We recently filmed a funny exchange as three teachers reorganized a storage area. Carrie, the second-year teacher who volunteered to have her room decluttered, was resisting the plea from two veteran teachers to discard a very large box which was taking up a lot of space.

The box contained borders for bulletin boards marking every possible occasion or theme - shamrocks, Santas, fireworks, turkeys, circus clowns. Carrie explained, "I thought I could use those to change out the boards and dress them up all year - other teachers gave them to me and I picked up some from Goodwill." She then sheepishly admitted she never had changed the borders on her bulletin boards even once all year, and finally the box was tossed...or passed along to an unsuspecting new teacher or back to Goodwill. (It may be our profession's version of that one lone fruitcake that is gifted and regifted all through December.)

Why oh why do we save so many things we never use? I remember reading a story about the actress Glenn Close, who had a pair of size 2 jeans from her youth she saved for almost twenty years before finally throwing them away. I imagine this rich and famous actress dragging those tiny jeans all over the world. Surely if she ever got that thin again she could afford to buy a new pair!

The excess baggage we carry sometimes represents the gap between who we are, and the nagging sense of who we think we should be. If only we were the kind of teacher who faithfully changed the classroom bulletin borders at every holiday....if only we fit into the jeans we could wear twenty years ago. But would life really be that much better? A simple black border is actually better for many children when it comes to learning - it's less visual noise than a border that changes all the time. And Glenn Close has had an amazing career, no matter the size of her jeans.

Decluttering our classrooms late in the year is ultimately freeing, because it's sometimes about accepting who we are as teachers, colleagues, and learners - not who we think we should be. Filling the trashbags is a small step in letting go of some of those unrealistic notions of what it means to be a good educator.

This week we've got more on weeding, reorganizing, and rethinking our classroom spaces and schedules. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

***Free for All***

If your school is big on recycling (and what school isn't these days?), here's a great tip from Sonny Bechler at the NEA site "Works4Me." It's a simple schoolwide end-of-year recycling initiative that makes terrific use of leftover literacy materials:

Many students do not want to save their old school supplies such as crayons, markers, colored pencils, rulers, erasers, pencils, paper, and other items at the end of the year. In many cases, these items just get thrown out at home. Our school has (copier paper) boxes in each hallway that are clearly labeled for each item. The school weekly parent newsletter explains to the parents the options that are available to the students if they choose to participate. The last two days of school, the children may contribute to the supply boxes.

Usually the crayon, colored pencil, and marker boxes fill up quickly. We asked which teachers or staff members (art, resource, computer) need extra supplies and those requests were quickly filled. The surplus supplies were donated to area agencies and preschools. (We also chose the best supplies for needy students in our school.) Hope this sparks an idea for your school.

From the Choice Literacy archives, Franki Sibberson shows how she organizes a remarkable number of books and literacy materials in a small classroom space in this five-minute video room tour:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/203.cfm

Franki Sibberson will be leading two-day summer workshops for grades 3-6 teachers, literacy coaches, curriculum specialists on understanding "tween" readers and writers. If you are worried about the 4th grade slump in your school, "Literacy in Transition" can give you strategies for understanding intermediate learners:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/302.cfm

***For Members Only***

What a smart idea! Literacy coach Jennifer Jones is as busy as the rest of us at the end of the school year. Yet she finds time spent in a "scavenger hunt" of her planning book/calendar is essential for setting realistic goals and scheduling professional development priorities for next year. This is a planning and reflection activity you can easily bookmark and complete after kids and colleagues leave if you are scrambling now to close out the year:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/355.cfm

We continue our series on classroom organization and clean-up. Last week, The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) helped a new teacher begin to weed out books from her classroom library and brainstorm new tub categories. In this week's short video, Gail and Joan talk with an experienced teacher about how to create a numbering system for library tubs. Kelly already has a well-planned and kid-friendly library - but her students still sometimes struggle to find the books they want and put them back where they belong. This video introduces a simple numbering and "tub ownership" scheme that fosters more independence in students when it comes to organizing and maintaining the classroom library:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/356.cfm

If you missed last week's first time-lapse video on library reorganization, you can access it here:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/353.cfm

That's all for this week!