When I first began teaching I found that keeping everything
in order was a serious challenge. I
remember that first quarter I had piles and piles of materials sitting on a
shelf/radiator cover. At the time I didn’t
even have a filing cabinet! When quarter
two arrived I decided that I was going to be more organized and have not ever
looked back. I still get chuckles from
my fellow teachers, since I still have piles all over the place, but they are
my piles and I know what is in them.
Below are a few things that I have done now that help me stay organized
and help learning flow better in my classroom.
1. Use a bin with file folders for all the
classwork that the students do in a quarter: This helps me when students come
asking for missing work from when they were absent. I just always need to make more copies.
2.
I have used bins this year to put the textbooks
and other materials on the desks at the table groups. This has made getting and cleaning up
textbooks much easier. I used to keep
them under the desks, but then half the time they were destroyed. Now I can just have one student per group get
the bin and everyone has a book. I also
put folders in there if there is a reading that I have copied.
3.
I have a cart that I put the papers the students
are going to write on for the day right in front of the door when they walk
in. Most don’t miss it and grab the
paper. Took me years to figure out that
unless it is right in front of them the middle schoolers/9th graders
will not pick it up.
4.
I have a student keep my classroom library
clean. This was something I hated doing
so I just assigned a student who wanted to help. Much cleaner and organized.
5.
Building systems of expectations that the
students are supposed to follow: I have all
kinds of things that we do on a regular basis so the classroom activities move
smoothly from one period to another. After
all, in a crisis situation we are all just a product of our training and the
classroom really is no different. The
most obvious is doing a do now/objective sheet that gets students clam and
seated while I take attendance.
Why kinds of things do you all do that helps make your
classroom run?
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