Organizational Tools |
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I hope the strategies, documents, books, and websites mentioned below give you some ideas. Of course, managing a classroom well requires much more than the highlighted elements below. I heartily recommend downloading, modifying, and building the Teacher Control Journal from www.flylady.com. It’s a sanity saver. Additionally, great resources on this topic include: the book First Days of School by Harry Wong, the websites www.mspowell.com and www.teachers.net, the books Not in My Classroom by Wootan and Mulligan, Teaching Outside the Box by LouAnne Johnson, and more. |
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Organizational Strategy or Tool |
Supporting Documents, Procedures, Books, and/or Websites |
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Teacher Checklist and Classroom Organizational Items In addition to my checklist that I share at the right, many books on teaching contain classroom and teacher checklists. Also, browse Calloway House’s products for ideas, if not to make purchases. |
my classroom checklist: PDF or Word document
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Organizing Lesson Planning
Stay a week or more ahead of time in FILING lesson-related documents. Then, use the contents of the files to lesson plan on a schedule. (E.g. write Monday’s and Tuesday’s lesson plans on MONDAYS, write Wednesday’s and Thursday’s plans on TUESDAYS. Leave right after school on WEDNESDAYS. Finish plans and photocopy on THURSDAYS. Leave on FRIDAYS). |
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Organizing the Classroom Procedures
Create a binder of your classroom management procedures. To teach them to students, type the procedures in Dr. Randall Sprick’s CHAMPS or ACHIEVE format, photocopy them onto transparencies, and/or make a PowerPoint of the procedures and distribute a copy (6 slides per page) for students. |
Harry Wong’s online class at www.Classroom Management.com PowerPoint: Mrs. Sanders’ First Week PowerPoint video clip: Mrs. Sanders’ First Week PowerPoint |
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Organizing the Flow of Student Work-Related Papers and Assignments and Organizing the Grading
Have a routine way of collecting, grading, recording and returning student work that has embedded error-prevention and student accountability “tactics” within. These tactics might include strategies such as using PINK SLIPS (aka STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY CARDS), eliminating paper loss by keeping collected stacks of work stapled until passed back, etc. Place or have students place their completed work into an item like the assignment “Collector/Protector” at www.callowayhouse.com. If need be, this “Collector/Protector” can be tossed into the backseat of your car if you need to take papers home to grade. Use grading slips, which have space for notes, which make data entry into your electronic gradebook quick, and which can serve as a physical backup to your electronic gradebook (staple them into a manila file folder). To manage large amounts of homework: Consider having a daily student homework correction session at the beginning of class (after the bellwork). Then give weekly homework quizzes (some teachers give the homework quizzes daily.) Please see the Downloads link for supporting documents. |
Word document: grading slips student pink slip (aka student responsibility card): Word document or PDF student paper collection and stack stapling procedure to avoid teacher loss of student papers and/or claims of teacher loss of student papers: PDF or Word document grading routine using student responsibility cards (aka pink slips): PDF or Word document my current new plan to manage math homework: PDF or Word document |
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Time Management Resources for Teachers
Divide and conquer home tasks and teaching tasks by dividing them amongst the days of the week. Consider doing so aided by the use of something like the Teacher Control Journal (at www.flylady.com) that you tweak. |
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Organizing Communication with Students
Use an introductory PowerPoint, student welcome letter or classroom handbook, syllabus, and simple, yet informative class website. Schedule before-school “office hours” or “tutoring hours,” reserving one morning a week for making up tests. |
PowerPoint: Mrs. Sanders’ First Week PowerPoint video clip: Mrs. Sanders’ First Week PowerPoint HTML format: rough draft of Mrs. Sanders’ Math Class Handbook for Parents http://teacher.scholastic. com/homepagebuilder index.htm
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Helping Students Organize Themselves, Their Materials, and Their Work
Consider assigning a for-your-class-only binder and/or an interactive student notebook. |
