Organizing Student Work the Easy Way!

Organizing Student Work

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about organizing student work during my time as a teacher.  So, this week I am here to answer all of your questions.  Don’t be that teacher that has to climb over piles of papers just to get to her desk.  We all know there’s at least one in every school!

You can get and stay organized. 

So, wave goodbye to the struggle because after reading this post you will:

• Be able to teach students how to organize their desks
• Know what to do with supplies
• Have a plan for managing makeup work

 I promise to make it easy on you, so let’s get down to the basics!

Student Work in Desks

The first place to start is to get the students themselves organized.  Remember Pig-Pen from the Peanuts gang?  We’ve all had students that are a hot mess!

It is our job as teachers to provide a framework for organization, so all of our students don’t end up with the world’s messiest desks or table areas.

Students usually have 3 categories of things that belong inside their desks:

1. Books
2. Papers
3. Supplies

The books are easy to stack neatly on one side of the desk.  If your students have tables, I would place the books in chair pockets or in crates next to the table.  I absolutely love these chair pockets from Really Good Stuff.  I am not an affiliate…I just truly appreciate the quality and durability of these chair pockets.

The students’ papers should be contained in binders or folders.  When I use folders, I provide the students with a green folder and a red folder.  The green folder is the GO folder.  It goes home with any graded papers, from, or notes to parents.  The red folder is the STOP folder.  It stays in the desk for unfinished classwork.  If I am using binders, I simply make 2 sections in the binder.  I have lots of binder covers available in my TpT shop with a variety of themes.  You can check them out by clicking here.

There are never supposed to be any loose papers in the desk or chair pocket.  This is easy for kids to understand, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t try to stuff papers in any old place. (smile)  So, once a week they should be given time to clean out their desks and reorganize.

I like to leave little surprises for kids that are doing a good job at organizing student work.  It might be a new pencil or just a cute note.

Organizing Student Supplies

There are so many ways to organize student supplies.  I usually prefer to place a tote with shared supplies in the middle of the table or a group of desks. However, this could lead to germs spreading, so be sure to check your school’s protocols.  We don’t want our students getting sick!

A supply box or even a large Ziplock bag in the students’ desks can work too.  Just make sure to label everything with their names.  This would be a perfect job to give to a student teacher or a parent volunteer!

If your students are sharing materials, you will not need everything out at once.  I set out crates and have students drop their supplies into the corresponding crate.  One for glue, one for crayons, etc.

Speaking of crayons, it is important to have extra on hand.  You never know when an assignment will call for a certain color to be used, and all of a sudden everyone is scrambling for a gray crayon. It is so helpful to have small plastic drawer sets that can hold crayons sorted by color.  This eliminates any fighting over the needed color!

Collecting Student Work

Next on the list is organizing how and where students turn in their work.  This is an important procedure that should be covered during the first week of school.  Paper trays are a helpful way to collect work. I prefer just to have one tray that is for all of the student work. 

Pro tip: I also like to have a separate tray for students to turn in any paperwork from home.  You don’t want an important note from a parent or a check for school pictures to get lost in the shuffle.

Makeup Student Work

Do you have a plan for when students are absent?  My tried and true method is to place a make-up folder at the student’s seat.  Ask the child that sits next to the absent student to add any papers that are passed out to the make-up folder as the day goes on.  When the student comes back, the folder is ready to be brought home.  

To make the folder, I print a cover and laminate it. You can grab mine here.  I staple that cover to the front of the folder.  I usually print these in black and white to save my ink.  If you want to make it fun, just print it on colored paper!

If my student misses a test, I put the child’s name on a test and lay it on my desk or clip it to the board, so I don’t forget to administer it upon his/her return.

So stinking simple!

Reteaching and Student Work

Sometimes my students turn in work, and I realize they need reteaching.  I usually clip that student work together and pull a mini group to my table during morning work.  Once I have retaught the skill, then the papers can be returned to the students to place in their take-home folders.

Now that you are an organizational diva, you will never have a Pig-Pen-style classroom again!

If you are loving all these tips on organizing student work, but you need to work on your own space, head back to this post…Organize Your Teacher Desk in 7 Easy Steps.

The last post in this organization series will be tips on how to organize your personal life.  We all know being a teacher isn’t easy, and if things aren’t flowing well at home, you cannot be at your best! If you want to know when I hit the publish button, hop onto my email list here.

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