Are you attempting to start the new year strong in your classroom by reviewing expectations upon getting back from winter break? Why not also evaluate what procedures aren't working or finding procedures you can tweak to make it even better?
January is the perfect time to try some new classroom procedures! I've got three great ones (plus a freebie!) that will save you time this classroom and every year after. Read on to find out if they will work for your classroom.
Keeping Track of Student Assignments
How much time to you spending chasing assignments or rifling through stacks of papers to see if all of your students turned it in?! Stop that today and save yourself HOURS of time this school year. This was one of my favorite time savers in the classroom. It helped me be organized with assignments to put into the computer, but most of all, students assumed responsibility for making a quick checkmark by their name when they turned it in. Check out this blog post for detailed, step-by-step instructions for how to implement this procedure in your classroom. Keep reading to figure out how I couple it with another procedure to maximize the procedure and save even more time...
Reflect & Highlight - Eliminate No Name Papers & Encourage Self-Reflection
This is a procedure I came up with years ago and started implementing one January after being fed up with spending 5 minutes after school every day hanging no-name papers up on the board. I felt like having them just highlight their name was pretty pointless and also something they would forget often. But I decided that building in some self-reflection would be meaningful enough to get them to remember to do it, so the Reflect & Highlight procedure was born. Students began highlighting their name with the COLOR that correlated with their level of understanding about the assignment. Check out this blog post for all the details about how to make this work in your classroom! It pairs perfectly with the checklists above.
Relatable Classroom Voice Levels That WORK!
If you're like most teachers, I'm sure at one point or another you have struggled with students understanding an appropriate voice level for the context of what they are working on. Let's be honest, voice levels 0-4 just don't cut it. I created this resource as a way for students to relate to the locations they encounter in real life. These tie in to so much more than just the level of their voice. Check out this blog post and the reviews on TPT to see what other educators are saying about how this resource has changed their classroom for good!
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