Have you ever been so buried in grading that you let a few other organizational or procedural things slide?
That was me every time I tried to start the school year with a new complex organizational system. I would keep up the work for a month or so, and then I’d start procrastinating when more important things came along.
This school year, though, I pledged to make a change for the better, and so far it’s been going great.
I knew that in order to be successful, I needed to limit the number of changes I wanted to implement and then commit to spending a few minutes every day (or week) getting them done. I started by zoning in on the organizational pieces I thought would have the most impact for the least amount of extra work.
Goal 1: Manage my email inbox
Too much email stresses me out! I realized last summer that I had more than 2,000 emails still sitting in my inbox. They had been read, but I’d never gotten around to deleting them or deciding what was important to keep. Obviously I hadn’t done a very good job of managing my school mail.
After spending time sorting through the emails to determine importance, I discovered that 99 percent of it could go. I was left with an inbox that took up less than a page, and I felt a huge burden lifted. At that moment, I decided that I would stay on top of my messages this year. This meant addressing all correspondence immediately and then deleting anything that wasn’t important each afternoon before leaving work. Once it became a habit, it was easy to maintain. I currently have fewer than 20 emails in my inbox!
Goal 2: Use a student/parent reminder system
If you’ve never tried it for yourself, Remind.com is an effective tool to help middle and high school students (and parents) remember important deadlines. It’s a text messaging app that can send a reminder to all students or just a select group or individual.
I included information in my syllabus and touted the benefits at Back-to-School Night and parent conferences where I provided a handout with instructions for signing up. Both students and parents registered for the text alerts of upcoming deadlines, which has helped eliminate some problems with late work. Students and parents can also respond directly to the reminder alerts with questions, which pop up on my phone like a regular text.
Every Sunday night I schedule reminders for that week as well as what time I want them sent (usually 6 p.m., around dinner time). The best part – parents or students sign up on their own with no extra work on my part! This has been an easy change to implement this year, and parents (and students) have really appreciated it.
Goal 3: Keep my teacher website updated
My school website has links to teacher websites with pre-set templates. Last year I started the year setting everything up, but after a month, I abandoned it when life became hectic. This year I committed to updating more regularly and making sure key handouts are available to students who lose them. I promoted the website at Back-to-School Night and on my syllabus. So far I’ve been moderately successful. I only update about once a month (about once a unit), but I’m keeping it fairly up-to-date. Next year I’m moving my goal up to once a week!
Goal 4: Create and maintain an Absent Crate
In years past I had hanging file folders for each day of the week. When students were absent, I could quickly pull the handouts they missed. When I switched schools, I no longer had a place for the handing folders, so my system fell apart. It took time for me to dig out missing work from filing cabinet, and it required students to rely on me.
After exploring various options, I discovered some great ideas on Pinterest using Absent Crates. I took the ideas I read about and tailored them to fit my own classroom needs (see story below for more information). Now students don’t rely on me to provide information on the work they missed or the handouts they need. They can access the crate at the front of the room before or after class, and then follow up with me later if they have questions. All it takes from me is a few minutes each day to write down what we did in class and put the sheet, along with any handout from the lesson, in the appropriate folder in the crate. The rest is up to students! When a student (or parent) says he/she didn’t receive an assignment that’s missing in the gradebook, I simply ask, “Did you check the Absent Crate?”
What organizational strategies have you adopted this year?
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