How I Organize my Ballet Class

It's been two weeks since I started back teaching ballet. I only have three students, and so far it's been fun. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to get to spend more one-on-one time with these precious students. They all have such different personalities. I am excited to see them grow in abilities and encourage each other! In order for these things to happen, I have to be organized, though. So here's how I organize my class.

First over the summer, I sat down and made a list of what we were going to learn each week. This is always tentative and more than likely to changes. Most of the time, I'll run out of time and occasionally I'll have extra time to fill. It's just a guide line of what I hope my students will learn. It also depends on the ability of the students in the class to how much we are able to learn. So far, my students have been learning rather quickly!

Each year I teach ballet it is a little different. This year I have a "Book of Accomplishments" for each student. The book (as you probably guessed) contains the student's accomplishments. I wanted something where they could visually see how much they have learned. They get to put a sticker by movements and ideas once they learn or do them. I'm excited to see how it works out!

Since I have my week to week agenda already planned out I don't have much preparation to do. Usually, Thursday night I pick out music and come up with combinations for class. If we're reading a book, then I'll pack that up in my bag. I try and keep preparation minimum, but I also like to do exciting things for the kids. For example, I plan to have one day where the students get to make up the combinations for the class for fun. I want my students to learn and have fun. We almost always close with a fun game that they can incorporate their dance moves into.

Overall, I'm really excited about this new school year with these precious students! I think it's going to be fun!

Back to School Supplies and Organization

I love school supplies! So in this blog post I'm going to show you some of the school supplies I have bought and little bit about how I organize my school stuff.

The very first thing I do, is I color code. I assign each class a color and then choose binders and planner stickers based on that color. To know more about my organizational method check out my Back to School Organizational Ideas blog post. Next, I label everything, so I don't get confused.

Now for the school supplies! Let's start with planner stickers. I bought a little book of cute planner stickers for 50% off at Micheal's. It has 1,486 stickers so I'm probably set for a long time. I also purchased some customizable stickers off of Etsy for my classes. To learn more about how I use my Etsy planner stickers check out this blog post, here. Want to know what planner I use? Click here.

"Be Still" Pen

Pen & Pencils on my desk.

Now for pens and pencils. I love these gold pencils! I mixed them with my #2 pink pencils on my desk. My pens I purchased from Kristin Schmucker. She has a lot of cute items to buy.

Gold pencils from Micheal's. 

Now, for the cutest eraser ever (purchased from Target)!

We all make mistakes.

What are some of your favorite school supplies to buy? I hope everyone has a wonderful school year! As always thanks for reading! Come back next Thursday for a new blog post! 

Back to School Organizational Ideas

Well it's time to go back to school. I don't know about you, but the idea of having homework and tests doesn't sound appealing. However, cute school supplies makes it a bit more fun. So today I'm going to tell you how I organize my school supplies.

First, I color code. I assign each class a color. For instance, I am taking four classes this semester. Sociology is orange, science is blue, English is pink, and psychology is green.


I then order planner stickers from Etsy (click here). I love these stickers because they are customizable. You can choose whatever color and text you want. I choose the colors based on the colors of my classes as I mentioned above. For example, a pink sticker that reads "test" means I have an English test that day. It makes it easier to scan over your planner and know what is coming up.

Next, I find spiral notebooks in the colors that I have chosen. My binders don't always match because they are patterned, but occasionally they will somewhat match.

The binders that I own have no pockets for papers. Handouts never seem to be hole punched, which means those loose papers full of important information are apt to be lost and crumpled in the bottom of your backpack. So to fix the problem I made my own. I picked out some scrapbook paper. The fun part is you can choose exactly what paper you want. With a bit of cutting, folding, packing tape, and hole punching, you'll soon have a sturdy pocket ready to hold important papers.

Don't be that person who shows up only on tests days and asks to borrow a pencil. You're smarter than that. What might help though is some cute school supplies. I just couldn't pass up this cute pencil case. I ordered mine from Nordstrom because it was 40% off  (plus free shipping), but they are now sold out. You can get one (full price) for $14 at Bando. Of course, I now need pencils to go in the pencil case. I bought these cute pencils at Home Goods. It was my first time to go to Home Goods, and I fell in love. They have so many cute items for low prices! I love the gold print on the ends of these pencils.

Well looks like you're now ready for classes to start back up. Just make sure you've got your textbooks, and you should be ready to ace this semester. Thanks for reading! I wish you the very best as you head back to school!

Summer Cleaning: 10 Tips for Cleaning Out Your Closet

This last semester, I eagerly awaited summer. Probably not for the same reason many of you look forward to summer though. I wanted to deep clean my closet. Here is what I did, and a few tips for de-cluttering your most dreaded closet.

1) Take every thing out! As you take stuff out organize them into certain piles, so you have an idea where certain items are located.

2) Sort through your items and have trash bags ready. One for items to get rid of and one for trash. If your closet is as messy as mine was, you'll need way more than just two trash bags.

3) Be prepared for a mess! Slowly sort through items. Don't get too attached to things. Be willing to throw stuff out or get rid of it. Always ask yourself how often you use the item.

4) Clean out the empty closet with a dust cloth and Clorox wipes. Get rid of that dirt! Don't forget to vacuum too!

5) When sorting through clothes. Ask yourself the following questions: How often do you wear it? Would you buy it, again? Is it still in a good condition?

6) Use scarf hangers to organize belts, headbands, or ribbons.

7) Use the same kind of hangers to save space, reduce tangled hangers, and achieve a uniform look. Also, try hanging them backwards. After wearing clothes, hang them normally. After a few months, you will know what clothes to get rid of.

8) If you are a shoe lover like me, I highly suggest you invest in a shoe rack. I love mine! Also, keeping your shoe boxes is an easy way to store shoes.

9) Have two bins (one for light-colored clothes, and the other for dark-colored clothes) in your closet. Having these bins in the closet has helped me to put my dirty clothes in the correct spot instead of just leaving them around my room.

10) To save space, fold t-shirts like the photo below. I also folded the t-shirts that were too small for me and put them in a storage bin. Maybe someday I'll make one of those t-shirt quilts.

Don't get discouraged if you don't get this done in a short amount of time. I've spent a week on my closet, and still haven't found a home for all the items I've cleaned out. It's better to take your time and do a good job, than to do it quickly and sloppily. Don't forget to step back and look at all the work you've done! Look at the bags of stuff you cleaned out, and all the space in your closet! It can be an overwhelming task, but the outcome is rewarding.

I hope you are inspired to tackle the messiest closet in your home now. Have fun cleaning!