If you’ve read my blog post, 5 Things to Do Before the End of the Year, you know one of my suggested tips is to PURGE your old stuff around your classroom. Today I’m going to give you 5 reasons why you should start this PURGE in March–not June!
1. The stuff is most likely outdated! Look at the standards you teach now. Some of the old resources you are hanging on to are no longer relevant! They are probably not rigorous enough, and are aligned to standards that have been completely overhauled and changed. Why are you hanging on to them?
2. School is still in session. If you purge now, you have 20-something little friends who can take stuff home with them to play school. You wouldn’t believe how happy an old out of date workbook would make some kids! When I was little my teacher gave me a bunch of stuff and I took it home and set up a whole classroom in my basement.
3. Are you considering a change next year? Possibly moving to a new school? Leaving teaching altogether? Or even moving classrooms within the same school? This is a great time to purge your old stuff and get organized. You don’t want to get so busy that you end up moving all of that junk with you!
4. You are going to have enough to do at the end of the year. You will be busy with report cards, cleaning up your room, storing materials, and finalizing everything. Once summer is close, you are going to be eager to head home and start your break. Don’t wait til then to purge–you may not feel like it!
5. I don’t know about you, but I feel great when I get rid of some stuff. I’m sort of the opposite of a hoarder. Too much stuff drives me crazy. I don’t suggest you throw away important things, but I think it is important that you let stuff go that is just not relevant anymore. And like I suggested in reason 2–if you do this while your students are still with you, they may want some of your stuff and it will bring them some joy!
Now you might say–Cassie, I’m busy. I’m getting ready for testing season. I don’t have time to go through my stuff. Listen–I’m not suggesting a day where you pull EVERYTHING out and go through it all in one sitting. No, just do a little bit each day. Open up a drawer in that giant filing cabinet. Pull a few things out and decide, keep, throw away, or regift to a little friend. If you do this a little bit each day–you will have it done by the end of the year. And you will feel GREAT! 🙂
And you can click here to learn the FIVE things I think you should get done before summer break!
Don’t forget to pin this for later! 🙂
