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Monday, May 28, 2012

Class Room Efficiencies--10 Little Known Tricks!

1.  Make sure your pens are always stored pointing down....that way gravity will keep the ink where it needs to be and it won't dry out and stop writing as much.


2.  Number your students.  Have them put that number in the corner of each paper they turn in.  Have a student go through the papers and put them in number order to quickly see who has not turned in their paper.


3.  Assign students their classroom jobs and keep them for a whole semester.  At the end of the first semester, have kids fill out applications or draw to get there new job.  It saves time as you do not have to 'reteach' a job weekly.


4.  Always wear a hat when you are teaching at your table.  It is a signal that other students cannot talk with you.  I change my hats to match the holidays and/or seasons.  =)  Oriental Trading is where I get my best deals.


5.  Devise different ways to group your students so that you can pull them into a small group on the fly.  Group them by reading level, skill review (i.e. a group that needs to work on punctuation), and independent reading genres.  This helps you use every second!


6.  Teach one student to be your 'Computer guy/girl'.  This student can pull up programs needed in class, help with problems, and guide students.


7.  Have a guided reading basket that you can grab in a snap.  In this basket have pointers, sight word phrases, pencils that are already sharpened, reading cubes, highlighter tape, hi-lighters, book markers, crayons, and paper.


8.  Get rid of your desk!  Very few of us use a desk for more than a place to pile things and you can use that space as an extra reading area.  Label plastic pencil 'boxes' to hold:  hi-lighters, pencils, pens, glue sticks, stickers, etc. that you would normally have in a desk.


9.  Prepare centers that you can 'fall back on' in case of an emergency or for writing....these centers can be based on incorporating writing into your classroom.  Other centers can be more skill specific and can be changed whenever needed.  This way, you are never without centers and the students always have something that they 'know' how to do independently.


10.  Develop a special code to use with students so that you can remind them it is time to clean out their desks.  I remind 3-4 at a time, and they are always in separate places in the classroom so that things do not get switched.  I never do a whole group clean-up because the room becomes a disaster zone!!  

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