End of the Year Classroom CLEANOUT Without the FREAKOUT [Episode 75]

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You’re listening to episode number 75 of the secondary science simplified podcast. Welcome back to week two of our summer podcast PD. Last week we talked about labs. And so if you missed it, go back and check out episode 74. This week, I wanted to talk to you about how to do your end of the year classroom clean out without the freak out that may accompany it for you. Maybe you’re moving rooms, so you’ve got to completely pack up your stuff this year. Or maybe you just have to clear out for a fresh coat of paint on the walls and wax on the floors. Regardless, you may be tempted to just do the bare minimum, aka, shove everything into your Monica closet or your storage cabinets and run towards summer break. And listen, I get it. The warm air and the ability to use the bathroom whenever you want or calling your name. And it would just be so easy to shove everything in the corners and deal with it come August or September. But I am a big Kendra hdaci Fan aka the lazy genius who I’ve referenced probably 100 times on this podcast. And Kendra is all about doing what you need to do today to serve future you. So let’s surf future you. Let’s do your end of your classroom clean out right now. And let’s do it the secondary science simplified way. Are you with me? Let’s do it.

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This is secondary science simplified a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca joiner from it’s not rocket science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode.

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Like I said, welcome back to the podcast and week two of our podcast PD series. All summer long. I’m doing free PD on this pod. If you had to it’s an architect’s classroom.com/podcast PD, you can check out our calendar and see what is coming over the next few months. And you’ll also get a sheet that you can use take notes on each episode, and do it alongside your coworkers, which would be a fun thing y’all can do together this summer. And I kind of need to address the elephant in the room at the start of this episode. Because I’ve gotten a few DMS and I know some of you are like, Rebecca, it’s mid May. Why are you already saying that we’re in a summer series? Well, you all here in the south, it is summer. And I know many schools where I am are already done or the wrapping up this week, because a lot of schools down here go back in July. Well, I know there are others of you that are still in school and you’re there till the end of June, but then you don’t go back until mid September. So to cover all of our bases, this PD is running from now basically through the end of September, it’s going to still feel like summer where I live basically until October. So we’re just going to keep this going as long as it feels like summer to me. Okay, so that’s what we’re doing with this podcast PD summer series. That’s really like three months long, and I hope you enjoy it. So last week was labs. This week’s topic is your classroom clean out. Now Lucky for you, I have a lot of what I refer to as big black trash bag energy. And I have this just extraordinary level on a regular basis. But especially right now we are currently mid moving out of our house into a rental house, we’re going to sell the house that we currently own and live in. And this rental house is about 600 square feet smaller than our current house. So I’m really getting utilized my Type A Enneagram, one at home edit fan girl energy and like it is all being channeled my label maker is just doing the most right now it is working overtime to keep up with my spreadsheets and my To Do lists that are everywhere all over our house because I am in my element. And I’m thriving and also equal parts, driving my family crazy with clear plastic storage containers. But for the sake of my family, I’m going to channel all my energy in the next 20 minutes for your benefit and apply it to your classroom. And so first things first, I don’t tackle any project without doing a spreadsheet or checklist. I always say that in another life. Maybe a better a really good job for me that wasn’t being a teacher or being a curriculum writer would be a project manager. Because I love the spreadsheet. I love it to do lists. I love taking something really big and breaking it down into tiny pieces. And so this is no different and I’ve done this for you. I have a very specific and easily digestible checklist for you that I As to use in my classroom twice a year to organize my space. It’s called the classroom reset challenge, you can grab it at, it’s not rocket science classroom.com/reset for free, or by clicking the link in the show notes. And it’s basically just a free PDF resource and it breaks your teaching space and do five big task areas, your desk, your filing cabinet, the front of your room, your storage cabinets, you may have in a storage closet, you may have it set up in a way that you focus on one task area day. So over the course of the week, you knock out all five, and then you’re done. And each task area has its own very specific checklist to walk through. So each one is just like a little baby step in the right direction. And each time you can check one off, you can picture me just giving you a virtual high five and cheering you on and push you to the next area. And there’s also a six bonus task in there for all of you overachievers, who like extra credit, and that’s your chemical storage closet. But I thought it really is bonus, because I don’t want you doing this one by yourself. This is really like a phone a friend, bring in someone else in the department. If you’re not the only one in your department. Because it’s a scary, intimidating place to go in that dusty, smelly closet. I know you know what it smells like, it’s