[nobe-l] techniques of supply organization

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi all,

As some of you may remember from my intro a few months back, I’m a young adult who finished her undergrad degree. My BA was completed where I sort of made up my own program to finish; I was an elementary ed major but for various reasons such as a bad teacher relationship where I observed kids, I switched to general liberal studies.
Anyway, I’m contemplating going back to grad school to get an education degree for special ed or visual impairments. I’m considering being a TVI.

So, I have a job this summer as a sub for a camp with kids with disabilities. I did not want to commit full time because I am  not experienced and did not feel I could handle all that responsibility; also, I did not know if I would be available every day with vacations coming up.

So, my next few emails relate to working with kids and teens and organizing your classroom.

First questions here.

I’ve been asked to work with  mobility impaired kids, usually in wheelchairs, once a week.
We’ll often have supplies for them to use. I’ll have to get them and pass them out.
I have some vision but may not be able to distinguish similar colors.

How do you organize supplies so you know what they are? Are your bins labeled in braille?
If you have arts and craft supplies, do you place labels on those items individually? I mean rather than labeling a box as paint, do you label individual bottles?
Of course as a sub, I may not be able to rearrange things, but just wondering, if I could ...
Do you put your supplies on separate shelves?

Since I may not wish to have the permanent labels on them after camp, is there a nonsticky way to label? I usually do dimo tape but this leaves sticky residue. I mean it would be nice to have something like a postit  note where I just grab it off leaving no marks.
When I collect supplies, how will I ensure I get all of them? I’d grab items off their desks one by one, but it may be easy to miss something because it fell or the participant placed it somewhere else or something like that  or simply not getting every little item by mistake before I go to the next desk.
Look forward to your ideas.

Ashley