Closing Down A Classroom for Summer

I'm a new teacher; how should I close down my classroom for summer?

I've been thinking about the task of breaking down a classroom for the summer, and the ways to make it easier to unpack when it's the next school year.

Find out what your site and district policy is concerning your classroom and summer.

It is very important to know the expectations concerning your classroom and how much you can leave behind (or not.) For example, at my site and district, the expectation is that we take everything down from the walls, including all staples. All personal belongings need to be taken home, and our teacher desk and counters need to be cleared off. Some sites also close down for summer, so we can't enter our rooms again until the end of July. 

Other sites are very different. Some let you leave everything up, personal belongings and all! Administrators may come in during summer, so therefore you have access to your room.  

Plan a day to have the kids help you clean and pack up. Preferably a day or two before the last day of school.

Since there is a lot that I need to take down, and I like to enter a clean classroom in July, I create Clean Teams of four or five students with Captains in each team. I only give directions to the Captains, and they are in charge of delegating. I have done this method, with these teams and tasks, with kids as young as 8! By the end of the day my classroom has been completely cleaned and stripped.

My Clean Teams are:

• Library, tasked with taking all the books down off my shelf, cleaning the shelves, making sure the books are in the correct basket, and taking any books that need repair out. They also empty out the personal library book bins for each student and clean them. This takes the longest, so any teams that finish early chip in to help.
• Counter 1 and 2, is split into two teams for each half of my long counter and the shelves underneath. Their job is to take everything off the shelf, clean the shelves, wipe down any dusty items, and put it all back on the shelves neatly.
• Desks & Drawers, are responsible for wiping down all the tables and moving them to one side of the room, and stacking all the chairs. They also empty the community drawers that house our reading and writing folders, and create take home baggies for any work that needs to go home. Then they organize the folders into my cabinets for summer.
• Assistants, walk around with me as I take down borders, butcher paper, student work, anchor charts, and staples and sort things for me and throw stuff away. Makes it so much easier so I don't need to keep climbing up and down! (Two students only)
• *Optional* Technology, sort out computers that need repair and put notes on them, take back the good ones with cords to the technology department. Only given to the most responsible and able-bodied students! (Two students only)
• *Optional* Trash/Recycling Monitors, continually take trash and recycling out to the big bins as needed. Some years we have a lot that needs to be thrown out, some years we don't! (One or two students only)
• Other Classroom Helper, for the students that you know will not be able to handle cleaning up in a team or staying on task. I will email Kinder and First grade teachers asking if they would like a helper to organize, sort, or break down their room.

Think of the important things you need or want to take with you.

Are there any resources, manuals, binders, or personal items that you need to take with you? Notice that I said need, because often times I see colleagues taking piles and piles of stuff home. Personally, I have two large Sterilite bins that I use, and I can only bring with me what fits inside those bins. I always take the same stuff with me, and it's 99% personal items that I can't leave in my classroom per district policy.

Take the time to organize!

This is a lesson I learned the hard way, because it is easier at the end of the year to just shove things wherever there is a space, and then have tons of regret come next school year when you are spending precious time organizing and desperately trying to find your tape dispenser because who knows where you put it?! 

Sit down and make a list of the all the things that bothered you, didn't work, or were awkward. All the times you said to yourself "Next year I'll ____." Then do it. Move it, throw it out, give it away, consolidate it, put it in a bin and label it. If you have a ton of papers that you keep for 'just in case I go to that grade level again', take the time to scan it all in to a cloud service, and then recycle the lot.

The area most teachers neglect is their own. Think about how your teacher area functioned for you and where improvements can be made. Were you constantly misplacing papers? Did your personal belongings overflow into areas they shouldn't? Were your teacher supplies higgly piggly in a drawer so you could never find anything? Make a list of how you want it to be next year, and organize as much as you can now. Then make a promise to  follow it through with new organizers, bins, and labels.

Visit other classrooms (before and after they break down their room.)

The best way to learn new things as a teacher is to visit other classrooms. Think about a teacher you really admire and get permission to visit their room and check out how they organized. Ask to take pictures for inspiration. Ask how areas function in their room and how they set up the procedures. Take notes!

Then, visit again after this teacher is done packing up. Again, take pictures and make notes for yourself. I would recommend visiting at least two teachers so you can see two styles for organizing and packing up.

Take inventory.

Last, but not least, make a list of supplies you need for next year. Think about yourself and your students. For example, this year I ran out of glue sticks. I haven't bought glue sticks in almost five years, so I added it to my list of things to get over summer because when I do need glue sticks I don't want a nasty surprise! I also used up all my 3M Command tape in all sizes, and I need a fresh supply to even put up my decor next year.

How do you pack up?

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Until next time...

​xoxo Mae
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