so distinct. I think there will never be a time in my life that I don’t know that exact smell of that supply closet. But and I don’t want you venturing in there solo. Okay, so for that task, I need a friend. But one of the fun things is that your co workers help you with the source supply closet, they might want to know why you’re doing this. And you can say it’s a part of a free summer podcast PD series I’m doing and then you can share with them. It’s architects classroom.com/podcast PD, and link them in and get them to join you all summer long. And this would be such a cool thing to do with your coworkers this summer. So I encourage you to do that. But here’s the deal. As you are doing this, here’s what I want you to do, I’m going to kind of tell you how to best use this free PDF, you’re going to set up your classroom and you’re going to divide it into kind of five areas, you could pick like five lab tables, if you have them or just five corners. Well, there could probably be five corners unless your classroom is a pentagon, but five spaces, okay, and one’s going to be your prime real estate. One’s going to be essential storage, ones deflect and others donate and dump. Okay, prime real estate essential storage, deflect, donate dump. Alright, so you need those five areas. And as you go through each section of your room, using your classroom reset challenge checklist that I’ve got for you made already, you’re going to ask yourself five questions. This is almost like a flowchart. Or even Amy could even say it’s almost like a dichotomous key, you’re going to walk through this and your answer yes or no is going to determine what you do next. Okay, so I want you to listen to this while you’re doing this. So again, we’re going to start with one space at a time, start with your desk, work through all five of these questions, then move on to the front of your classroom, then move on to your filing cabinet, whatever. Okay, so first, as you’re going through every item on your desk, let’s say, ask yourself, Do I use this on a daily or weekly basis? If the answer is yes, go put it in your prime real estate spot that is prime real estate if you’re using it on a weekly basis? If the answer is no, go on to the next question. And ask yourself number two, did I even use this at all this year? If the answer’s yes, yay, that means it useful. Okay, so you’re gonna put this as a central storage, then this is something that you need to make space for, you’re going to put it in the essential storage area. And then at the end of this, you’re going to find a drawer or a cabinet to put it in, and you’re going to label it so you don’t forget. Okay, you can label it on the actual drawer or cabinet if you’re allowed. But I know some of you aren’t allowed to label your things. So if not label it in your lesson plans, go into your digital lesson plans or whatever it is that you actually refer to when you’re trying to remember what you’re doing. And put chopsticks for the natural selection lab or in the drawer under the window. Or the hot plates for the sweet tea reactionary lab are in tamaraws classroom, and I gotta go get them there. So go ahead and write it down. So you don’t forget. Now, if you ask yourself, did I use this at all this year? And the answer was no. Now you move on to question number three. And question number three is what I have used it if I had known it existed, because maybe you just found something like a model kit that you had no idea that you had. And if the answer is yes, put that in the essential storage area. It needs to have its own home in a cabinet or drawer that’s labeled, so you do not forget about it. Okay? And then if the answer was no, you would not have used it even if you had known it existed. Go on a question for and ask yourself, Could someone else in my building use this? If the answer is yes, this is a default situation, put it in the deflect pile. And at the end of the day, we’re gonna do a little field trip and we’re gonna walk around the classroom and we’re going to deflect, we’re going to give all this stuff to the different people belongs to y’all. I had a classroom closet once that store the world geography books, why that was in my classroom. I don’t know that you teacher who taught that didn’t even know those books existed. Okay, so you’re gonna deflect that stuff to another space. If you’ve had something like this that you’ve had thought of in your classroom, please email me or DM me and tell me y’all always tickle me so much when I hear about the things you discover when you do this classroom recent challenge. Okay, so that’s your fourth question. Did someone else use it? If the answer is no, you move on to the fifth and final question, which is, do I donate this? Or do I dump it? So is this something that I can donate, I would put it in the donate pile. So think about those model kits I referenced, maybe you don’t use them, no one else in your building is going to use them. First thing I would do is I would go to your admin and see, hey, can I am I given permission to sell this on Facebook marketplace, and then use the profit device they actually need for our classroom and see what they say. Because hey, you could get 20 bucks for some of that stuff. And then use that for something you actually need. Or maybe you need to you could donate it to a homeschool co op in your area that could really like it or where I live, we have Facebook groups that are like buy nothing group. So you just like post things for free if you’re not. So if your admin says you can’t sell it, maybe you just give it away for free because no one’s gonna be using it. Or if they say you can’t let it leave the building. But you’re like, why don’t want it no one else does. Ask them where you’re supposed to store it because you don’t have room in your classroom anymore. Okay. And then the other option is, is this something that