KindergartenWorks: behind my teacher easel

Welcome to my office. Here is a sneak peek into a corner of it anyway. Do you think of your entire classroom as your office? I like to... because then I can flaunt {well, to just my own self really} that I have an executive sized space with large windows! Ha! I have two easels in my classroom, but I wanted to show you what lays behind the one I use the most for my language arts instruction. It has to serve four parts of our day. It holds writing charts on the front for interactive writing... and I use the white board surface all the time for our phonics and word work.

The back is organized using baskets and plastics {my first classroom love} in order to help me be able to grab things quickly. Now, as often as I use the baskets, I do find it hard to keep organized! It seems that when in the teaching moment, I'm not very good at putting random things away. I use a pen holder velcro-ed down to hold my pointers that we use during shared reading and phonics work and the white basket holds our read alouds.

I use pencil caddies to hold crayons, markers and other tools needed for modeling projects and the green mini-caddy (pictured in the back) holds expo markers and tools for use during shared reading to bring attention to focus patterns. I use the pink pencil caddy to organize any writing that I do to model writer's workshop. These photos were taken at the beginning of the school year, so obviously there is a lot more in there now...

Behind my easel was always wasted space. I used to have it butted up against the wall, but found that with my new classroom layout, I could find a use for the backside. We pull this green pocket chart out for shared reading (poetry) and the small table behind helps hold it into place. This pocket chart also holds big books or our writing tablets on it's backside since it comes with deep pockets on the back. Is there a reason I chose to switch out the colored bins that came with the easel? Honestly, I did it because the colors were too strong and primary for my aesthetic tastes. Plus, not even having a bin in the top rung allows me to easily store taller things and reach them while sitting in the rocking chair.

More on Teacher Organization

Organizing digital teacher files
Organizing teacher materials for the week and quarter
Organizing room layout and teacher space
Organizing a teacher planning binder
Organizing for a substitute teacher

Now do tell...What tips do you have for keeping things organized behind your easel? What do you love or hate about your easel? If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

- Leslie