When we moved into our house a year ago, I unpacked the glasses and plates into the cupboard closest to the kitchen table. The thinking was, It will be easy to grab what we need when we set the table.
What we've realized since then is that we tend to want a glass when we are by the sink or the refrigerator. So, I moved the glasses to the cupboard by the refrigerator, and it has turned out to be more efficient.
It was a small revision. I didn't rearrange the whole kitchen. I didn't need to. One little adjustment made things better.
Likewise, when we look at our classroom practice, sometimes one small shift can make a big difference. We shouldn't feel tied to something we started with just because it is already in place a certain way. Instead, we should consider our organization, classroom design, procedures, or processes and see if there is one thing that isn't working as well as we'd like it to, and then make a change.
For example, I had one set of chimes in our gathering space for our quiet signal. When I walked toward it, students had a tendency to break their stamina to watch. By putting another set in the middle of the room and one by the door near the hall, I could surreptitiously move to chimes without being a distraction.
Before Gail added a small basket to her gathering space, she would often have to hunt for items she needed, breaking the flow of her lesson. Now her Daily 5 check-in sheet, read-aloud, teacher editions, and whiteboard pens are always where she needs them, in a basket next to her teaching chair.
Stephanie Cummins, a second-grade teacher, realized that her students' book boxes looked great lined up on a single shelf. Unfortunately, there was always a traffic jam when kids need to access or return them. Stephanie spread them out in the front of the room, and now they are accessed quickly and returned just as efficiently.
One of these small tweaks might work for you, too. And if you've made an adjustment that yielded big results, we want to learn from you.
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