Student organizational skills are not a mystery, with staff and students both agreeing that this is a critical area for improvement. With students losing important papers in their already overstuffed backpacks, and teachers like Ms. Saenz seeing it all the time, it’s easy to understand teachers’ frustration.
However, students also recognize the issue. They often see what the teachers see, and admit that being unprepared can cause problems for everyone involved.
“I see lots of crumpled papers and lost materials 90% of the time. And or people do not have the work done for that class a lot of the time,” said Brissa Mendez (’26).
Ms. Saenz echoed this from the teacher’s perspective, saying, “So when kids had to do paper, I saw way more kids who were unorganized because they wouldn’t even know where their paper was, or they would have to get it out of their backpack, and it would crumble up.”
Staff are solving this problem of students being disorganized with more integration of technology-based learning in classrooms. Though in the following years, staff won’t implement this, teachers will definitely be implementing more technology into the curriculum.
“So I think that can be hard for kids too, you know, that one teacher maybe does it one way, and another teacher [another way], so we’re trying, as a staff, to be more organized in our Schoology, so it’s easier for kids to find things and locate things to help them stay organized,” Ms. Saenz added.
Still, technology can be a bit of a double-edged sword. While it offers new tools for staying organized, it also opens the door to more distractions. One major reason students aren’t always prepared or focused in class is that their attention is simply elsewhere.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of distractions that come with the iPad games probably being the base one videos, YouTube, and so on,” said Mr. Valete.
However, students need to think about how their time needs to be properly used to stay organized. Staying organized and cutting out distractions makes staying focused on work easier so students can get more done.
“But the more you have to do, the more focused you will be, and the more you’ll be able to get done,” Valette said.
As both staff and students continue navigating the balance between paper and digital learning, one thing is clear: organization isn’t just about folders and planners—it has far more to do with habits. The earlier students build those habits, the more prepared they’ll be for everything that comes next.
