What procedures have you found to make your day in 3rd grade go smoother, keep your sanity and make you room fun! I'll start: I personally can not stand pencils sharpening sounds...uggh! I also refuse to have the pencil shards all over their desks and floor since we don't get our rooms cleaned often because of budget cuts. SO...I have 2 cups of pencils in the front of the room. One is for sharp pencils and has a happy face on it. The other is for dull/broken pencils and has a sad face. I assign one student to be the lumberjack and their first job of the day is to sharpen all of the sad pencils and fill up our happy pencil cup. Then as a student needs a new pencil they quickly and quietly exchange their pencil for a new one.
Consider a method that will keep students in their seats. Too often students don't need to get up and get a pencil. They use the procedure to take a break from learning and/or chat with friends. The more students out of seat the more chances for disruption. A ziplock baggie with a cheap individual sharpener each student keeps in desk will help to keep students seated. Train them to sharpen pencil "in" the baggie so no shavings go flying.
I have sharpened and dull pencil cups too. After this year, I am done with individual pencil sharpeners at the desks. Certain students sharpen pencils all day long and sharpen them down to nubs. I'm going to have them keep to pencils in their desk (that they sharpen in the morning). They will be allowed to get a pencil if they break those. If they need to get up that bad they'll just decide to get a tissue or a band-aid or go to the bathroom anyhow. But it all depends on your population of students too.
Yeah a veteran teacher had told me to do that when I first started teaching and it was horrible! Only thing I've found to work is the cups. Less distraction than continuous sharpening in their desks and the mess. Students also know that if they abuse the right, they lose the right! I've never had anyone use it to talk to others. It's never in an area that is near others desks.
Line Order I have 'line order' and it works wonderfully! I have two lines and students have a specific place to be in line. The line leader rotates daily. So, the first person in the line will be the line leader for that day. The next day, the second person becomes the leader and so on. It really helps prevent behavior problems in line and helps prevent the student that always races to the front of the line.
3rd grade here and trying to establish bathroom break procedures. Anyone have any tried and true procedures? I was thinking instead of having students wait in the hallway for peers (since they are getting older) having the ones who do not need to use the restroom go to their desks (our bathrooms are right across the hall from our classroom) and take out a book to read (squeezing in some DEAR time) I would also like to issue two "bathroom passes" a week to each student. Students who do not use the passes get a stamp to go toward reward at end of the month. I would like to reward those who "take care of business" at the designated time, but also want to be sensitive to those who may have health issues. I know this can get sticky. Any other suggestions?
I might add that those students who use more than two bathroom passes will conference with me to determine plan of action, whether for health reasons or not. If needed, I will contact the parents. Some kids really do have issues here, I realize that.
I have a rule for the bathroom that nobody can go within 30 mins of coming into the classroom from any break. If there is an emergency during that time period it is typically because they were not responsible in taking care of it on their own time. Therefore, they have to clip down when i used clips in younger grades or pay me a certain amount in the grades I did a classroom economy. I would sell one bathroom (called a drink and drain pass) each week for less than the amount I charged for not being responsible. They could use that pass at any time to defer charges. I explained this very carefully to parents in my behavior letter and at back to school night. I also let parents know that if there was a medical emergency I would work with them. I know it sounds strict but really I found it was the easiest way and is quite fair to those who are responsible and take care of business on their own time.
Last year my principal implemented a no individual restroom unless a student has a medical excuse. I was not in favor of the rule at first, but now I truly believe. My students take care of business twice a day and I had very few emergencies. It helped that this was implemented throughout the whole school. How do your students hand in classwork? I still feel like this is a major weakness of mine.
