How to Become an Organized Preschool Teacher: Tips and Ideas

During the beginning of the school year, don't be overwhelmed - get organized. Start with yourself and your loves and then your teaching with follow these cues. Below are a few ideas for becoming an organized preschool teacher and include your individuality into your teaching style.

Keep Your Thoughts in a Book

Use a teacher's plan book to map out your monthly curriculum. Choose a theme for the month and divide it into weekly sub-themes. For example, if transportation is your monthly theme, your weekly themes may include:

Week one introduces the theme, "Transportation and How we Travel From Place to Place." During week two you can discuss how we travel on land - cars, trucks, trains, bus, and so on. For week three you can do a theme on water travel and how people move by using boats. The last week could be how to travel through the air.

Take an Inventory and Organize Your Teaching Area

Evaluate your daily schedule and check your classroom to see if the arrangement of your classroom fit's the times of your day. Think about these things: Is there an open space to conduct 'circle time' activities? Do you have a cozy corner for quiet reading? Are the tables and chairs out of the flow of traffic? Make sure your activities are near counter space and storage units. As you go around your classroom, eliminate unnecessary clutter and items that have been taking up space. A little room arrangement goes a long way to make your day flow smoothly.

Think About Your Teaching Style

Do you have passions in life? Do you love art? Music? Science? Literature? When you teach school you will use all of these subjects in your lessons, however, let your personal interests shine through in your teaching. For example, if it is art, hang up pictures in the room that will appeal to the children. Then as you focus on this picture do the following activities:

Math - Ask the children to count the trees, birds, flowers, people, etc. in the picture.

Science - Do the children know what time of the year the picture portrays? Ask them how they can tell.

Language Arts - Encourage the children to make up a story using the picture as the setting.

Art - Talk about techniques in the picture. Did the artist use paints or paper collage? Did the artist use many colors? Can you name all the colors?

Use your special interests and share these with your students. They will have richer experiences because of this.

Take an Overview of Your Week

Take a few moments at the end of the week to reflect, review and refine your lessons. As you reflect, think about how your week worked for you. What was successful and which activities would you change for the next time? Rate all the activities you did for their effectiveness in teaching and note any changes that you may change for the following week.

As you review this past week's theme, check your material list and plans for next week. Do you need to rearrange any activities? It's best to keep to your schedule, however if necessary flexibility is Ok.

Keep in mind the long-term goals and the immediate goals you have for your class. This is refining your work, so weed out any curriculum clutter that creeps in to take away from your planned goals. Expand on the good ideas by thinking about how these could be used in the months ahead.

As the teacher, take charge now to improve your days, weeks, and months. Advanced planning is the key to less stress and more teaching enjoyment for this year and years to come. Become an organized preschool teacher - it's a good thing!