Rutherford
(2009) states that after the importance of establishing a positive classroom
environment the next important thing that must be done is to examine how we manage
the stuff of the classroom.
… “That has to be
combined with the eternal quest for systems that work for handling the paper
flow to and from and within the classroom, facilitating the work of large
numbers of people, and to not only acquiring the necessary instructional tools
but also being able to find them when we need them!” (Rutherford, Just Ask
Publications Website)
How are you handling the paper flow (papers, work
communication with parents)? What have
you observed that works and what could use improvement? What are your challenges in this area?
Rutherford, P. (2009). Why didn't I learn this in college? .Alexandria, VA: Just Ask Publishing.
I feel like I am handling the paper flow pretty well this half because if there is anything that needs graded within our 6th grade group, like the writing pieces I mentioned in the last post, we split each switch (each group of students that move when they need to switch classes)among 3 teachers. I also graded a homework worksheet on nouns that I assigned to the 80 6th graders by myself because it was something that assessed what we were working on, but was in a simple format for me to grade in a timely manner. If I would have been asked this last half, I would have said that for the most part, I did well, however, it was very difficult to keep track of absent student work and having a time to talk to them and catch them up on the work they missed (including the papers I had to keep for them). I like the absent folder idea my teacher used, which had a list of all of our subjects and we wrote down what they missed from each and had the papers filed in the folder and she even had other students be responsible for that task as well.
ReplyDeleteAs for the communication with parents, we recently had an IEP meeting scheduled with the mother of one of our students for a re-evaluation and that opened my eyes to what we might have to expect as teachers. This family didn't have a computer or phone number my teacher could use to communicate with the mother to set up a time for the meeting, so she hand wrote a note and asked the student to be responsible and hand it to his mother (she also used a reward system for him to play a game called Marble Blaster on the computer because this student is not very organized when it comes to papers). He brought the note back to school, however, the mother didn't show up for the meeting, but she did have her son give my teacher a phone number for her to call. The meeting was then rescheduled, but the mother was a no show. It was quite sad. As for communication with the other parents, I sent home a letter about myself at the beginning of this placement for families to be informed about me, since I would be working with their children. I will also be having other IEP meetings coming up soon, so I will have to wait and see how that communication with those families will go.
I liked reading your post and getting to see some of the instruction being done in learning support in the other subjects as well. Being just in math allows me to really foucs on a given student in the math content area and allows me to really know where they are at in terms of mathematical concepts. However, I have to rely on the other learning support teachers to share a students' progress in the other content areas. Sometimes this information is needed to make the most effective instruction possible.
DeleteMy teacher hand writes all her messages because your right not everyone has access to technology. She writes about a specific child including all the activities, therapies and other progresses of the day. (I will soon pick up this task). I have also have no-shows that we have contacted a parent and they are planning to come and then end up not being their. My cooperative teacher and the special education teacher still conducted the meeting and just sent the paperwork to the parent. It is a shame that it had to be that way because it is better to have an IEP in person in case the family does want changes in the plan.
DeleteThanks Laura! We also have to rely on other teachers to talk us through how our students are doing in specific content areas if they struggle in them. We also have to collect their work for them if they're absent so we know they will have it and we can fill them in. However, what's very nice for us is that we can pull up all of our students grades through one website to look at all of the assessments they've done to see if there's anything missing or if they're not doing so well in a subject, whether it be the teacher's grade book or assessments from ILS and Study Island. This comes in very handy when working with IEP re-evaluations or the beginning stages of the IEP's.
DeleteI agree Lou, and that is what we did while also documenting that the parent did not show up.
I love the folder idea! And that you have other students help keep track of things for the absent students. One of the teachers that I help out with assigns students to help with absent students' papers as well. I ran into the problem of catching them up on things they missed as well. I like that in the folders you also wrote down what was taught in each subject. I will have to keep these strategies in mind if I run into this problem again in the future.
DeleteI feel that this half I am doing a good job of keeping up with the flow of paperwork. It is important that everything be kept up on and that students are receieving feedback in a timely manner. It is also important that I stay on top of paperwork due to the fact that those on the IEP team as well as other school faculty are often seeking students grades, progess etc. I feel that the best means for all of this to be accomplished is to grade and evaluate students at the end of each day. Over the last few weeks I have made this a part of my routine. Before I was doing all of that at the end of each week and I found it to be more overwhelimg and difficult. Especially when things that might have been importent to note were no longer as fresh in my mind. One of the things I am still struggling with as far as paperflow is constantly keeping track of who still owes me what. Unfortunatly, many of my students often end up in ISS, OSS, or absent. So it is important that I am remaining organized and on top of my work to ensure that they are getting everything that they are missing.
