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February 2008

K.I.S.S. – KEEPING IT SUPER SIMPLE

Teaching is a complex profession. Although you may do your best to keep your routines and procedures as streamlined and consistent as possible, administrative edicts, curriculum requirements, new students and even new surroundings may derail the best-laid plans! Stay on track by simplifying those things you can control. We’ve provided you with a few strategies to consider.

In order to simplify, you need to quantify. Determine what aspects of your job you have the most control over. More than likely, you will discover it will be your organizational and management approach. We’re offering suggestions on how to simplify aspects of both.

PAPERS

Make things reusable. This will require a time investment in the beginning, but one that will surely pay off!
- Laminate decoratives and other display items, like classroom rules.
- Create generic answer keys. Create five or six keys to design your tests around. And if you use the SPEED SCORER™, it will take just seconds to grade them!
- Take advantage of products like our HOLD-‘EM-UP PADDLE BOARDS and WRITE ON! PAPER-SAVER POCKETS. These items not only save paper (and save you the time of making copies), but students can try and try again!

Pass papers out across rows, not front to back. If students can see the papers/basket coming, it reduces their chances of dropping them.

Designate one area for extra/leftover assignments. This allows students with extra papers or missing papers to deposit/retrieve them without coming to you (plus you don’t have to count out an exact amount for each row). Use a central communication center, like our 27-SHELF PAPER KEEPER, with cubby slots labeled to correspond to the calendar. Even absent students will know exactly what papers they need for the day(s) they were absent!

Designate one area for picking up and returning signed parent forms.

Designate one area for tests/graded papers. Train your students to turn in their papers in the order you want to grade them. Whether you use names or student numbers, ask your students to put their papers face down and in order (or ask a student helper or aide to do it).

Don’t grade every assignment.

Keep filing supplies near the files. Containers like our 39-DRAWER PARTS STATION store paper clips, rubber bands, staples, markers and more needed to keep your files neat and tidy.

Leave an extra three inches of space in each file drawer for easy file retrieval.

Keep only essentials on your desktop and store or file everything else. For often-used papers, reduce desktop clutter by using COLOR-CODE CLIPBOARDS. Hang them on or near your desk for easy access to schedules, student lists and more.

Don’t let it pile up. Nothing is more of a time waster than catching up on filing piles of paperwork. Create three to five categories for all papers (to grade, to file/keep, to read, etc.) and assign one bin to each. Place papers in these bins throughout the day, then make sure the papers are in their proper location by the end of the day or week.

Keep a week’s worth of lessons on your desk. Organize them in a five- compartment sorter, like the STATIONMATE™. Our QUICK-FIND EXPANDING JACKETS are perfect for keeping your lesson plans and materials together, organized and labeled – use one jacket per subject!

PRESENTATION

Take advantage of your OVERHEAD PROJECTOR to keep students on task. Write assignments, instructions, outlines and more on TRANSPARENCIES, then draw attention to them using colorful, eye-catching PROJECTOR PALS™. This is especially a timesaver if your lesson plans and assignments don’t vary much – make one transparency and use it multiple times. No need to write on the board over and over!

Keep full-sheet transparencies in SHEET PROTECTORS and store them in binders, sorted by subject. When you are ready to use them, just pull out the protector, leaving the transparency inside, and put it on the glass. Easy-to-grab binders keep your transparencies organized, smudge- and static-free!

Easily draw lines, graphs, circles and more with the help of some simple tools. Our LASER LINE MAKER projects a straight line, which takes the work out of drawing lines on magnetic-receptive boards and makes a great handwriting guide. The LINE SCRIBER and CHALK/DRY ERASE TOOL SET super-simplify drawing grids, staff lines, circles and more!

TECHNOLOGY

E-mail. It’s quick and easy, saves paper and saves routing time. And best of all, your e-mails are easily saved for future reference. Create several e-mail folders (parents, colleagues, memos, etc.) to keep e-mails super-organized and easy to retrieve.

Create (or scan) and store all master worksheets on your computer. It’s a super time- and space-saver. Organize all masters in folders by subject, then by unit. Always remember to back up your files by burning them onto CDs or by copying them to an external hard drive or central server.

Create a generic lesson plan template. Save it under “template.” Save each week’s plans according to date. Instruct your substitute to simply look up the plans on the computer (or e-mail them to him/her if you are able).

Use spreadsheets to record grades. Spreadsheets take up no desk space, they do the computations for you and make it easy to change your class lists if you need to add or delete students.

If you need to take computer files home, use a portable USB flash drive. It takes only seconds to save your work to this device, which is so small it can fit in your pocket or even on your key ring! (Reminder: flash drives are not to be used for backing up your files. They are only for temporary storage.)

Use an all-in-one printer, fax, scanner, copier. Just think how much simpler it would be to make emergency copies right from your desk!

MANAGEMENT

Find simple ways to call on students or assign tasks. SELECTORTOOLS™ SOFTWARE and MEGATIMER™ provide random, unrepeated number selection – perfect for impartial selection of every student in your class!

Eliminate verbal roll call. Utilize a pocket chart like our CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT POCKET CHART, in which students turn their card over when they arrive, or check attendance after students have begun working.

Create lessons plans as far ahead as possible. Take one afternoon each week to schedule one curriculum area for a whole month. Planning each subject monthly allows you to set more specific long-term goals and to provide emergency substitutes with what they need.

Keep your lessons simple. You don’t have to have a project or assignment for each one. Sometimes just clear explanation backed by real-world application will help students grasp the concept.

Keep lots of activities on hand for early finishers. Have a designated spot for these items so students who finish early can get the work without your assistance.

Limit classroom disruptions. The DELUXE YACKER TRACKER® electronically monitors whole-class noise levels and emits warning sounds, saving you from verbally doing it. The MAGNETIC CLASSROOM CONDUCT CHART and CHARACTER EDUCATION/CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT POCKET CHART allow you to give individual students silent warning when they have broken a classroom rule.

Designate specific times to take care of correspondence. Whether it’s e-mail, phone calls or notes from parents or colleagues, read and respond to it only at scheduled times of the day. This will make it easier to remember to reply and will keep your focus on your class. If a parent calls outside of these scheduled times, politely ask if it’s OK to call them back during your scheduled times. Make exceptions for emergencies.

HOT TIP: February: the month for Valentines. There is no better time to fall in love with teaching all over again! Take time this month to write down your frustrations, then research and collaborate to discover new ways to conquer them.

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