What can a director do when her/his staff may not be completly organized?

What issues are raised from each side of the triangle by this situation?

• Managing and Overseeing -

                Keeping a neat and organized classroom is a requirement when working with young children. Environments can affect the children in negative and positive ways.If  the classroom is unorganized and messy, it can become a safety hazard. If you start to smell rotten food that is a big sign that your classroom needs cleaning. Messy classroom also is a negative aspect to the parents of the children. Families want to bring their children to clean and safe classrooms.It interferes with clarifying professional standards and expectations and also makes the school look bad.

• Coaching and Mentoring -

                 This may cause some conflict for the director and the teacher. It seems like he is a very good teacher, but he needs to keep his classroom clean. This may also cause some distance between the teacher, because he may be stuck in his ways. Making the responsibility of cleaning the their cubbies entirely on the children is a lack of responsibility on the teacher.

• Building and Supporting Community -

                 Having a messy classroom is something that will be unattractive for families. It could also be a make or break for families decisions in putting their child into your school. Messy classrooms are also not attractive when accreditation comes around and you're being evaluated.

What strategies from each side might you use to address the issues?

• Managing and Overseeing -

                     Having children have specific jobs during the day will help them learn about responsibility. As a teacher, you need to keep your classroom clean but you can also have the children learn to keep their classroom space clean as well. By saying, "Oh my gosh, look there is a paper on the floor, I am going to pick it up and put it in the trash can so no steps on it and falls." Making a big deal about cleaning up such things can help children understand why we need to keep our classroom clean. A clean classroom can also be a safe classroom. As a director I would make this known to the teacher, because it is not a good situation to be in when you have a messy classroom. I would tell him, "You need to keep your classroom clean, don't make the entire responsibility be to the children."

• Coaching and Mentoring -

                   Talking to the teacher about this in private is a must. Discussing why in keeping his classroom clean is something I would do. The dangers of having papers on the floor, toys everywhere, smells coming from the cubbies is not attractive for families and is a safety concern for children and yourself. 

• Building and Supporting Community -

                    Having an organized, clean, and safe environment needs be talked about with this teacher. When families come in and tour the school they will be turned off by a messy classroom and families who already have their child go to the school will be discouraged about the teacher being messy. And when families talk about these negative aspects to other families your school will be not considered when putting their children into a school. During meetings, I would let all the teachers know why it is important to keep their classrooms clean and to remind them to always try and keep it clean during the day. Children will be messy but teaching them to clean up after their mess is important but also cleaning, sanitizing, and organizing the classroom is your job as a teacher.