Students at my school are required to keep their math notebooks in class, and must retrieve them when they enter the room in order to do their warm-up. This has been a nightmare that just takes FOREVER. Subsequently, my warm-up time is running at around 15 minutes which is totally unacceptable. I can't get enough teaching done during my 52 minute periods because of this. As of now, I have the last student in each row grab the stack for their row, and pass them down. That is what one of the other teachers does, but I HATE it. Kids are hitting each other on the head as they pass them down (mostly by accident ), they fall on the floor, kids take forever to look through the pile as it makes it's way down the row and it causes a HUGE ruckus. This obviously sets the wrong tone for beginning the period that is very difficult for me to fight despite my best positive discipline efforts. Time also tends to get added because I have had to walk the students back out into the hall to practice entering the room and getting to work quietly. What are some of your procedures for getting 6th graders to get their notebooks/journals quickly? I have to be at my door during the entire passing period so I can't pass them out before they walk in. One teacher takes them out of a bin right before the last class ends and spreads them out on her side table, but this is not an option for me for several reasons. I am looking for something more efficient, less conducive to misbehavior, and something the kids can do for themselves. I will also add that I have up to 47 kids in some of my classes and a very small room so kids standing around a shelf as they enter just becomes a bottleneck mess. ( I tried that the first week...YIKES ) Thanks everyone!!
Get or make letter dividers and store them in a sort of hanging file system. Have the students return them in alphabetical order at the end of class. Drill getting them and collecting them a few times: use a timer and make it a game.
Alternately, they do their warmup on half sheets of paper. YOU pass ut the books while they work, they glue the warmup in if it needs to be there.
just one reason why I hate standing at the door during passing period...we have a battle about this every year. Apparently we can't really be required to be at the door, but we are strongly encouraged to, and then today, we got an email saying it was "imperative." I can see why it's a good idea having teachers in the hall, but when you have 40 plus kids in your room, it's not so good that you can't be in there with them. The only times kids hit each other in my class last year were during passing period! In a previous room, I could be in the hall and have the kids lining up in front of me, but there's no room in the hall where I am now.
I have the students sitting in groups and they are required to keep their notebooks in a basket. The baskets are color coded by class, and numbered by group. Whoever gets to class first from a particular group is responsible for getting his/her group basket. The rest of the class just go directly to their group, take their notebook out and begin the work. Is not perfect, especially when students place notebooks in the wrong basket and so on but it helps maintain order at the beginning of class.
Can you have them pass sideways down the row? When I taught middle school, I always went sideways instead of front/back--it eliminates the head hitting. Also, if they put their notebook on top of the stack when they pass, they should be in order to pass back.
I would love to do this...elementary style My room is just too small for all of my kiddos to fit this way. Also, I think I am scared to have them sit in groups ALL the time. It's hard to compete. Thanks for the suggestion.
Sadly, no. Regular secondary desks. THere are baskets under the chairs of some but not all. If all had it I might be inclined to keep the notebooks for all 5 classes right under their seats.
You could also have students help you that you know can manage it. For times sake I would have like one student per table, group, row etc. whose job it is to get the books for the table. Furthermore the more organized the journals get put away the less time it takes the next day. For example, I don't put papers in ABC order because they don't sit in abc order and it takes longer to hand out. The papers stay in the order of who they sit with. Just something to consider.
I like both the drill time one and the half sheet of paper. Our entire district relates to AVID and uses Cornell notes. Most teachers have adopted AVID interactive notebooks. They do a lot of attaching, gluing, stapling, taping... things into their notebooks and it works great! In addition - I'm on a new team and two of my teachers require students to pass things sideways - this way, they can always see what's coming at them, rather than people knocking them on the head from behind. So your one person passing to the row might just need to change from "row" to "column"
I just sort of figured that one out! Of course, I will inevitably drop the stack of papers that I was so careful to keep in order I am trying to teach them to put theirs on top and I am going to change the procedure to passing across starting tomorrow. Less bonking on the head! Now I should know better, I read Harry Wong!
Gonna start passing the notebooks sideways tomorrow. NOt sure what I was thinking having them go over their heads! I think I might eventually go to the gluing and taping, but I need them to get the basics down first. I am planning on doing a lot of foldables and I will definitely have them glue those in the notebooks!
The whole glue-in thing is awesome. Our science teacher gave them two papers on the very first day of school and they glued it into their notebooks on pages 3 and 4. We finally used those two papers this week - not a single student said "what's that?" or "i don't have it." not even a "i forgot it in my locker." I'm like - "why didn't I think of that in my first 5 years of teaching?!?"
We also have to keep our notebooks (journals) in the classroom. And, we have to stand in the hall during passing period. Depending on class size, I choose 2 "folder captains" and 2 "journal captains" to pass out the folders and journals to every student (only 1 captain if a smaller, or more well-behaved class). Each week, I choose 2 (really 4 total) new captains for the following week. My substiute if a captain is absent is the previous week's captain. Like many things, it takes time to train 'em, but once they know the procedure it works well and quickly. In the beginning of the year, I notice who is usually at my door first and I choose them to be captain.
