Grade: all
Subject: other

#1938. Classroom organization tips

, level: all
Posted Sun Sep 3 10:09:01 PDT 2000 by Julie (fjparker@q1.net).
St. Mary's School, Leipsic, OH

The students all have a number, corresponding to
the first letter of their last name. I use these numbers in my grade book and they must put them in
the upper righthand corner of their papers. It makes it easier to alphabetize.

Each student was given a manilla folder to decorate. It has their name and number on it.

I bought stackable trays, one per subject. Their
finished assignments go into the trays. If the
stack needs to be alphabetized, then I put them in
the wrong way. Students who get to school early
are given the task of putting them in correct order and then they go in the tray the correct way. After a week has passed, we make paperpacks.
Each student takes a pack and lines them up on top
of a table in correct order. When completed, they
get put into the decorated folders. I typed up a
paper for parent signatures, and each subject matter. Beside the subject is written the number
of assignments that should be looked at by the parents. (I teach jr. high) My student helper takes the folders with these pages stapled to them and fills in the correct number of assignments for each subject. It takes about 10
minutes to do this.

I a long narrow pocket holder I made when I was into crafting years ago. In it go the lunch tickets, academic/conduct notices, absentee sheet,
and homework list. The homework list is for those students who are sick. I typed up each subject with blanks under it. These sheets are
the size of 1/4 sheet of paper. My student helper of the day fills in what needs to be done
for homework.

I have a Longaberger candle basket on my desk. My
husband made dividers in it so that it has 4 sections. My stapler is in one, scissors in another, a few pens and pencils in the third, and
a paperpunch in the fourth. This stays on my desk
and has what I use most often. In my desk I bought a big black organizer from Walmart. It has
many divisions I use for staples, clips, pins, pens,pencils etc... It looks neat and works well.

A few years ago I bought hanging files. I have a
2-drawer metal file cabinet by my desk. In the file I keep all sorts of forms like roster lists,
field trip info, parent correspondance, and files
for many of my master lists that I type out every
year. On the bottom shelf I keep books that have
teaching projects that I have bought through the
years.

I use a nice thick binder, bought at Walmart. I
run off rosters of each class and put them in tabbed sections that I use for my grade book. I
made a blank lesson plan page on scanner and type
up new lesson plan pages each year. I run them off and use them in this binder. I keep a calender, list of schedules, list of phone numbers, duties, a flat pencil case with stickers in it. This books has everything in one spot. Someone told me that I should market it. I made
a neat cover page and slipped it in the front plastic pocket. It's very handy and organized.

In my grade book pages, if a student is absent, I put a red square around the square where his homework grade should be. If a student did not turn in his work, a black square is put in. It lets me know at a glance who was missing or who
didn't get homework done. We give academic notices to send home if an assignment is not done
or completed. After 3, the students stay after school for detention. We have detention once a month ( or more if needed).

I bought magazine boxes which are labeled by subject matter. Inside each box are manilla files
with outlines, homework dittos and other things of
interest. This took me quite a long time to do but is also very handy. Each chapter of history I
teach is in a file. I have extra boxes with supplementary things for the subjects I teach.

At Walmart I bought some cheaper binders for $.68.
I bought tab dividers and use it to put in ideas I
have gotten from the internet. Our students get
TimeLife for Kids, and I save one from each mailing and paperpunch them and put them in binders each year.

This year I'm using the seating chart idea I got
on the web using little postit notes. Works great
as I have 3 different sets of students. I use
pink for girls and yellow for boys.

As far as picking students for various things, I
have a thing you roll like a dice that has 28 numbers on it. Since my kids have numbers, when I roll this thing, a random number shows up. I got it at a teachers' convention in the math dept.
I think I've seen them at teacher stores too.

I teach art also and have my students bring in a
plastic shoebox every year to hold all their supplies. They're labeled and stacked on a couple
of empty shelves. I use these boxes also for bulky and small items I use throughout the year.
They are neat and stack nicely.

My neatest tip came from a nun who used to teach at my school. She used 2 old tube socks to clean
the chalkboards. Two students do this. One starts out by wetting the sock and making circles
on the board. The next student follows with his
wet sock but goes up and down the board. This really, really works well. If done right,no streaks.

I'm working on a sub folder. I took some pictures
of the different places where I store things and I
want to develop and scan them on a paper so the sub will know where things are located.

I use material for my big bulletin board. It looks nice and is so quick to put up and change.
I started out with navy blue, white and red but
now have pink, green and light blue too. I have
my laminated borders in paper folders I glued from
constuction paper. I just lift them out and they
are ready. I have a very wide drawer where they
are stored.

I hope these tips help you out. I just hate wasting time looking for things you use maybe once
a year and having a place for everything really helps.