Teaching Secrets: Organizing Middle Schoolers

Iulian Irimina
Language Arts and Technology
Current Event 2

Title: Teaching Secrets: Organizing Middle Schoolers
Author: Laurie Wasserman
Resource: Teacher Magazine
Publication Date: October 3, 2007

The article I have chosen for this blog refers to how to help middle-school students become more accountable and organized in class. As a middle school teacher I see on a daily basis that my students need to be reminded things and need help with organizing themselves in class. For example, 10/15 min later after the period started, one or two students realize they did not place the homework in the homework basket, or do not have pencil or need to go to the locker to get their loose leaf papers, etc.

The author of this article, who is also a teacher, provides some tips for the teacher to help the students manage better their working time, supplies, locker time, homework etc.
The transition from elementary to middle school is perceived as a big change for students and all of a sudden they see that they have more teachers, more assignments, more requirements and, of course, they are expected to do more. Here are a few things that a teacher could do to improve the overall organization and management of the class.

1. Agenda books are considered a solution for copying the next day homework assignment from the board. The author says that many schools provide their students a basic agenda where they could have the homework assignments for the following day.

2. Schoolnotes.com is a website where teachers can use space for posting homework assignments and different other school related projects. This is mostly for parents who want to check their child's homework for any day, even they are not at home and need to stay late to work.

3. Preparation Grade is a part of the overall grade given for how the student prepares for class. The writer of the article says " I allow them to go to their lockers, if they forget a book or a pencil. But each trip to the locker costs them 1 point from their preparation grade. It sounds harsh (and most of my students have ADD/ADHD), but I find if they know my policy ahead of time, and I’m consistent with it, they learn by trial and error".

4. The Absent-Student Crate is a way of helping students what assignments they have missed while they were absent. This gives the kids a running record of what assignments they have missed and they are able to find these missing assignments in a 3 ring binder titled "Schoolnotes".

5. The I.O.U. Board is basically a space on the board where the teacher posts the missing assignments/tests that that a student owe.

6. Pocket folders, a cheap way to help kids requires every student to a have a pocket folder with drafts and assignments in progress. On one side of the folder they could write TO DO meaning they need to work on certain assignments and on the other they could put down COMPLETED, which is the completed work.