needs to dump and then that’s a trash it situation, y’all. Okay, you’re going to put it in the dump pile, and we’re going to trash it at the end of this, okay, now you may have to talk to your head custodian to figure out if there’s a certain way it needs to be disposed of. Because you might be like me, and you might find in one of your scary corner cabinets that there are a bunch of an identifiable preserved specimens in mason jars that look like they’re homemade, that maybe a teacher before you had made in their home and brought to school and you don’t know what they are. So you may have to refer to the custodian for how is the most appropriate way to dump some of these things. But that’s why we have our dump pile. So you’re gonna get it all in one space. And then at the end of the day, we’ll worry about how to actually dump it. Okay. So right now, we’re just sorting it into those spaces. So at the end of all this, you will have walked through these five questions for your desk, and organize everything on your desk into either prime real estate, essential storage, default, donate dump. And then you’re gonna repeat this the next day, and do it all with your filing cabinet and repeat it the next day and do it all for your storage closet, okay, and you’re gonna keep going and adding to this, asking the five questions, organizing stuff in the five areas, and then moving it on from there. And y’all I cannot tell you how good it’s gonna feel to walk through this and reset your physical space by doing this. I know it’s so easy just to close those doors and shove the things in it and not think twice. But you’ll be so much easier walking in and July or August or September whenever you go back to come back and have this all done. Okay, serve future you by doing this classroom clean out now. So you don’t have to have a freakout later. Okay. And listen, get your students involved, y’all, this is the perfect task. If you have post AP exam students, or maybe even post EOC your activity instead of watching Finding Nemo and having them write down 10 ecological interactions they observe while watching this movie, have them help you do this, they would love to help you the default pile and go on little field trips and deliver things to your co workers or put them on a scavenger hunt with the dump pile. Your job is to find the head custodian and figure out what the heck we’re supposed to do with these mason jars of specimens. Okay, like, get them involved. This is a really, really easy way to do that. If you kind of have that weird, nebulous time at the end of the year, and you need some help use them put them to work, they can help you out, or people need some volunteer hours at the end of the school year. Now’s the time. Okay, so if you’re following along with our summer podcast PD, and you’re using that reflection sheet for your action item, you’d write down I need to download that classroom reset challenge. I want to start today with my desk. Remember one part of the challenge at a time, ask yourself those five questions every time. And you’re going to divide into the five areas every time as well. And we’re going to take this one area at a time bit by bit. And then by the end of the week, you’ll have tackled the entire thing. Okay? And if you’re like, oh, I don’t want to forget all the questions. Fun fact, we have transcripts. Now for every podcast episode, I think it was starting with like episode 68 Maybe is when this first started. So if you go to the show notes, which can always be found at it’s our authentic classroom.com/episode 75. And if you scroll down, there’ll be like a little drop down menu and there’s a transcript. So it’ll basically take exactly what I said and put it in a transcript for us transcribing it and then you can see those questions written down to and you can reference those and y’all nothing brings me greater joy than seeing you all tagged me when you’re doing this. So if you’re doing the classroom reset challenges here, please tag me on instagram it’s dot not dot rocket dot science or, you know shoot me some pics over emails. I can see your progress or if you find something crazy while you’re in there. I would love to hear it would just make me laugh. and it would make my week. And now I want to also just say before I let you go, I’m specifically doing a shorter episode because I know this is a bigger task. And I also knew that these first two weeks of our podcast PD, the homework has been a lot, you know, last week with a lab audit, and this week with a classroom reset challenge, but I want you to know, it’s not going to always be this way. Most of the time, the action items can be a lot smaller, but I really want to capitalize on your hopefully, and your motivation to end strong and hopefully exist, and do these big things now, because they’re just gonna serve you so much better later. But also stay tuned, because the next couple of weeks, especially, I’ll give you a breather on the action and they won’t be as intense, okay. And y’all, if you’re enjoying the podcast, and especially this series, I would just love it if you’d leave a rating or review, or share it with a friend. You know, I would love to get as many secondary science teachers as possible in on this free summer podcast PD, just because I want to serve them. I want this to serve as many people as possible. And so your words and your recommendations are the best way to do that. I’m telling you, word of mouth is the best way to support It’s not rocket science and the secondary science and five podcasts. So I would love it if you would share it with a friend. And I’ll see you next

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week. All right, teacher friends. That wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to It’s not rocket science classroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be cheering you on, teacher friend!