When the schedules are distributed, go through your plan book and write in the vacation days, regularly scheduled duties, such as bus, lunch and playground, and the birthdays of the children in your class as well as your friends. You will have a useable and convenient plan book that you may even enjoy using. 

Lesson 2. Make Yourself Comfortable
Don’t stop at tailoring your plan-book. Look around the room. This is going to be your home away from home. Make it comfortable for you. Bring in things that will make you feel more at home. Do you like to work on the sofa? Maybe you could pick up a love-seat from Salvation Army that would fit in the reading corner. The children might like it too. How about carpeting the reading corner? If you go to a carpet store and ask for discarded carpet samples, you will be able to make a  colorful carpet. Be sure to thank him on the behalf of the children in your school. Merchants are often very generous if they know that their donations will be used in school rather than for your own private use. Grocery stores often have colorful displays that will really brighten up a classroom. Go to the manager of the store and tell him that you are teaching and would like certain displays when he is finished with them. You may have to make signs to cover the brand names that they are advertising, but that is easy and the displays are very eye-catching.

Lesson 3. Get Your Files Organized
While organizing my room, one year, I discovered Pendiflex files. They came in many bright colors and I realized that this system had real possibilities in my classroom. The hanging files were easier to access and didn't slip down in the drawer. Not only were they more accessible but I could organize my materials by color.

And so I color-coded all my subjects. Whenever I needed a worksheet or activity in math, I would look in the red files, language in the green etc. Then I took it one step further. I bought colored file folders in colors to match the hanging files. I also got one of those metal dividers that are used to old file folders upright and put it in the bookcase behind my desk. Whenever I ran off a set of dittoes, I put them in an appropriately colored file folder and stood them up in the metal divider. No longer would I be looking through piles of dittoes while the children wait restlessly.

Lesson 4. Magazine Organization
I often bought subscriptions to teaching magazines that had worksheets in them and  saved them in magazine holders. I found, however, that I was spending far too much time looking for a specific magazine that had the worksheet I needed. I decided to use my color coding again.

First I copied the Table of Contents page of each magazine on a copy machine and punched holes to fit a 3 ring binder that I acquired for this purpose. Then with colored highlighter pens, I marked over each feature entry and page number with the appropriately colored pen. Now when I need some worksheets on multiplication or ideas for my latest science project, I just look in my notebook for the appropriate color. There I can quickly find the month and year of the magazine in which the information or worksheet appears.

Also, when I find a promising activity sheet in any subject area, I make an extra copy and file it in the appropriate hanging file. I found that plastic crates were a good place to keep hanging files since I did not have a lot of file cabinet space.

Lesson 5. Mailboxes
Mailboxes were a necessary part of my classroom. Each child had a mailbox with his/her number on it. When I first started this system, I collected half-gallon milk and juice containers, cut off the tops, stapled them together and numbered them. When I had finished assembling the boxes, I wrapped the whole thing in Con-tac paper. This constituted our classroom mailboxes. 

Another suggestion is to go to the closet section of a discount store and look for cardboard shoe files. They are not too expensive if you get them on sale. Some stores may even give them to you for a discount if you are using them for school. Be bold! Ask! In any case, try to get a tax-free number from your principal. You shouldn’t have to pay tax for something to be used exclusively for the school.

When notices were given to me to pass out to the children, I would have the "mail-person" put one notice in each mailbox. Corrected papers were put in the children’s mailbox, and this made it easy for children to assist in returning papers. It also made it a convenient place for the teacher to put a personal note or card when the occasion presented itself. The children checked their mailboxes first thing every morning. This helped them organize their day.

A Letter Home
Who doesn't like finding a personal letter in the mail? Think how pleasurable it must be when you're nine or ten! I liked to write a letter to the children in my class before school began. With the advent of computers, it takes little time and the children were excited to get a letter just for them from their teacher. It helped them come to school with a positive attitude and the parents were favorably impressed as well. Here is the copy of the letter I wrote.

                                                                                                               Date----