Confessions From A Messy Teacher

I am not organized.

Nope, not at all.

I try to be and I try to be perceived that way, but it's just not who I am.

As a child I would let me room get crazy messy and then have an itch late at night to clean and reorganize it all. And I would. And then a few days later you would never know because it would be a mess again.

In graduate school I spent a huge chunk of my winter break creating an elaborate, organized binder for my lesson plans. That lasted a week. I was quickly back to my mess of a self and a desk.

During my first three years of teaching, I worked really hard at the beginning of the year to create a comfortable, inviting and safe place for my students. It was beautiful, bright and full of books. This is something I will continue to do every year of my teaching career. That beautiful, organized space, however doesn't stay organized. Inevitably, my desk turns into a disaster and supplies and papers get stuffed everywhere in an effort to quickly mask the mess. Just like I stuffed my clothes under the bed as a child, I stuff my school things anywhere they will fit. Usually I remember where I stuff them, but not always, unfortunately.

This summer I have completed two projects to help with my utter lack of organization:

1. I created a teacher toolbox that you've likely seen all over pinterest or instagram. I made a compartment for every supply I could think of. I am hopeful (though also realistic) that this will help.
My goal in creating this is to give everything a very specific spot so that when I have the urge to stuff, I can stuff it all where it goes.

2. I also jumped on the bandwagon and bought myself a happy planner. I am in no way going to keep my planner as adorably perfect as the ones I have seen all over the internet, but I am hoping it will help me stay on top of meeting notes, dates, plans, and my to-do lists.

Do I think these are the answers to my years of messy, unorganized living? No way! Will I still struggle with keeping my space cleaned this year? Absolutely!

You're probably ready this thinking, wow that TX Teacher Mama is a slob. How does she get things done? Or wow, that's embarrassing, why would she post this on the Internet for everyone to read?

I'm confessing this because it's my truth and I will bet it's the truth for loads of other teachers. It's so easy for us to compare ourselves and our teaching and our spaces to other teachers. It's so easy to see the pinterest perfect classrooms that look so spotless and clean and organized and say "I'm not a good teacher because my room doesn't look like that!"

Going into this year, I can promise the room won't be perfect. I hope that's okay.

To my fellow less-than-perfect and less-than-organized teachers, I see you! I know the struggle with not living up to what we see as the standard. Keep fighting the good fight.