ReplyDeleteIn reguards to commmunitcation with parents I've been granted numerous opportunities in the beginning of my weeks here to sit in on IEP meetings. I've been able to interact with parents and voice any concerns or suggestions to my co- op as to what might need to be done to help a given student succeed. I feel that having the parents as a part of the IEP meeting is crucial. Without their participation the collaboration for students success both at home and in school suffers. In the next few weeks I will be given the opportuntiy to help out with a students IEP as well as play a role in the meeting. I am eager to take on the experience!
I agree about parents participation in the IEP meeting. I have gone and everytime I have gone the parents have not shown up, so it has been really upsetting to see. It is wonderful when parents want to be their and help their child, but at the same time it is sad to see some not willing to help out.
DeleteIn my current placement, I don't have nearly as much paperwork as I had in my previous placement in the general education classroom. In my general education classroom, there were a lot more worksheets, lesson plans, and grading student's work in general. I feel like I have handled the paper flow fairly well though overall. I kept all of my papers in a folder that was separated by tabs. I taught three subjects in my general education classroom, and I have a different tab for each subject to keep them organized. Whenever I had papers or projects to grade, I kept them in a bag and also used paper clips to keep the papers together before and after they were graded. For this placement, my lesson plans are a lot more condensed and are completed in a shorter time period. Also, the work that is done is mainly from workbooks, so the paper load for me is not as heavy as it could be. In my general education placement, I liked how my cooperating teacher had an absent sheet where another student would fill out a sheet for the student who was absent to show them what work they missed during the day. I thought this was a great idea because my cooperating teacher did not have to worry about getting all of the work together for the student and explaining to the student what they needed to do the next day that they came, because everything they needed to do was written on that sheet of paper. Some areas of improvement that I could see in both placements is just the overall responsibility that students need to have with their work. Teachers should show students how to be responsible and help motivate them to complete their work correctly and on time.
ReplyDeleteI sent home an introduction letter to parents in my special education placement just introducing myself and informing the parents that I would be in their child's classroom for the next 8 weeks. I also attached a media release form which the parents needed to sign and the students returned throughout the next week. I have also interacted with parents during assemblies, after-school activities, and IEP meetings. I enjoyed watching my special education cooperating teacher interact with families of the student during the IEP meeting. She made the families feel comfortable and also let them know that she was there to help their children. It really showed me how involved some parents are in their child's education and also how important it is to have that communication with the families. Families need to be aware of what is going on in their child's classroom, and it is up to the teacher to provide that insight and keep the families involved.
I also don't have as much paperwork in this placement. I liked your ways of staying organized! I think I am going to start using your absent student sheet. That is really convenient for a teacher!
DeleteI sent a letter home introducing myself to the students’ parents too! I think it is important to establish a professional relationship with the parents. They need to understand that we are a team and our goal is to help their child reach his/her highest learning potential. Additionally, I send letters home about class activities. In my gen ed placement, I made a “Current Events” bulletin board and the parents received a letter explaining that they could send news articles in to place on our board.
DeleteI agree with Janis! The absent student sheet is an awesome idea! I'm not sure the younger grades would be able to handle the responsibility, but the upper elementary grades would be good at it! It's cool that you got to see an IEP meeting! All of my students' IEPs were completed in the fall, so I won't get to sit in on any (at least for my student...I may try to sneak into a meeting for another student!).
DeleteI would definitely recommend sitting in on an IEP meeting. It was just neat to actually see everything we've talked about in class being used during the meeting. I also liked seeing how much teacher interacted with the parents and made sure that the parent was on board with everything in the IEP. All of the parents in the meetings I attended were very welcoming when they were told I would be sitting in as well.
DeleteI would also like to use the absent sheet in my own classroom someday as well! Such a cool idea!
In both placements paperwork and other materials have been handled well but there were some things I would do differently.
