I went in today to start setting up my new classroom! :haha: (yeah!) There is SO much stuff in there, I'm really going to have to do a lot more than I had anticipated as far as getting everything ready. I have loads of shelves in my room - many of which are filled with the Student's Text Books right now. I planned on passing out books the first day of school for students to keep in their desk. Do most of you do this, or do you have students store them on a shelf in the room? I'd like the extra shelf space to put out some materials that are stuck in boxes right now, but wanted some input about storing Text Books. Any pros or cons to having students keep them in their desks? Thanks so much ... I'm feeling a little overwhelmed this evening! :unsure:
I have students keep the textbooks in their desks. I like using my shelves to store other things. Plus, it's easier to transition when they don't need to get out of their seats to get books.
I hand them out the first day. I number them and coordinate them with student numbers so that if one comes up missing, I know whose it is. I store the ones we don't use until later in the year.
I keep student text books on shelves. There isn't enough room in their desks for them to keep them. (The Social Studies and Science texts are HUGE!) I have found that it doesn't take up too much time during transition. I usually use that time to write notes, vocab, etc... on the board. I also number the books and coordinate them with student numbers.
Thanks everyone. I went back into my classroom yesterday and continued with setting everything up. I took into consideration how big the books were, how big their desks were, and think that they'll be able to have some of the books in their desk, if not all of them. My kiddos will be going to the 5th grade teacher for ILA. I have to ask her if she plans on giving them books that they'll be keeping in their desks as well. Thanks for your input ... I'm slowly chipping away at getting this room set up!
We kept books in our desks one year and changed classes for various subjects and, lo and behold, the textbooks started disappearing. Now we have lockers - yippee! We make sure each student has all the same book number - so my classroom has book numbers 73-109 and all Billy Smith's textbooks will be number 78. Helps a ton when the kids misplace a book - and if you keep seeing the same numbers laying around, you can have a "conversation" with the owner.
I'm in middle school and the kids have to keep track of their own books in their lockers. Last year, my daughter's pre-AP history teacher told her class they could keep their book on a shelf in her room...I think she was trying to be nice. However, my daughter's book disappeared and we had to pay for it.
Unfortunately the kiddos don't have lockers. The desks are decent sized, so they should have room to keep all of their text books in there. I'm thinking about maybe giving them all but 1 text book to keep for themselves, and then storing the other one on a shelf in the room. I don't want their desks to get too packed with junk, but I know next year once they head off to the Middle School, they'll be responsible for organizing everything. I don't think I'll have to worry too much about stolen books (knock on wood) as I'll have the only 6th grade class in the school.
Last year when I was in 6th grade, I had them keep the textbooks that we used most often in their desks- math, english, and religion. The other textbooks, which I rarely ever used, we kept on a shelf in the back of the room.
My sixth graders were middle school, and had lockers in the hall. It made their lives, and mine, soooo much easier. Don't EVER give a student any textbook without recording its number beside his/her name in your gradebook. Make several copies of the page, and give one to the principal and the secretary, as well. If you don't, and they lose it and steal someone else's book, how can you prove it unless you've got a record? Make sure all of your textbooks are numbered, and make sure every child under your jurisdiction who gets a book from you, has that number recorded beside his/her name. At the end of the year, my school sent bills to all families whose child lost a book, and if they didn't pay up, we took them to small claims court. Books are expensive, and it's not fair that others have to suffer price rises and inconvenience because a handful of kids can't handle responsibility. Let those people pay, not the good kids.