video clip: Helping Students Build a For-Your-Class-Only Binder video clip: Assigning an Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) www.interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com PowerPoint: Mrs. Sanders’ PowerPoint to Introduce Students to Using a Math Interactive Student Notebook (MISN) video clip: Mrs. Sanders’ PowerPoint to Introduce Students to using a Math Interactive Student Notebook
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Organizing Makeup Work
Have a clear makeup work policy and a late work policy that works for you just as well as for the students. Consider designating one morning a week as the test and quiz makeup work time. Consider holding tutoring hours that are additionally available for absent students to use to clarify questions or missed material. Perhaps purchase a small whiteboard ($10 or less) with corkboard dedicated to listing homework assigned and another class information to hang in the classroom. Or have a makeup work bulletin board. Or use a manila envelope system that triples as your photocopy organizer, your agenda transparency holder, and your makeup work organizer. Use 2 large manila envelopes per prep (tack them up on a makeup work bulletin board if desired). Use one of the manila envelopes as the current week’s work manila envelope. Use the other as the manila envelope to hold the past week’s work. Leave left over copies of handouts and assignments in the correct manila envelope for absent students to later retrieve. Modify the manila envelopes to store weekly agenda transparencies on the front by stapling a sheet protector to the front of each manila envelope to hold the agenda transparencies. |
video clip: Makeup Work Manila Envelopes HTML format: the makeup work and late work policies as described in this rough draft of Mrs. Sanders’ Math Class Handbook for Parents procedure for managing and organizing makeup work with modifiable transparency agenda document included: Word document or PDF modifiable makeup work agenda form (to use to create a transparency): Word document schedule for dividing lesson planning, photocopying, and makeup work manila envelope maintenance over the week: Word document or PDF
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Organizing High Stakes Testing Benchmark Results and Sharing the Results with Students
Use tiered, legal-size manila folders to simplify organization of benchmark data. Have students shade/color a benchmark graph reflecting each student’s results on the benchmark. Celebrate strengths and successes. Do goal-setting and have students record their goals on the benchmark graph. |
video clip: Benchmark Data-Holding Tiered Legal-Sized Folder procedure for simplifying the tracking of benchmark scores: Word document or PDF student benchmark coloring graph: Word document or PDF |
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Organizing Communication with Parents
Use carefully-worded, very terse and very professional emails to communicate with parents. NOTE: School emails are the property of the school and can be used in court. Emails are date and time stamped. Some email programs allow you to add in a confirmation of receipt option. Distribute a parent class handbook at the beginning of the year and maintain a simple, yet informative class website. Prepare for parent conferences by building a “Huge Binder of Student Information” and by bringing a conference notes recording form to parent conferences. It is helpful if the form is purposely designed to keep the conference positive and focused and constructive. Some teachers send home “Caught Being Good” type of notes. Some teachers send home “Gold Slips” (this strategy is more elementary geared). These are documents that are half-sheets of colorful (gold) paper that you create that indicate study skills, work submission, presence of supplies, behavior, etc. Consider sending home weekly or biweekly progress reports, printed from your electronic gradebook. You might give extra credit for signed, returned forms if you don’t require them to be returned and signed. Some teachers have students use a student agenda where parents and teachers can write short notes back and forth.
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HTML format: rough draft of Mrs. Sanders’ Math Class Handbook for Parents http://teacher.scholastic. com/homepagebuilder index.htm student-parent-teacher conference recording form: Word document or PDF how to build the “Huge Binder of Student Information”: PDF or Word document video clip: Huge Binder of Student Information |
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Organizing Non-Student-Related, School-Related Papers
At the end of each day, process IN and OUT trays reserved only for school-related papers that are non-student papers. |
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Organizing Non-Assignment, Student-Related Documents
Build a simple, “Huge Binder of Student Information.” |
video clip: Huge Binder of Student Information how to build the “Huge binder of Student Information”: PDF or Word document |