ReplyDeleteIn my last placement (4th grade) the students had both folders and mailboxes. The students had homework folders that they would take home every night (or if there was homework in any subject) and return it in their homework pouch when completed. Wednesday folders that the students would empty their mailbox to take paperwork home, and a Graded Work folder that the students would take home every Friday. What I didn't like about this system is that the papers that didn't need to go home or mailbox were jammed in the desk which would get lost or ruined. Also I would my students and their family's to know right away any grades that went in rather than wait until the end of the week.
In my current placement my students have folders. My teacher will record everything that their child did that day (ex: toileting, therapy,specials...etc) She will then write a personal message saying about the activities that we did that day and what is coming up. Parents also have a space where they can respond and let the teacher and staff know about a student (ex: how well they slept or ate the night before, behaviors....etc) I personally appreciate it because it keeps the lines of communication open and everyone has input. She also organizes recording sheets in each individual students with their IEP Goals, Therapy, and toileting. It is a lot of paperwork but organized in a manner that is not overwhelming.
I think we need a solution for all those "lost" papers in the desk! It happens all the time! If they don't need it, just recycle it!
DeleteWhen I was in my general education placement, my co-op gave me a great system in which it was a set of filing folder and each one was labeled by the day of the week. This was a great system because as I photocopied pages or made lesson plans, I could stick them right into the file folder for that day. At the end of the school day, I would look into the folder for the next day and see what I needed to copy/ what I needed to do for the next day.
ReplyDeleteIn my current placement, my co-op is very organized! She labels things with students names and makes sure that everything has a place in the classroom and that that thing gets into its right place. I think the bottom line is that there is a lot of paperwork in education and as a teacher you need to find a system that works for you and stick to it. I think you need to model responsibility and organization for your students because if that is something you explicitly said you expect from them, it won't add up if you don't follow that same behavior.
My general education co-op also used the file folder method for every cycle day. That way even if the cycle day changed teh day of the week she was still able to stay organized with the papers and what was coming up. This placement, she just kind of goes with the flow and has her own organizational techniques that I can't quite pick up on! But I agree, if you keep at it and stay organized it won't add up!
DeleteI really like that fole folder system. My co-op uses file folders for many other things, but I like how it keeps you on top of what you need to accomplish that week. When things are organized my students respond much better, than when things are disorganized. Since many of my students have attention disorders, not being organized can ruin an entire lesson.
DeleteIn my general education placement my co-operating teacher also created folders for each day of the week and filing the materials for that days lesson in the folder. I even found that my general education teacher was more organized and I felt lesson stress. Whereas, in my special education teacher organizes each students paperwork for IEPs, her classroom still seems unorganized. It is a more go with the flow kind of feeling.
DeleteI'm handling the flow of paperwork just dandily! In my last placement I had constant contact via a communmication log with a parent regarding the use of an iPad within the classroom. That was a great way to keep the family in the know, but also allow them to informally comment and question what was happening and how their child was doing. As for this placement, there is limited paper flow for me, besides a few papers to grade every now and then. My teacher on the other hand, has a lot of paperwork regarding IEPs and other important information that the district requires. She is very orgnaized and is always on top of the game with what she needs to do. I've learned that if you keep up on what you have to do and keep the organization, it won't add up to be the most stressful thing ever. Don't procrastinate, that's the biggest hurdle that I have to get over!
ReplyDeleteIn my Special Education placement, I am handling it pretty well. Two of my students parents have conversations with me every day and it is a nice way to get to know them and how their child is at home as well. The day is very crazy, so papers need to be handled in the morning right away and quickly at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteIn my general education placement, handling papers got pretty intense with how she had me doing it. There were a lot of worksheets to look over at the end of the day, which caused me to have to stay later than I would have to normally. We discussed it and she wants to change it because she does not like how much she has to do as well. With parent communication, I handled it really well. I sent out letters to let parents know what we were doing in the classroom and allowed parents to come in while I was student teaching to help out and see their child. Both have been great experiences to practice and learn better ways to handle paper flow and parent communication.
We have a similar program in our class with communication. My co-op sends a binder home each day where she describes how the student was in school and the parent sends back a note to tell us how his night was or how his morning is going. It's great to have a heads up on how the students are doing and have a little bit of a warning on how their moods are in the morning. I definitely plan on using a method like that in my future classroom!
DeleteI agree! I will definitely use a communication log as well in my future classroom. It is very helpful to know the students moods and if anything has happened over the weekend or the previous night.
