Mrs. D's Corner

teaching from the heart, not the books.

Staying Organized in SPED { Color Coded Classroom }

Time to be honest. We deal with a lot of paperwork.

Yep, I said it. I let our secret out.

IEPs, FIEs, BIPs, progress monitoring, data collection on IEP goals and objectives… it all requires paperwork, and that’s just on a slow day.

Staying organized in the special ed classroom. How to have and utilize a color coded classroom to keep yourself organized. Classroom organization through color coding.

 This post may contain affiliate links.
Let’s be honest again. Our job can be difficult some days.
Take out creating and differentiating the curriculum for our students. Take out the all of the meetings we attend. Take out the daily responsibilities that include duties and contracted teacher hours (we don’t really know what those are anyway… it’s more of a guideline). Take out actually teaching too.
Now we can really talk.
Staying organized in the special ed classroom. How to have and utilize a color coded classroom to keep yourself organized. Classroom organization through color coding. Keep students organized in your classroom too. Blog Post at Mrs. D's Corner.
Behind our lesson plans, a loaded classroom library, and 5 minute lunch breaks, we spend hours upon hours organizing our classrooms. We do this, not only for ourselves, but for our students.
They need the organization just as much as we do, especially when the day begins spiraling out of control at 8AM after the morning announcements.
Insert your new best friend: a color coded classroom.

Supplies that will be helpful in implementing a color-coded classroom:

So now that I have shared with you my favorite classroom supplies for color-coding my classroom (which is a great beginner list and where I started), I want to take you inside of my classroom to show you how I organize things.

Let’s start with this video I did on how to stay organized and sane as a special education teacher, with tips on how to utilize a color coded classroom:

The teacher Heaven in the form of the color coded bin aisle at Lakeshore Learning.
Okay, now that you’ve watched the video, let me explain myself and where it all started. It all started over summer when I found a teacher’s Heaven… really… in the form of organized, color coded Heaven.
In the middle of my first school year teaching self-contained, I decided to color code my classroom. Better late than never.
But boy oh boy, did Lakeshore Learning ever turn into a classroom game changer for me. And then a year or so later, I amped up my color coding with bins from Really Good Stuff.
I use color coded bins, the size of a shoe box, for IEP work bins, work tasks and task boxes. They help students stay organized.

I’m not sure what made it *click* in my mind, but once I went color-coded… well I have yet to go back actually.

It was one of the biggest game changers in my classroom over the last year… if not the absolute biggest, most positive game changer.

Each student gets a color coded desk bin when they enter my color coded classroom.

Each of my students has a colored bin inside of their desk. It helps keep the insides of student desks organized.

We use our desks in the morning for calendar and for iPad time.

The color coded desk bin includes everything a child needs for iPad time, morning meeting, and calendar.

Inside of this bin, students house their headphones, iPad tray, and possibly a chewy. Inside of their desk, each student also has a pencil box of icons for their specials schedule.

On top of their desk is the schedule and on the front board we flip a chart that tells the student what day it is. Every morning, students change out their special and tell us where they are going.

Not only does it help students take control of their learning, but it helps us (teachers and paras) remember who goes where on what day and when.

In a color coded classroom you color code all the things. It's no different when it comes to student work folders.

While I do not use these often, each of my students has their own absent work folder.

Color coded absent work folders help me keep track of who needs to complete what work when a child or multiple students are out absent.

If a student is absent for more than one day, I will put important skill work they are missing inside of this folder for us to complete together when they come back.

Student color coded bins in the color coded classroom. Inside are a plethora of things, like progress monitoring rings, sight word envelopes, reading points, first then charts, and more.

Each of my students also has a shelf bin. Inside of this are their IEP Progress Monitoring Rings, a First Then board, sight word pockets, and other random supplies.

You can find the “Monday” sequence spelling (Days of the Week) activity in the Resource Library. There is also one for months of the year too.

In the color coded classroom, even the teacher bookshelf is color coded. It helps me stay organized.

