One of the things that frustrated me the most last year was that students had no ownership over classroom supplies and therefore did not take care of them. On normal days I was efficient at policing students to put away colored pencils and glue sticks but I dreaded coming back from being out because I knew there would be supplies all over the place. And, I had to fight the never ending battle of digging into student desks where to find the missing calculators, glue sticks, rulers and scissors. (I wish I had pictures of my desks to show you, but imagine those desks from elementary school where you can store your supplies inside the desk itself.) My first year, I didn't miss a day of school until the end of January for a professional development day and didn't have a sick day until March. (Yes, you read that right!) School hasn't even started yet and I know of three days that I will be out of the classroom for professional development in the first semester alone. So, this procedure is being implemented in part to combat the mess I faced last year when returning from days out. I first read about this procedure while researching for a TEAM module last year. TEAM is the mentor program that Connecticut has implemented to help new teachers. It's mandatory for new teachers with 5 modules designed to be completed in 2 years. I first came across this idea on the blog purpleprontopups.wordpress.com via pinterest. I had faced a similar struggle of tons of class time being wasted with passing out and collecting materials in addition to the mess. I bought a set of 24 pencil pouches on amazon for $24.99 and labeled then as such. My plan is to include scissors, glue stick, pencil, eraser, highlighter, and some markers or colored pencils in each pouch also labeled with the number. Each student will be assigned a number that will be used for these pouches as well as our graphing calculators. Instead of attaching these to the desks, I plan to make a bulletin board out of it. I will teach students to grab their pouch and calculator at the start of class and that all must be returned before anyone can leave. Having it on a bulletin board makes it so I can easily see who hasn't returned their materials yet. I also like the clear fronts and the bright colors of the pouches. Unfortunately, I bought these before receiving my class rosters and found out that one of my classes has 25 students in it. :( So, #25 will have to deal with a lonely black case I have in my classroom. I foresee some problems already with this system but I am excited to see how it works in my classroom! I will post an update sometime in September when we've been using them regularly.
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AuthorI teach 8th grade math in Connecticut. This is my 3rd year teaching! Archives
August 2017
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