DeleteEspecially with special education there is a huge flow of paper coming in and out of my classroom. There are 22 binders that are in our room used for progress monitoring, that are moved to a reading room each week to track students. For each IEP that is completed my co-op and I have to make five copies of each set of papers. These papers are organized in a variety of ways. The first copy is stored in the office. The next copy is stored in the student's IEP folder in the classroom. A copy is sent home to the parents in a sealed folder. One copy is given to the classroom teacher. This copy is highlighted with all of the services that will be completed in the general education classroom. The final copy is sent to district office for documentation of the IEP and meeting. Also all test and quizzes for my identified students are completed in our classroom. Teachers drop off all of these papers the day of. Some assessments are graded by us and returned in a sealed folder. Other assessments are returned to the teacher by the student themself. There are also folders where all the lessons that take place in the general education classroom are stored. This allows us to reference the lessons when needed and make preparations for our students. For some students we also need to make extra copies of the board work so that they can practice.
ReplyDeleteMost of my parent conversations have occured during IEP meetings. Since my students are part of the general education classroom for the majority of their day, I do not have the same parent connection that I did during my general education placement.
All of our paperwork is organized in folders in a filing cabinet. This really helps to keep things neat and organized. This also allows us to access paperwork any time that we need. I really haven't had any struggles with paperflow or parent communication.
I keep a binder that has dividers to help me stay organized. The dividers help me to separate my lesson plans and papers. I also used posted notes to remind me of the tasks I need to complete each day. I used this binder and posted note system in both my general and special education placement. I find that my paper organization system works well and helps me to stay organized. The only challenge is creating the binder. It is very time consuming to make the binder and dividers. (I know this seems like an easy task to complete, but it requires a lot of time.) Since I am successful in keeping my papers organized, I do not feel that there is a need to improve. However, I am open to learning about other ways to stay organized. My current cooperating teacher uses a folder to put the current week’s lessons plans in. I think the folder system is a good system, and I might use it in my future classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to communication with parents, I sent a letter home introducing myself to the students’ family members. I also sent letters home describing certain classroom activities, such as our “Current Events” bulletin board and “Hooked on Books” reading challenge. This helped to establish the school-home connection.
Additionally, I have attended IEP meetings. Sitting in on the meetings has helped me learn how to professionally conduct a meeting. My cooperating teacher has also shared with me how to invite the parents to the IEP meeting, how to keep all necessary IEP forms updated, and how to keep all involved IEP team members in updating the IEP. I am very glad that my cooperating teacher shares IEP information with me.
I also keep a binder with dividers to put my lessons in and any other important papers. I find it a great way to stay organize and to manage all my lessons and papers.
DeleteAttending IEP can be very beneficial; because you can gain background knowledge about the student and what his or her parents/guardians expectations are for their child.
In my placement, my co-op keeps in touch with families regularly. Each moth, she writes a newsletter and sends it home to families about upcoming events and classroom news. I had the chance to write and send out the newsletter for April, which was great because I had a chance to reach out to parents and practice sending news home. My co-op also keeps a daily folder for each student, and writes in it at the end of each day. Since there are only seven kids in the class, there is usually time to write a decent message in each notebook. Some parents are diligent about responding to the messages in the notebook while others don't often comment back. It's great that there is so much communication between school and home -- it's a great way to share how the student is doing at school, and make connections between what is happening at school and what is happening at home.
ReplyDeleteAs far as paperwork in the classroom goes, my co-op is extremely organized, and I am trying to learn from that! One thing that I've found especially beneficial is the "Sub plans" chart. My co-op has a laminated chart with a column for each student, and after each student has their individual reading instruction, their part of the chart is updated, and what needs to be done the following day is written down. Not only does this keeps everything in order in case a substitute needs to follow it, but it also helps keep track of patterns of attendance (there's a section to write if the student was absent or not) and how quickly the student is progressing through lessons.
Overall, I hope to make progress in staying more organized. While I have everything situated in a way that I understand, I realized that it looks a little disheveled and it's likely that no one else could follow my "system". I'd like to make it "actually" organized, and not just organized enough that I don't lose things.
we also have communication books that go home each day. I think this is a great way to communicate to parents and for parents to communicate to us about their student. I really love this system and I see that it works very well.
DeleteKatie, my teacher is also constantly communicating with families. She sends emails daily if necessary to parents updating them if there was a problem that came up during the day. If not, she typically sends an email at the end o the week that explains what assignments are coming up/ due as well as behavior updates.
