Ok, so maybe not 1,562 copies, but let me tell you why making copies of my class list has been the simplest, yet best thing I’ve done for my classroom organization.
My first year of teaching I taught science on a block A day/B day schedule – for me that meant I taught the same lesson over a 2 day period to 6 different classes. This also meant I had around 170 students and their work to keep track of.
Fast forward to year two and I became a 2 subject teacher; I taught 2 blocks of science (one on A day and one on B day) and two blocks of math (everyday). While I had less students (around 60), I had to keep up with their work for two subjects.
I quickly realized that the key to surviving teaching so many students and then teaching two subjects was organization, organization, and more organization. One of THE BEST things that I did this past year was create a one page document with all of my class rosters on it. I sorted the page into 4 columns (one for each block), copied the student names from my online grade book, formatted the font into something cute, and approximately 3 minutes later I’d created the perfect time saving document.
Honestly, I think I created this master class list one day for a sub as emergency sub plans. I was home sick and couldn’t get into school to print and copy my updated class lists (the joys of middle school and a million schedule changes) so I created the document from home and emailed it to a colleague to print for my sub. However, this document ended up being the greatest thing for classroom organization (can you tell I love it yet?).
I’d usually print out 5-10 of these lists at a time to use for various things. When I needed more copies or when a student was added to a class or changed classes (which happens all too frequently) it was super easy to update the list and print new copies.
Obviously everyone has a class list, but do you have 1,562 copies of your class list?
Do you have a class list with every block printed on it that you can easily grab when its time for a fire drill?
How about copies of class lists that you can easily attach to piles of work as you collect assignments to quickly see who has turned in the assignment and when they turned it in?
Or do you have a copy of a class list you can quickly hand to a student to get them to take attendance for you?
Why so many lists?
Emergengies:
I typically keep a few full page copies of the document with all of my classes listed on it. I put one in my emergency folder, one in my sub folder, and I fold one up and put it in my badge holder so that I always have my list handy in case of emergency or if we are out of the classroom for some reason and I need to know who is supposed to be with me at the time.
Attendance:
With teaching middle school and having anywhere between four and six different blocks of students a given year, I struggle with remembering to take student attendance each block. At my school we take attendance for the day in homeroom & submit it to the office; beyond that taking attendance each block is up to the individual teacher. These lists have come in very handy with that process. I hang a list by the door where I will see it (that whole out of sight out of mind thing) and can quickly run down the list at any point during class to see who is absent. My favorite thing to do, however, is hand the list to a student and let them take attendance for me. This past year I had students fight over the responsibility of taking attendance each day and I didn’t have to worry about it.
Collecting & Grading Papers:
These lists are also super handy when it comes to grading and collecting papers. I simply use a paper cutter, cut the master list into columns by class, and viola I’ve created checklists for each class and only used one piece of paper to do so. I run down the list when collecting work, mark who turned it in and who hasn’t, and paper clip it to the front of the stack of work to be graded. This also comes in handy when students turn in work late because I can document it here as well.
Homeroom:
Having copies of my class list ready also came in super handy for all the little things you have to take care of in a middle school homeroom – collecting forms, permission slips, sign-ups, tech fees, etc. It is super convenient to have the student checklist ready to go so you can easily document who has turned in what.
Making copies of your class list is such a simple thing to do it’s almost funny; but always having copies ready to be used has truly been a game changer for my classroom organization. What other simple tricks for classroom organization do you have? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
T
P.s. My clipboard is Nate Berkus for Target from last year but you can find a newer option here and you can find my grade book pages to fit the Big Happy Planner here.
