.
#3 If your not using it and someone else can let them, no need in things wasting away on a shelf when they could be benefiting children Okay so I didn't give anything away.
 #4 Reference the curriculum, know what you will be teaching, how does each item fit into that
This was the most useful in sorting my items. I could clearly see what I would definitely need.
#5 Know your students, some students need work above or below their current grade level, think about how each item fits into that I am going to a new school, so I don't know my students well enough to know how far outside their grade level they will need to work.
#6 Don't throw away too soon, if you love the item or are unsure of it's usefulness in your current position keep it, if you don't use it you can discard it at the end of the year or the beginning of the next. Keeping this in mind left me with a lot of stuff. I am at a new school and a new grade so I am not sure what I will need or use. So I will hold on to it for awhile.


The biggest challenge has been integrating the gift of a retired teacher's classroom contents into my own. I appreciated everything and priceless amount of resources for free  :). However that is a lot of stuff to find a home. This recent move pushed me to get it done. Here are a few things I have trouble doing away with: books, old worksheets, and math manipulatives. Next I will tell how all this stuff fits into my new room.