DeleteAs others have said, I'm finding that there aren't as many worksheets, activities, or lesson plans to be printed. Most of the printing and copying involves progress monitoring sheets, home/school communication sheets, and afternoon communication activities, crafts. Luckily, there is an abundance of staff members in the room to help with copying and organizing all of the papers.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of each day, I fill out an individualized communication log for each student, noting which IEP skills were addressed, how the student behaved and ate, and any other comments. That night, the parents fill out the reverse side, which I check in the morning.
My co-op is very organized, with a file cabinet with clear labels for each student, so I've found that to work very well! She also has a neat system for letting our paraeducators know what needs to be copied. There is a red basket, which we put things in to be copied, and my co-op keeps some post-its that say what needs to be done (10 copies, front to back, staple, hole punch, etc). I think this is an awesome system!
In my general education placement, each of my 25 students had a mailbox, which we filled with anything that was to go home. Often, I found that the stack of papers to return home was dauntingly high. It took a while to sort through everything, so I might try to come up with an alternative system if I had more students.
My goal is to just stay organized and not let anything back up. I like to leave each day with all of my ducks in a row!
I am also filling out a log for each student every day, however, my co-op has us doing it during the day so there's hardly ever any data collect at the end of the day. She sets up "workboxes" for each student. We have a designated workbox time in which the students complete jobs in their box that are related to their IEP goals. As they complete their jobs, a teacher or a para comes around and marks their score in their individual log. It is a very effective and organized system and keeps the kids effectively busy for a good hour of the day! Of course, instead of filling out the log at the end of the day, we have to fill workboxes with new jobs each day after school.
DeleteI think organizing is very important with in the classroom. In my current there is a lot of data we have to collect on the students and it all most be organized. We have a color coded system for everything which seems to be working. Each student has a color and their schedule and data books are all organized based on what color they are. They aren't many lesson plans or homework that I have to keep track of. Each student as a communication book that goes back and forth to home and school each day. I look at these books in the morning to see what the parent wrote from the night before. Then I write in them at the end of the day noting which IEP skills were addressed, how the student behaved and ate, and any other comments. There is plenty of staff of available to make copies and help keep track of the data on each student.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a color coded system. It's visual and keeps them on track and organized for the most part. I was in a classroom with no system and it was not a good plan. Also, it's great that you monitor how the IEP skills are addressed.
DeleteMy teacher has a VERY organized system because of not being in "our" classroom. Each day has a specific color that we use when marking papers, writing notes, or filing papers. This helps if we are unable to file paperwork right away and determine which papers came first, second, etc. Another technique that my teacher uses is every student that she tracks has their own file folder. All of their papers/ documentation is kept in these folders. If a parent/ administrator/ teacher has a specific question regarding a student, she is able to pull this file and have all the paperwork in one place.
ReplyDeleteAnother strategy my teacher implements is having a folder/ binder for each general education class. This helps when students have questions about material they are learning in a specific class. We are able to pull the notes or materials that are being used for the class and help the students with questions.
Parent communication in my classroom is generally done electronically through email. To keep this organized, my teacher created a folder for each student which she is able to place all email contact between parents into these folders. If a parent does not have email access, my teacher writes all phone conversation in a journal with the students name to document what was said during the communication.
I believe these strategies are very effective for our position. Since we are constantly moving to classrooms, being organized is a MUST. I honestly do not think I would change any of the techniques. My teacher has held her position for many years, and I believe these are the techniques that work the best.
I am surprisingly not getting overwhelmed by paperwork. My co-op is excellent and has everything so well organized. Each student has a binder with their IEP goals and data collection charts. This makes everything very easily accessible when working one on one with a student. Doing data collection each day seems very effective to keep track of the students' progress efficiently. The students have a homework book that is written in every day which assigns them reading or spelling practice. These are written in during the morning and are ready to go when the students leave. There is also a communication book that my co-op tries to write in every day for each student. Unfortunately, there are only a couple parents that actually write back to her. However, my co-op is in good connection with the parents by phone if they don't answer anything important or there is an issue at school.
ReplyDeleteMy co-op definitely has an awesome system that involves all teachers and paras in the room to be actively involved with paperwork so no one gets too overwhelmed.