Not only do my students have their own color-coded desk boxes, shelf bins, work spaces, IEP goal boxes, and iPad backgrounds… I keep each student’s progress data and information in a color-coded binder by my desk.

Not only does it help me visually (I mean, I can just grab a color and know it’s the correct student), but having these binders readily available helps me with impromptu, and even scheduled, meetings with parents or admin.

Inside of the parent contact binder are color coded tabs and dividers to help me stay organized when I speak to parents.

I wanted to show you a sneak peak inside of my [FREE] Parent Contact Binder too.

I laminate construction paper or cardstock to make my own parent contact log dividers.

To create color-coded sections inside of my PCL, I simply laminated pieces of cardstock… which you can laminate construction paper or Astrobrights paper too.

Each section of the color coded classroom parent contact log contains the same pages, with a spot for each parent interaction... whether that's phone, email, or in person.

Every time I talk to a parent, I log the information inside of this binder – or at least I try to remember to. Mostly for parent phone calls and parent meetings (since there is a record of email and ARD meetings).

This video shares a deeper look inside the Parent Contact Log and how I use it.

I know it seems super easy and like all you need to do is go buy colored bins… which is half the battle.

On the other hand, you have to implement the use of them in your classroom and teach your students their color.

I also have a specific name for each “bin,” which students need to learn for following directions (i.e., “go put that in your bin” versus “go put that in your box”).

 

How do organize “the mess” in your classroom?

 

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Comments

  4. Nicole Herring says

    I would love to hear about your progress monitoring rings as well. I teach middle school life skills..and also like to be crazy organized with colors. I don't have the space currently to be so organized but hopefully in years to come I will have more space.

    Reply

    • Stephanie says

      I bought a few at random places (like Target, WalMart, and office supply stores), and then finished my set off using Amazon. It took me forever to find the orange one!

      Reply

  7. Kim says

    I LOVE this idea..however I have 10-13 kids regularly so I think finding colors for each kid would be hard. Any suggestions?

    Reply

    • Stephanie says

      ReallyGoodStuff.com has bins in 12 different colors, and then they have special sets with more colors. You could always use that option. For me, I double up on colors and then label bins with students’ names, that way there is never any confusion 🙂

      Reply

  8. Brenna Smedsrud says

    You are a genius!! I love your ideas. I’m going to use your progress monitoring rings. I’m so glad teachers like you take the time to make these blogs haha Is there a certain way you organize student work for the week?

    Reply

  11. Crystal says

    Thank you so much for this! I really appreciated your examples.
    I am trying to be more organized this year (and yes my desk is a total disaster too!) and color coding is the route I am trying.
    The video and explanations are really helpful!

    Thank you so much!!!

    Reply

  12. Celeste says

    Thanks so much for sharing your God-given gifts. I made my first purchase today. I’m sure it won’t be the last lol. So I’m wondering if each student has everything in the same color (ex. orange binder, folders, notebooks etc.?). Please advise. Thanks.

    Reply

  13. Heather Winter says

    Love the idea of your parent contact binders. Do you have a link to those (PCL and parent contact binder), it appears to be broken. Thanks

    Reply

  15. Andrea Shervette says

    Where did you get the different binders. My classroom is color-coded too. Each student has their own color. Their binder, water bottle, cubbie, chromebook etc.. is all color coded. But I really like the the binders in your picture.

    Reply

  16. mitzi says

    hi link for progress rings says not available I am also interested in these I have just been keeping a sheet of paper with each studnets names their golas nad carrying it around with me when I work with them

    Reply

  17. Donna Bramlett says

    I like the progress monitoring rings. If you use those to record student data, how to you use the data collection pages you showed in the big student IEP binder? Thanks for the videos!

    Reply

    • Stephanie says

      Larger data sheets are used for student specific behaviors or skills, and are often kept on clipboards. If a student has a goal related to that specific data sheet (like behavior), I transfer data results to the binder ring.

      Reply

  18. Melissa Hunter-Martin says

    Do your kids get upset if they don’t have a particular color, or have kids fight over a color? It sounds dumb but that’s the biggest obstacle to this in my head.

    Reply

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