Reflection #12: Housekeeping

CONTROLLING PAPER FLOW:      Controlling paper flow is a necessity for many instructors, especially those in social studies and language arts; there are several things you can do to help yourself.

·       First of all, don't make the big paper assignments due in all classes on the same day.

·        Stagger that sort of work so that you have a day or two between collections to stay caught up.

·        Use a tally-type of grade system for the in-class work. (See the specifics in the section on grading practices.)

·       Use trustworthy student aides to grade objective tests.

·        Use class-time to grade and review certain objective materials.  (In doing this, you may use the process to review the subject matter for a more intense evaluation.  (For example, class correction and discussion of an objective test can be a means of review and re-teaching for further unit testing.)

FORMS:     The multiplicity of forms, records, and reports to be made is a constant challenge to even the most organized of teachers.   Of course, the most enlightened administrations try to keep such things to a minimum, but the more unified or consolidated the school system, the more likely the plethora of forms. 

·       Keep forms where you most frequently use them. Cut slips, hall passes, tardy notices, and detention forms are frequently needed when you are in front of the class.  If your desk is at the back of the room, keep some of these most frequently used forms in the front of your roll book or your planning book at  your lectern. If you keep those forms only back at your desk, you’ll not likely to implement them properly because you have to interrupt the flow of the class to retrieve them and fill them out.  You need those forms right there where you can utilize them with minimum disturbance. 

·       On the other hand, keep in a file system in the desk. those forms infrequently used or those which require some thought process or time to fill out. 

HANDOUTS AND MAKE-UP WORK: Another housekeeping detail has to do with papers for students who have been absent.  If a student has been absent when you have given out some kind of study materials, quiz papers, etc. record the student's name on the paper and clip it to your role sheet.  It will stay there until the student returns to class, a constant reminder of unfinished business.

ORGANIZING CLASS MATERIALS: Tailoring similar class materials for different classes requires some thought and preparation. Even more challenging is the task of keeping such material organized.

·       You may want to color code your materials, adopting one color for the handouts for a certain level.  You can duplicate all handouts, tests, prompt sheets, in that specific color, and you can tell at a glance what level the material is.

·       After you have utilized a particular piece of material which you have generated for a class, place one good, dark, black-line master in a binder color-coded to the class level.  Do not file carefully by sub category at this time; merely put the materials in the color-coded binder and then organize the materials at the end of a year.

·        Look at notes you have made about the materials, saving  the good ones into a big binder and disposing of the others at that time. Such a system painlessly keeps a kind of visual catalog of materials for a given course you are teaching.This binder system really works very well. File folders of "extra copies" quickly  become unwieldy, and unless you have a printer in your classroom, leaving the materials on a computer disk can be awkward because you  sometimes can't pull up the material fast enough for the 1 or 2 extra make-up copies you may require.  The black line master is a good, reliable, fast solution.

PROCESSING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:  For handling homework assignments, a stack of colored trays, one for each class period, kept near the entrance to the classroom is invaluable.

§       Students are instructed to place all assigned homework products in the color-coded folder in the appropriate tray.  At the end of the day,  pick up all folders, and you can separate at a glance what needs to be marked for which class.

§       Keep an identically arranged stack of trays in your “office area” for all papers to be returned to students after grading and recording.  If students have been absent, they know to check that tray for papers being returned.

REPORTING ATTENDANCE:  The administration is very happy with a teacher who reports attendance accurately.  Sloppiness or chronic inaccuracy in the attendance records can be grounds for dismissal. Keeping these same attendance reports can drive a teacher crazy, especially if there are lots of late entrants to class. To facilitate accurate record keeping, place a clipboard near the entrance to the class. Students who enter after the class has begun must sign in.  If they have any kind of pass, they deposit it in a basket for your  perusal at the end of the day.  If there is no form, the student is marked as tardy. The signature clipboard is the proof in clearing attendance problems: if the student had signed in, the absence report was faulty; if there was no sign in, the cut stands, and the student must deal with the consequences.

RETURNING MARKED PAPERS:  Returning papers can take up valuable teaching time. It also can play havoc with class control. After recording grades, it is efficient to separate the papers into stacks to be returned by row.  At the beginning of the period, during a warm-up activity while taking roll, have the papers returned by student aides or class members. The system works well once you have trained the students to refrain from interrupting your concentration with individual questions before you are ready to address them.  The students take just about as long to look over their papers as it requires to take roll.  You then can make the necessary comments, answer the necessary questions, and get on with the work of the class.  

SEATING CHARTS:       The seating arrangements you choose for your class may have a very significant impact on the group personality. 

·       Formal arrangements are great for certain types of classes.

·       Informal arrangements may promote more camaraderie among the students.

·       Group work requires different configurations from isolated, individual work.  

·       Whatever you choose, except for a specific activity, maintain the basic chair arrangement for several weeks.  The more academic the students, the more compulsive they are about their routine. Changing seating often is a surefire way to unsettle a class.

         Regardless of the  arrangement you choose, it is most important to maintain an up-to-date seating chart.

·       It expedites the daily task of attendance reporting.

·       It facilitates keeping participation records

·       It is an absolute necessity to maintain an up-to-date schematic for any substitute or classroom visitor/evaluator.

           Keeping a current seating diagram can be a real challenge if you change arrangements frequently or if you make alterations to separate talkers, accommodate learning handicapped students, or make other single incident changes. To accommodate these challenges, place a blank seating chart (created on heavy card stock) inside a plastic sleeve. Then write names in dry-board marker on the plastic sleeve or on reusable labels for each square. They can easily be changed as the need to rearrange social groups arises. Every substitute you have will thank you for keeping that chart up to date.

            The plastic sleeve is also great for keeping various sorts of tallies during the class period. A tick mark in red dry-board marker might indicate a student has been actively participating in discussion.  Green ink, on the other hand, might indicate the student was having trouble staying within the discussion.  At the end of the class period, you can look over those tick marks and determine what you want to do about the student participation or inattention. A quick shot of cleaner from a spray bottle cleans the sleeve to make it ready for the next meeting of the group.  

SYLLABI:     Provide a student syllabus at the beginning of the term which contains grading policies, attitudes about classroom behavior, homework demands, a reading list for co-curricular readings, bibliographies. Keep enough extras to distribute the first day a newly enrolled student comes to class.  That way, the new arrival can assimilate more quickly to the class process, and everybody suffers less stress from midterm entrance in a class. Tailor the syllabus to the class level.

          In addition to the course syllabus, distribute to the students a quarterly update, that outlines the needs for that period of time. Include a calendar of events, of sorts, which will give to the class members an overview of the academic terrain they will be traversing.  Naturally, this calendar goes through some alteration as time goes by; nevertheless, such a syllabus tends to keep a teacher up to the mark.  A teacher is less likely to leap and linger in the subject matter when the calendar of events reminds everybody that there are pressing  commitments.  The lure of expanding on a favorite subject is still there, but the teacher is less likely to say to, "Oh, well, one You then can make the necessary comments, answer the necessary questions, and get on with the work of the class.