Conquering the Clutter Chaos & Crossing the 100 Threshold!

           First I have to say, thank-you to my 100th and 101st followers. And to the 99 followers before that! I'm so glad to have you following my blog. If you are a follower, be sure to comment on my previous post to be entered into the giveaway of my "Frosty Friends" packet. You can check out the packet in my TpT store here.  If you’re not a follower, go back to that post, follow my blog, and comment to be entered!!!! Remember, I’ll pick a winner tomorrow night. My goal for 2013 is to s*p*a*r*k*l*e* in all that I do. Last week I was working to improve my planning. This week I am trying to

Conquer the Completed Work Chaos On my desk, sits a basket of papers the students hand in and it constantly looks like this This is where my students put EVERYTHING!  Morning work, notes from home, PTO papers, math papers, center papers, and the list goes on and on.  There are at least 100 papers in that baby right now.  It is such an annoying pest, staring at me all day long, showing me how much work I have to do!
I’ll be the first to admit that I do give my students a little more written work than some of my colleagues.  To hold them accountable, I do like to see and correct most of this work (another difference between my colleagues and I).  I believe that if I’m expecting them to do the work, I should take the time to look it over.  So instead of only correcting tests and other graded papers, I pretty much collect everything and I don’t plan on changing that any time soon.
So, what’s a girl to do about this cluttery mess on her desk?  Well, instead of one basket, I’m upgrading to several *LABELED* baskets.  I will have a basket for homework and other notes from home, a basket for reading, a basket for math, and a basket for centers.  That will make it easier for me to quickly find what I need and prioritize accordingly.  I’m sure it will take a little time for my students to adjust to this new way of handing their work in, but as with all we do, they will learn with practice.
Here are the cute labels I came up with

You can click on either picture to head to google docs for your free copy.  I left one label blank so you can use it as you choose.
I’m hoping this new way of organizing the many papers I get each day will help me this week.  I am going to try to correct all completed work before I leave my classroom each day.  I’ll pop back in later in the week to let you know how it’s going.
The font came from http://www.acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com  That girl has the best FREE fonts around.  Check her out!
For the labels, I used clip art from: