Behrman

Over the course of this semester, but especially as of late, I have noticed how crucial it is to have an organized classroom. This not only effects the teacher and how he/she operates within the classroom, but also the students. In second grade, students are beginning to take on more personal responsibility and accountability for their actions and their schoolwork. While modeling is key for teaching skills and strategies in the content areas, it is obviously also important regarding behavior. Just as we model for students polite ways of speaking and interacting with one another by saying "please," "thank you," and "excuse me," we must also model for them how to be responsible and organized. 

Many of my students misplace papers or lose assignments from one day to the next, which results in poor homework grades, but more importantly a missed opportunity for them to practice the skills we are learning in class. I implemented a new filing system for turning in and passing back homework to organize our room so that we don't have stacks of graded papers sitting around, cluttering our workspace, but also so that students and their parents can receive our feedback and comments. We had several parents at conferences request to see graded work on a more regular basis so that they can monitor their child's progress, as well. By using this filing system, I am also able to take note of which students are not turning in their homework, since their folder will be empty when I am collecting the assignments turned in that day. Students know that each morning, if there are papers in their folder, those are graded and to be taken home. This also holds myself and my MT accountable for grading papers on a routine basis, which again models for students the life skills we want them to take away from our classroom. 

I look forward to having my own classroom so that I can test various organizational methods and determine which are most effective for myself as a teacher (grading, copies of assignments, absent work, etc) and my students (homework, notes home, work for different content areas). If students know when, how, and where to turn assignments in, the class runs much more smoothly and more of the teacher's time can be spent facilitating learning.