I have a procedure that I used in 2nd and am using in 3rd now for pencils and handing in assignments - seat work. We have tables, so you would have to tailor it for your needs. There is a pencil basket on each table (coworker uses a caddy) and a student sharpens 8-10 pencils to be kept (they share) in the basket daily. I have my former students come in before school to sharpen pencils and my current students only sharpen during the time buses are called. The pencil baskets stay on the tables all day, everyday. When they finish an assignment, they place it under the pencil basket. After evreryone is finished, the helper picks it all up at once and turns it into a basket to be graded later. Those that don't finish do it during free time, at the end of the day, or get a F for not completing it.
I don't do whole class bathroom breaks, I just let them go when they need it. We have a signal (hold up 1 finger) when they need to go so they don't interrupt my teaching, and I can just nod or put up the signal for "Please wait if you can". And I have a rule they can't go during literacy hour - it's just too distracting. I also hate the sound of the pencil sharpener! I have mugs on their tables, sharpened pencils go point up and dull pencils go point down. Every other day or so I take a moment in the morning to make sure the tables have enough sharpened pencils. Usually I'll have a student or two who enjoy sharpening pencils and I let them take care of my supply during their free time. I've struggled with how my students hand in classwork, too. Right now I have a great hanging folder system (from The Container Store) that goes on the wall near my desk and folds up for me to take home at night. I have students turn in their work onto my teacher chair (in front of where I do whole group instruction), which forces me to pick it up and stick it in the appropriate folder to go home to grade. I tried baskets but work just piled up there.
I also use the two cups by the pencil sharpener method. It worked great for my class (when we remembered to sharpen pencils at the end of the day!). I actually like that they can get up and get a new pencil. There are times when they need to get out of their seat and stretch a bit, and a short walk to the pencil bucket is not distracting and gives them a short mental break. I teach two separate groups of kids, and I'm trying to figure out how they are going to turn in their papers too. Right now it's looking like a hanging basket for each class. I'm hoping if I take up the assignments all at once, then it won't be too big of a mess. We'll see... maybe I'll think of something more practical. As for passing out papers, I have two crates (one for each class) in which each child has a hanging file folder. After papers are graded, I have a kid file them into their designated folders and on Friday they take the whole stack home.
I have a ten drawer cart that students where students can turn papers in. I use some of the drawers for notebook paper and other types of paper too. I am close to the bathrooms, so I will probably just let my students go as needed. Last year (I had 2nd grade) I had them show they were in the bathroom by putting a clothespin up by their number on a little chart. I also had clothespins to show if they went other places (nurse, speech, etc.). They did pretty well with this.
2 independent bathroom trips a week seems pretty restrictive to me. I would probably start out just letting them go as needed and then set a daily limit if needed. When I had this issue I assigned each student a specific bathroom buddy, so if a student needed to go, they knew who to take with them (we are always on a buddy system). That way we didn't waste time picking who was 'going with' and i knew they weren't going just to leave the room with a friend.
I call my students to take a bathroom break by rows. I stand at my door while they're on their way too and from the bathroom because it's at the other end of the hall. This has worked well for me. We go once in the morning, then just before lunch, then right after recess. If they need to go at any other time, they just ask. They aren't allowed to ask while I'm teaching, though. They really don't abuse it. It's just a few of them that ask to go before break time. I sharpen my students' pencils for them. My pencil sharpeners last much longer that way and they aren't sharpening their pencils down to the nub. Again, the rule is they can't ask to have their pencil sharpened while I'm teaching. I have a cup of pencils at the front of the room if their pencil breaks and for some reason I can't sharpen their pencil right then. As far as turning in papers, I have a cardboard set of shelves where they turn them in. There are 4 shelves and they know if they are the first person turning in their assignment they just go to the next shelf up. I have to clean out the shelves once during the day, but usually a student will volunteer and paper clip them together for me.
I'm going to have to use some of the pencil sharpening ideas. I like having the individual sharpeners because I hate the kids getting up. But they always drop on the floor and break open! So I think I'll try the ziplock baggies. I also want to try assigning a job to sharpen pencils every day. I hate doing it myself-I always get blisters using the manual one.
