Back to School time once again. Students all over are considering the challenges of a new teacher and new class. Teachers are also considering these challenges. With a few simple organizational ideas, an elementary classroom can be a place with fewer challenges. Attendance is the major problem. Solutions to this problem are discussed in the article titled Attendance Time Savers for Elementary Teachers. Other problems are notes and pictures from students, boring word walls, and keeping up with makeup work for missing students.
Teacher Mailbox
Throughout the day, students have pictures or notes that they want the teacher to see. A pile grows on the teacher's desk and important papers often get lost in the shuffle. The solution to this problem is creating a classroom mailbox.
A plain rural mailbox is needed. The teacher paints or decorates the mailbox to match the classroom decor. The mailbox is then placed on shelf or pole near the teacher's desk.
Throughout the day, as students have notes or pictures for the teacher, they are placed in the mailbox. The teacher can then check the box throughout the day during planning time or other down times to see what messages are present.
Word Walls That Wow
Every elementary classroom has a word wall to help students learn to spell and recognize the words every student at their level should know. Class names can also be included on the word wall.
The first step to make the wall impressive is to jazz up the names of the students. This can be done by including pictures of the students on the tag with their name. This is a quick way for students to not only learn the name, but recognize the face that goes with that name.
Other words can be written in different colors. Verbs could include a visual description, for example, the word "jump" could be jumping on the card. Nouns could include a picture of the word, ie father has a picture of a father. Clip art is a good source for the pictures for the nouns.
Make Up Work That Works
Older elementary students can be given some ownership of getting the makeup work that they need upon returning. The teacher sets up a, "I was gone, now what?" area in the classroom. The area includes file folders for each subject or class taught in that classroom. As assignments are passed out each day, assignments for those students who are missing are labelled with their names and placed in the correct folder. Then upon returning, the students go to the folder and get the work they are missing. The work is also easily accessible if parents request work to go home for long illnesses.
A classroom can be a smooth running learning environment if teachers employ a couple of easy plans. Students and teachers will be happier and the year will go by smoothly.
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