Staying Organized Helps Classroom Management

In my previous post I wrote about some of the things I use to manage my classes. I have received a few messages asking for follow up on some of those concepts. Here are some techniques that help keep me organized.

Recording Team Points
As mentioned in the last post, I divide my students into teams based on colors. Since I teach so many different grades and classes, I need to have this whole process organized in a simple way. I record the points on a dry erase board that I have added colored tape to. I bought my boards at Lakeshore, however one cost effective way of creating these boards is to go to any large hardware store and ask for shower board. The shower board will usually come in a large sheet. Most hardware stores will cut the board down to individual sizes for free. You can also use this method to create a class set of individual white boards.

During class I give students points on the white boards but students know there is an ongoing sum of points being recorded. Every class period teams usually earn around 5-15 points. After each class period I record the points in a binder. The page I record my points in looks like this:

I use this template for recoding team points in my classroom

Another great method would be to invest students in the goal of earning points by keeping them posted on the wall. The only issue I have with that is that my classroom is used after school by other teachers, so I am worried about students coming in and adding points on their own.

Recording Table Groupings
I do not assign seats in my classroom, I just assign teams. Students are to sit on any available seat on the carpet that matches their team color. I group students in their tables based on behavioral concerns not their level in Spanish. Students can sometimes forget their team names, or students can leave throughout the school year making it important to have a record of who is on each team.

I record my teams on the following template:

If you do not have a sense for which students should be in what groups, you might want to ask their classroom teachers for help organizing the students in to teams.

Performance Assessment Checklist
The table groupings can also help when it is time to assess student's performance. Because of the frequency I get to see my students (2 times a week for less than 30 minutes) and the age level of my students (Pre K - 4th grade) the vast majority my assessments are performance based. I usually have a check list that I keep throughout a unit and as I hear a student master an objective I check it off my list. If by the end of the unit my students still have blanks, I then take time to individually assess. Here is the template I use to assess students

Note: I have a different page like this for each team color

I hope these templates are useful. Please contact me if you have any other suggestions for staying organized in your classroom!