Classroom Organization Part 2 {1000 Likes Celebration Day 2}

Day 2 of 1000 Likes Celebration Week!! Thank you so much for your love and support throughout this blogging adventure and this week!  I hope you're enjoying your "SWEET" treats this week!!   Thanks to Kristine from Speak Listen Play for writing a post today about classroom organization! 

Yesterday's winner is: Deidre E.  You will be emailed by the end of the week! Congrats! 

I first want to congratulate Home Sweet Speech Room on 1,000 Facebook Likes! What a HUGE accomplishment! Our SLP online community rocks and we are proud to be apart of it!

Let's talk about organization. I know speechies tend to be type A, OCD and I am no different. Am I the only one who is always looking for the most efficient ways to organize and set-up my classroom? I love looking inside other SLP's offices or classrooms! Here is a peak at mine:

I am blessed and have a huge classroom! I don't necessarily have a theme, but I love bright colors and polka dots. This past year I hung lanterns and the kids have really enjoyed them. My biggest tip is to LABEL everything. If you look closely at the pictures, you will be able to see I have labels everywhere.

 
Along the counter, I store language games/materials by different goals we target in therapy (following directions, sequencing, categories, verbs, pronouns, etc). The file folder organizer stores articulation games by month/season. I love being able to quickly grab materials for therapy. I also find that by keeping things out in the open, I don't forget to use materials I have printed/laminated.

The vanilla folders in the back are sorted by sound and contain homework for students. This allows me to be able to quickly grab individual homework for kiddos when I have no planned ahead.

Check out my blue homework box. I keep student's completed homework in here. Sometimes it is nice to share with parents at IEPs or conferences how much (or how little) is returned. The green bin contains pens, pencils, notepads, etc. The pink bin stores extra sticker charts and stickers as well as extra homework folders for new students. Dry erase markers and boards are kept in the blue bin. The orange bin has all the articulation games for the previous months (I have too many to store in one spot!).

I love the shelves! I am actually in the process of making curtains for them. The shelves store all of the game pieces, oral motor tools, articulation cards and fun decks. On top of the shelves, you can see master artic binders, my attendance / goals book, and common core vocab binders. The master articulation binders were put together by my speech department as one of our professional goals. These allow me to make copies of the sounds I need without going through all my workbooks/cds. In the stacked 3 black trays, I keep extra attendance sheets and data forms as well as homework for the current week.

As I take attendance, we do a quick 3-5 minute phonemic awareness activity. This can be anything from initial sound fluency, rhyming, or sounding out words. I call this time "Sound Factory". It is meant to keep the student's engaged while I am prepping for therapy. It also helps me know how the students are coming along with these skills that can be affected by speech and language disorders (I work with Kindergarteners).

I'm a little embarrassed to show you my desk.. things can get messy here despite my efforts to keep things organized! My desk is where I keep student files and current evals (and anything else I throw on it). On top of the file cabinet behind me I keep all the special education forms, screening/eval forms, the screening binder. Make sure you highlight MASTER on all of your originals. There is nothing worse than using your last copy.

Inside the filing cabinet, I store therapy materials by themes/goals, parent resources, and a few random stuff. Things that I do not have time to get to goes in the colored boxes (labeled:) - things like filing, copying, laminating. This helps me stay a little more organized.

The first picture is where I keep all my visual aide stuff (pecs books, velcro, pictures, bulletin board sets, posters I've made, decorations). The second picture is of the cupboards behind my desk. In here I keep preschool toys that I do not use often, graduate school info, and games.

The cool down spot is for any friend who may need some time to think about their choices or calm down. There is a timer the student can set (this gives the student more control and helps them learn responsibility/ownership of their coices) and they can return to our activity when they are ready. The bookshelf holds various books, workbooks, and binders. I have supervised many students and I recommend typing up a master inventory list and numbering them. That way when people borrow materials it is much easier to keep track of what you are missing.

I have a few more shelves in the next picture, but I wanted to show you the charts along the white board. I loved the idea from Heard In Speech and so do my students! They color in their progress after each session - this is a great visual to help them understand how they are doing in therapy.

There is my speech room! Thanks for checking it out! How do you organize/set-up? I hope you have found the pictures/tips helpful! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

About the author
Kristine is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist that works in the schools in Grand Rapids, MI and coauthor of Speak Listen Play. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and TeachersPayTeachers.

Now for a giveaway--organization related!  Natalie Snyders generously donated a copy of her SLP Binder Organizer for one of you to win!! Check out more details here and enter the rafflecopter below for a chance! 

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