10 Tips To Get You Organized at The End of The School Year- You'll Thank Yourself Later!

Summer is coming. Get organized now.

 Whether you are an SLP or a teacher, just a few organizational tweaks now can make your life easier in the fall. You might even want to kiss your brain for being so forward thinking!

May and June is crunch time for school-based SLPs. 

This is the time of year when school-based speech language pathologists are rushing to complete end of the year tasks. It seems like there are a thousand things to do, IEPS, last minute assessments, reports, COSFs, Medicaid Billing, progress reports and meetings. Oh, the meetings. Many, maaaany meetings.

You may not be thinking about back to school right now. But you should be.

Do a few things now to get organized, and back to school will be easier and smoother for you! Beginning the school year is also a challenging, hectic time. When we get back, it is always a transition to get up and going again. So what can you do to prepare?

I asked some school-based slpeeps for their best ideas, and got some great tips to share with you.

10 Things You Can do Now to Make Your Life Easier When You Get Back to School

1. Inventory- We have to do inventory at the end of each year. Before you sign it and turn it in, make yourself a copy and file it. I also keep a check-out list for materials I share with others. Check items back in when returned. It will make it much easier next year to know what is still in your room, and what others have. 
2. To Do List- Make a to do list for the first week back to school. You may be surprised what you can forget after a long relaxing summer! I include priority tasks such as IEPs and assessments due soon, who needs accommodations distributed to teachers, parents to contact about scheduling, AT to distribute or set up, consults to complete. Keep this list in the very front of your file cabinet.
3. Passwords- Make a list of passwords, because if you are like me, you WILL forget these over the summer! Sarah says it may be a tech no-no, but you may need it! Keep your password list in a secure location.
4. Student folders- Sue keeps a folder for each student to grab for their session. At year's end she stocks these with fresh attendance calendars, logs and an intro letter. Then she is ready to go in the fall.
5. Students moving- When Lynda knows a student will not be returning, but is still in her district, she puts a post-it note on her working file with next year's school so she knows where to send the file. Those moving out of district go to the "moved" drawer. 
6. Bulletin Boards- Kathy puts her fall bulletin boards up now, then covers them with paper or trashbags. 
7. Prep Forms- Jenn preps her beginning of the year release of information forms she will need, so they are ready to go and current. She preps a referrals list too.
8. Location of Items- Tracy uses Google Keep to record her notes to self about locations of keys, files and tasks. She loves this because she can add to her notes from her phone, no matter where she is, when the thought strikes her!
9. Computer Cables- At my school, we have to unplug everything, and it can be a jumbled mess in the fall. Joan labels her computer cables because everything gets disassembled. 
10. Room furniture and equipment- Teachers often get back and are setting up their rooms very early, before I am there, especially new teachers. Sometimes they scout for "spare" equipment and things can go umm... awol. I put away surge protectors, headphones, cables and remotes in a file cabinet.  I label my teacher rolling chairs, table, trashcans, bookcase and anything that is not nailed down with my name. Helps prevent confusion and items growing legs!

Graphics by Kinka Art and Creative Clips

Hope you found some helpful tips! If you have a favorite tip to share, leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Happy summer everyone!

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