The number one form of organization that the school district of Lancaster has required all of their teachers to adopt and now I am using is a data collection binder. These binders are broken down by each student and then further broken down by each subject and so on. For every meeting the teacher is required to bring this along and you better hope that it is up to date. In the middle school, the IEP system is compltely computerized throughout the school and whoever has permission can access it and make changes. I like this because it promotes a collaborative approach to the IEP team and everyone can see and suggest changes and what is going on.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a very helpful way to stay organized. I should try to develop one of my own for the final month of student teaching. Although I am not dealing with IEPs, it could definitely help me keep lessons, notes from home, etc organized.
DeleteI honestly was not expecting the amount of paperwork that is done each week...each day... in an elementary school. From the papers that need to be copied for each lesson, to notes coming from home, to communicating to parents what is going on each week, there is so much going on. This is not such a challenge for returning teachers because they are able to reuse materials and have their copies made early, but for a new teacher, this becomes very overwhelming very fast. I have learned to get my paperwork done early. (which is hard when I don't know what I want to plan to do!) It is always better to have more copied than not enough. I think keeping my lesson plans organized is a challenge as well. There are so many lesson plans each day that keeping them in order and keeping ones that are for weeks in advance organized it difficult. For the remanding month, I could definitely work on this area. I tend to be a very organized...usually over organized person...so this seems overwhelming to me.
ReplyDeleteMy general education placement was outrageous with the amount of paper work that we dealt with each day. Between homework, notes from home, worksheets, copied papers for the next day, and lesson plans, the amount of trees we used was probably very bad for the earth! In order to stay organized, I kept papers in a three ring binder in page protectors. This way all the papers were kept together and divided in an organized and neat manner. Papers that I needed on a regular basis were kept in the binder and brought back and forth between home and school each day. Copied papers and worksheets that were going to be completed at school were placed in page protectors and kept in my desk at school. It was so easy to stay organized and not be overwhelmed with paper work this way. My special education placement is the same way, just with much less paper. I have a binder with page protectors organized by category to help stay on track. I highly recommend using this method in the future! My only challenge in this area was finding a big enough binder and having to deal with carrying the weight back and forth each day.
ReplyDeleteDuring my general education, communication with parents would occur weekly. Each week parents were sent a letter about what will be taking place in the classroom this week. Parents were also contacted about student behavior in the classroom based on our behavior management plan. The communication with parents was extremely frequent and therefore, the relationships with parents were well established. Parents of my students were extremely involved with their child and the classroom. Paperwork in this placement was not overwhelming, as my teacher had bins created to place specific materials and papers. We also used filing cabinets, folders for individual students, and binders.
ReplyDeleteIn my special education placement, there is less communication with parents, which was of surprise to me. There is daily communication through student agendas. However, the note consists of messages, such as, "good day" , "great day", "bad day today", which I find to be vague and doesn't provide the parent with information as to why it was a good day or why it was a bad day and what took place in the classroom. However, when larger incidents occur then students' parents are contacted. The other communication with parents is through the IEP meetings. The meeting that I had a chance to sit in on went extremely well and the parent of my student attended and participated in the meeting with questions, concerns, and comments. In this classroom, labeled bins are used to organize papers and a file for each student in a cabinet.
In my general education placement students were sent home a newsletter for what would be going on for that month. What events were taking place and what concepts students would be learning. Parents were also given a calendar on days when they could come in to volunteer to help out in the classroom. There was constant communication between parents and teacher. My co-operating teacher handled paper work by having a file for each student in the classroom for them to store their paperwork. I also kept a lesson plan binder, which had all my lessons in for each week.
ReplyDeleteIn my special education placement there is a lot of paperwork involving progress monitoring and IEPs for each student in the classroom. Since I am in an emotional support classroom, all students have a behavior check sheets which used to figure out the percentage of how often particular behaviors occur. Students are also progressed monitored in reading and math. Since behavior problems often interfere with students learning they fall behind. So in a smaller student ratio and providing small group instruction it our goal to help students learn coping skills and maintain at grade level. Much of the paperwork is maintained by providing students with their own binders and also keeping IEPs and other plans in a file.
In the first grade classrooms that I push into, each student gets a similar newsletter. This newsletter also includes the homework for the week as well as the word wall words. I have also on numerous occasions witnessed calls to the parents. These calls however, are more for disciplinary purposes. In special ed there is that constant contact because there needs to be. There are often calls home (for good and bad reasons) my co-op often sends emails and even texts some of the parents to keep them updated on their students progress. In the classroom we keep a big binder specifically for progress monitoring.
