Organizing the chromebooks.

If anyone walks into my room the first thing they will probably notice is organization.  I'm probably to the point of slightly OCD about how I like my room to be.  Most people say my house must be the same (HA).  Anyways I love running a classroom where my students know where everything go and I don't have to worry about things getting put back in certain ways.

The chromebooks are no exception in my mind.  When I got the chromebooks it was a big mess of cords, wires, power strips and all different chromebooks in dish drying racks.  For someone with OCD tendencies, this was an absolute nightmare.  I had to figure something out.

The first thing I did was organize the chromebooks by their numbers.  Obviously most teachers have figured this out.  I am VERY particular about keeping the chromebooks in order (80-89) in the rack.  This is because I have assigned every student in my class a specific chromebook number that they are only allowed to use.  We have had times where inappropriate things have been placed on a chromebook or laptop and no one knew who had used that particular device.  My goal was to decrease the likelihood of this happening by assigning each student a specific number.  That way if something were to pop up on a chromebook I would know who is assigned that number and we could hopefully track down the culprit.

Again the benefit of having an extremely organized room.  The students know exactly where to locate their chromebook and where to put it back when they are done.

Here is what my chromebooks look like on a daily basis.

Then the next problem was all the cords and wires.  I HATE cords and wires.  I am constantly using those ties from the grocery store to tie the wires together (all over my house) so that I don't have to deal with them!

I just happen to have some random zip ties hanging around my classroom for some reason.  I decided to tie together sets of ten chargers together so that it would look more organized and students would have an easier time locating a charger when they are done using chromebooks.  

Here are some photos of the chargers that are zip tied together.  It's been a saving grace!

It still looks pretty messy under the table, which I really don't like.  However, it's WAY better than what it looked like before.  Plus it's a lot easier to move the chargers around for things like PARCC testing and such.

I've been really happy with how the chromebooks are organized in my room.  Anne has used some of the zip ties to help organize her chromebooks as well.  I continue to find a way to make my room look less cluttered, but I'm very happy with the procedures in my class right now.