The end of the school year always comes too quickly. You thought you had plenty of time to get things done, but then you look at the calendar and see it’s late May. As you panic, keep this to-do list in mind.
Start trashing now
There are a few reasons why you would start culling all of the stuff that has accumulated in your classroom now rather than the last day. The first is that you have the students around to claim things they want before you mistakenly get rid of them. Second, you have the students around to help.
Start taking things home now
Don’t be one of those teachers who is dragging an incredible amount of things down to the parking lot on the last day of school, wondering how they will get it all to fit in their hatchback. If you know you’re going to want to take something home and won’t need it for the rest of this school year, go ahead and take it with you.
Check with the bookkeeper
Even if you handle very little money over the course of a school year, you still want to check with the bookkeeper before everyone else thinks of it. They can let you know if any students owe the school money (before they leave). You also don’t want to be held up with talk of math when you’re trying to get out the door for the last time.
Make sure your files are backed up to the cloud
You might have a lot of critical files saved to your computer’s desktop. Then, unbeknownst to you, the school decides to get everyone tablets over the summer. Your files are lost to the district’s used goods auction. If you haven’t yet, sign up for Dropbox or Google Drive and move everything you might want in the future to the cloud. Then you don’t have to worry about floods, fires, or auctions. You can also pick up a few inexpensive flash drives or disks for data storage.
Think of things you want for next year now
As teachers get ready to leave, they’re going to throw out some valuable stuff. If you know you need another file cabinet, some plastic cubbies, or random supplies, start asking around or just take a walk around campus. The early bird gets the worm! Let Classroom Direct help you make classroom pack-up a breeze!
