Fully Responsible, Organized, and Growing Students

Okay, so if you've been following my blog for a while, or if you have seen my class blog you know that everything I do is frog themed. I am a huge stickler for organization and things done just so. So, I thought it was appropriate for FROGS to stand for Fully Responsible, Organized, and Growing Students. Why am I such a freak about neatness and organization? Because if a student is organized and neat, their brains are much more capable of organizing information and thoughts in school. There are many ways that I teach organization and neatness in order for my students to become more responsible and grow throughout the year.

One of these things is teaching the importance of an organized desk! You would not believe some of the desks I have seen! Oh my goodness! I mean nastiness! Ha! My students do not come to me with any idea of what "neat" or "organized" means. So, in order to make sure everyone has a standard for a "clean desk" I made a diagram to show them. I got this idea from a website I found this summer.


Throughout the week, I already have students do a desk check...or I will do one. The class will not leave the room until all desks have passed inspection. By doing this enough times, the students know what I expect, and they will straighten throughout the day so that it never gets out of control. With this diagram to remind them, there will be no excuses!

Another way I work to keep them organized is our FROGS Books. I wrote about these last summer here. This has been a huge hit with students, parents, and other teachers. At the beginning of the year, I give each student a 1-in. binder with a clear pocket for a cute cover. I also laminate construction paper with preprinted labels to use as dividers. This is a wonderful strategy for organizing notes, work, and anything else that suits your students. If you want more ideas for these books, go to this link. The students get SO excited when I pass the materials out to put this together. They really feel "grown-up" with such a cute, colorful binder all their own. For the most part, they take very good care of them.

Sample FROGS Book

This year, I have five dividers: Reading, Language, Vocabulary, Math, Science/Social Studies. Vocabulary is the one new divider for this year. One of our weaknesses as a school is vocabulary. I have chosen to use Wordly Wise this year to increase vocabulary. So, our words and definitions each week will be stored in the Vocabulary section of our FROGS Books.

The dividers

I also found some fantastic reference stickers at Dollar Tree. They come in a sticker book. There are 12 large stickers per book. I bought a multiplication table book, place value reference, and parts of speech reference sticker book. I put these stickers on the backs of these dividers for the students to use as reference when needed.

Language divider front and back

Parts of Speech sticker

Math divider front and back

Place Value and Multiplication stickers

So, YES. I am the teacher that spends all her money on school supplies so that she has to eat Pokemon mac and cheese for lunch! But, I feel so much better (and more organized myself!) when the students come in. Everyone has a uniform way of organizing. Organization = Better Students and Teaching!