behind my teacher easel, volume 2

Welcome to my office this year. Here is an updated sneak peek into a corner of it anyway. I like to think of  the entire classroom as my office. This is the update from last year when I used 2 instructional spaces with 2 different easels. Here is how I use and organize my teacher easel.

My teacher easel is a large white easel with a white board on the front and space for baskets underneath. It was taken apart by me since the yellow wire frames that held big books/charts on the large shelf just didn’t work for what I need to a regular basis to teach.

I removed the primary colored baskets that it came with and slid in white ones. These drawers don’t slide as easily, but I use them more for storage rather than daily access.

I like organizing the large shelf with containers to hold smaller pieces. This helps me stay organized and this system is an improvement on my system from last year. It works better for me to grab what I need and return it without chucking it. Plus, this is highly visible from the entrance of my room, so that helps me stay on my toes and keep it organized.

I use a magazine box {with a sturdy base} to hold read alouds. I clipped Target dollar spot square bins together to help create stability and to keep things from getting knocked off the shelf. I keep markers for using on chart paper, crayons for modeling, scissors, small pointers and sight word word-wall cards handy.

Having them within reach next to my rocking chair works out great. Where are the dry erase markers you ask? I keep those magnetized to the front of the board since I use those most often.

A utensil caddy from the Christmas Tree Shops holds larger pointers and keeps them under control. You can see that sometimes the ridiculous {like me} need an organizer within an organizer to make it function properly. Gotta figure out what works for you!

This is pretty much it. I don’t let anything else clutter back here other than I set a stack of student math journals here to get checked daily. This becomes like a standing work station when I quickly grade those math journals, since I have a marker handy and am ready to go.

See, I told you I kept my markers magnetized to the front. I usually store these things that stay on the board up high, since kinder materials don’t rest upon them that high. They stay out of the way.

Here is a tip about large writing charts. You can cut the bottom 5-6 inches off on a paper cutter and it will be much more user friendly and still be large enough to accomplish your writing. Don’t like to waste? Bind the bottom 5-6 inches into a sentence strip booklet. {Score}

My favorite addition to my teacher easel is the otherwise wasted space that I turned into functional space this year. Underneath I didn’t use the space wisely. This year, when I added white sterilite drawers for student binders, pencil boxes and writing materials under the end of a table (as seen in the far back left) then I gained an extra drawer from the tower.

I removed the top drawer from each of the six units, and the six leftover drawers became the anchor at the base of my easel. There are three drawers in front and three in back. I use the front ones to hold my class set of white boards, playdough and some big books. The three in the back store our poetry center materials. It also create a deep shelf for me to place my writing charts onto. They lay flat until needed. I love how it visually anchors the space, makes the space functional and also helps keeps the teacher easel from moving.

Want more? Click here for the previous installment: Vol. 1

What do you like keeping at hand behind 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.

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