If you’re like me and teach all the things then you definitely have a lot of “inventory” in your classroom. It’s taken me well into my third year to figure out how to organize all of my stuff so that I have a more functional classroom, so today I am sharing how I organize all the things so that you hopefully don’t take as long as I did to get organized.
Binders
I have recently found out that binders work the best for me to organize papers that I give my students and worksheets that I use. In each binder I have tabs to help organize into smaller categories.
My music history binders are organized into units with each tab being labeled as tests and quizzes, unit long documents (mind maps, KWL charts, etc), then the tabs are labeled with general topics during the unit. I am using the dividers with pockets so that I don’t have to hole punch pages or bother with page protectors. It’s a super fast and easy system.
The binders that I keep for band and choir are organized in a few different ways. I have a binder called instrument basics where I keep master copies of the handout that feature care and assembly information for each instrument. I also have embouchure formation and major and minor scales for each instrument and rudiments for percussion.
Choir curriculum is mostly contained within the realm of music theory, so most of the handouts I use in choir are in the music theory binder. I keep pretests, midpoint quizzes, and summative tests in each tab as well as bell works, exit tickets, assignments, and guided notes. These will also get used by the band students, but I tend to follow the band book a little more closely and pull assignments from the music theory binders that will suit the band curriculum.
I also have a binder for things that are very specific to the band and the percussion sections. Again, these binders contain all tests and quizzes, notes, and assignments.
Ruler Boxes
I LOVE these Iris Ruler boxes for flashcard storage. When I was initially job hunting I thought I would be traveling between two school buildings because I had applied to a few jobs where that was a requirement and one job was very interested in my application. Alas, I am thankful that I only have to coral my stuff in one room. However, I do teach all the things, so I have A LOT of music flashcards.
These boxes are the perfect dimension for half page music flashcards. I have all my flashcards laminated and separated by time signature or rhythmic content. I only have one box of solfege flashcards right now, but I have some ideas how I can make a set of flashcards that is more suited to the needs of my students.
I haven’t been able to find these in a physical store, but I you can find them here on Amazon. You might have some luck at Michael’s or another craft store, but I don’t live close to either.
Crayon Boxes
I don’t actually have crayons in my classroom, but I do have things stored in crayon boxes. These little boxes were the perfect size for my solfege and notename dots that I bought from David Row. You can get these manipulative in his Tpt store here. If you have any other small manipulatives for then these would also be a great item to pick up!
Plastic Dressers
I literally walked around Walmart for ages with a set of mallets trying to find something that I could house all the mallets and drumsticks in for over an hour. I was hoping for something smaller or more compact, but I truly couldn’t beat these plastic dressers for mallet storage.
The wide ones are the best for anything that needs to be stored that’s a similar length to a drumstick or you could add a small section inside the drawer to store other items. I use the smaller dressers to store all the reeds my students will need for their instruments.
I don’t currently have pictures of this area of my room because it is a complete disaster. I keep all the reeds and stick behind my desk so that kids don’t and can’t just access them all willy nilly. But I do have these exact dressers that are linked here and here.
Hanging File Boxes
In my classroom I uses these awesome Sterilite hanging file boxes to keep extra copies of work around for absent students. I labeled hanging folders with numbers 1-31 for the days of the month and then I also labeled one folder with each month of the school year. With this system I am able to keep extra copies around for an entire month! At the end of the month I just place those copies in the folder of the previous month and we start fresh. In COVID times this has been very helpful, and it’s still helpful during cold and flu season. I wish I could say that this was an original idea, but I stole the idea to label the folders this way from Bridget Spackmen of the Lettered Classroom. She uses this idea to stay prepared well in advanced.
I keep one of these boxes for my general music class, and I have one for band and choir as well. The band and choir boxes have the same folders for the days of the month and the months of the year, but they also have folders for pieces that specific groups are performing. The band box also has separate folders for each instrument because I do have many instrument specific things that the kids need.
If one of my 7th grade choir students needs a copy of a piece we are performing they would look in one of the folders called “7th Grade Piece 1” or “7th Grade Piece 2.” 8th grade would do the same. If this same student was also missing on the 20th of the month they could check the box to see if there was an assignment given on the 20th.
A band kid that was absent could check on a specific date for any assignments, then check “8th Grade Band Piece 2” to see if a new piece was given, then also check the French Horn folder to see if the horn section was given anything instrument specific.
With enough coaching, you can get this system to become an automatic one that the students just check on to see if they’ve missed anything while they were out. Many of my students are still in the, “I noticed I have a bad grade. Am I missing any assignments?” boat. These boxes have helped me to pull their missing assignments SO. MUCH. FASTER!
Displaced Pedagogy 