Throwback Thursday... I'll join the fun!

I've been reading every one's Throwback Thursday posts and thinking... I need to this.  Well, I finally decided to join in on the party!  I am linking up with Cara for my very first Throwback Thursday par-tay!

After years of tweaking and trying to figure it all out, last year I finally found a system that worked for me and my math stations/centers.  And then I changed grades and subjects.  Isn't that the way it goes? :)  Anyways, I love the system I used so much that I wanted to share it again.  It really worked well for me.

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Originally posted on October 15, 2012

Well, last Friday we had a teacher workday.  It was actually our first one this year since school started, and I am soooo happy we had a chance to work in our room since I needed the time really bad.  I had a few goals in mind for the day.

1) Make a few stations I have found on TpT for free.  It seems I am always running around the week of my new workshop rotation to 'find' good stations for my students to work with during rotations.  Usually I end up creating something over the weekend or Monday afternoon, printing it, laminating it, cutting it out, and putting it all together.  Well, on Friday I was able to create SIX new stations.

Here's one that will soon be in my dollar section on TpT.  I am going to {eventually} upload the ones I make for my students and sell them for just a dollar!  I wish I could find some that I could use and not make for $1.00.  If anyone out there has any great ones for around a $1.00 that I could use with OA 4th grade math standards...  let me know.  I like for them to take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.

Okay, so where do I store my stations when I'm not using them?  It use to be a hot mess that looked something like this.... {sorry about the small blurry picture}.

Like I said before, it was a MESS!  Notice I have some that don't have anything and some that are over flowing.  I had folders everywhere, nothing organized, and half the stuff didn't have everything I needed in them.  Actually, most of the folders are missing EVERYTHING because I would just take the station once the students were done and throw it somewhere up there to get it out of the way.  This leads to my 2nd goal of my teacher workday.

2) Organize my station storage area.  Since I teach by standard, I wanted to store my stations by standard.  Here's what I came up with.

First, I store all the materials needed to create my stations in one bin behind my small group table which is where I usually lay it all out and get to business.

Here's what's in the bin.  Markers for writing, post-it flags {we'll get to that in a minute}, labels, and plastic pocket folders without prongs.  I use plastic folders because the students always seem to rip the paper ones and destroy them.  If you want to be SUPER organized then you could have a certain folder color for each strand of standards.  I got these from Target when they were on clearance for .15 each.  They had a heaping load of purple so that's what I have.  I like the look of them all being the same color.  And... if you wanted to go even further, you could have the folder color match the bin color where they are stored {you will see that in a minute!}

Every station folder has a nice little label in the top right corner with the station title {this is what I put on their station checklist} and the CC standard the station correlates with.

Once a station is complete and ready to be filed away for later use, I take the post-it flag and apply it to the label then I place it in the bin that correlates with the standard.  I use the flag so I can see at a glance what stations I have not used this school year.  I love this idea because I use to be really confused about which stations I have used and which ones I still needed to use.  Once I take the station from the bin to be used, I take the flag off {you can then use it for a new one or trash it}.  When it is used by the students and returned to the bin, it goes in without a flag which means it has been used once before.

These are my new standard labels I created and printed to organize my stations.  I will eventually {hopefully} have two bins for each standard.  Right now, I have more NBT stations than the others because these are the standards we have been teaching since school started.  I simply taped the paper cut-outs to the bins {hence the glare}.

Here's what they look like so far.  BTW- I didn't include it in this picture, but I have a TON of stations on the shelf above this one that still need to be reorganized and redone.  Can I have another workday, please?  Also, I didn't have a large variety of colors or I would have each standard bin a different color... In the words of my three-year old, Oh shucks! {he gets that from Goofy!}

And... when I am busy through the week and have stations that need to be checked and put back together neatly before going back in the bin, I place them in this basket.  I am hoping to get in a healthy habit of checking ALL stations after they are used and before they go back in the bin.  Hopefully this will help my station area STAY nice and neat through the school year.  As you can see, I already have a few a need to work on!

Do you have any tricks you use to help keep your stations organized?