DeleteI keep a binder that has dividers to help me stay organized. Each divider is used for each content area that I am teaching. I also place important papers in a separate divider; such as observations from supervisor, teacher’s notes, and any important forms. I used this type of organization for both field placements. However, sometimes I find it hard to stay organized. I am constantly taking lesson plans out of my binder to look at or printing worksheets, which I forget to, put them back into the binder. I need to make an effort to put all papers in dividers at the end of the day before leaving school.
ReplyDeleteAs far as communication with parents, I sent home newsletters introducing myself. Also in the student take home folders; there is a school-home log that both the teacher and parents can communicate through. I also have been able to attend a number of MDE and IEP meetings. By participating in the meetings I learned how to keep all those involved on the IEP team up to date with paperwork, how to carry out an IEP meeting, and how to relay information to parents/guardians about their child. Overall, I feel I have been managing my teaching fairly well it can be overwhelming at times, but I just take everything one day at a time and layout everything the day before.
I must admit that at the beginning of my general ed placement my organization skills were not perfect. We had an empty table to store papers on so i started out putting my papers for the week in organized piles on this table with a sticky note labeling which day it was for. Quickly found out this was not the way to go. I used the binder method then and kept all my papers for the week in there separated by subject area. This was a better system because it kept the papers secured in one place and it was easy to transport in case I needed extra copies of something, plus when I started using this method we got our empty table back to do group work. The thing I found difficult about paperwork were the papers for absent students. I would write their names on papers and at the end of the day I would place all the papers from the day together and paperclip it and place it on the empty table so I would remember to hand it out the next day. Things began getting mixed up though so I started to put them in a cubby separate from other papers. In my special ed placement they do the file folder system. There is a folder for each day and as we are planning and gathering worksheets and papers we place copies in the file folders. This is a very efficient system that I plan on taking to my future classroom. I feel much better when it comes to organizing papers now.
ReplyDeleteTo communicate with parents in my current placement, teachers send notes home in agendas since agendas are shown to parents each night for a signature. For immediate problems or concerns the teachers in my current placement call or email the parent. They send a newsletter home every month to update parents on what is happening, and they keep class blogs and frequently remind parents to check it out. Most of the time they update their blogs every day. I feel this is a very helpful tool for parents. They can get a daily update on what's going on in the classroom and they can explore the videos we've watched in class, and the games we've played, and the websites we've visited. I have heard many compliments about the blogs and how effective they are. I plan on using blogging in my future classroom as well.
My co-op has really driven it in with me that in special ed. you have to be organized. Now I am not the most organized person, my car is a mess and my room has clothes all over the floor, but when it comes to the classroom I find that because of all the paperwork and extras that special ed has that it has to be organized. My co-op does a great job with this. We serve students in three different grades. Behind her desk is a bin for each grade and everything is specifically labeled. I have a folder for each grade that I keep everything I will need for that grades lesson in the folder. Every student also has their own folder and file with all their information in it. A lot of things have gone digital now. All the students IEPs are done online through a system the district has. We all know that technology fails so we also have paper copies of each students IEPs in their files.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it is much easier to organize a Learning Support Classroom paper flow because you can have a folder/binder/drawer designated to each child. Since I teach 7th and 8th graders I separate by grades and periods throughout the day. This method has worked really well. If their is a student that needs more help, I put more "stuff" (activities) in his/her folder. In a general ed classroom there were too many students to do this with. However, in the general ed. setting I used a large binder and sorted by class. I think the hardest part in keeping myself organized this half, is keeping the 7th and 8th grade schedule straight. At times, we have only 7th graders or only 8th, but at other times we have them both! This has been the most challenging for me anyway. However, keeping everyone's "stuff" in its place has not been an issue thus far.
ReplyDeletePapers, papers, papers! Some days I feel like I am overloaded with papers. But with lots of assistance from my cooperating teacher, I have established a very helpful ways of managing and handling planning and preparation. We have a hand out bin where we place graded papers and papers to get sent home. We hand out all the papers to the students while that are at special in their TIDE folders. Parents get a letter home every Monday stating what their kiddos will be learning for the week. The letter also states important dates and information. I label every set of papers that I copy with a sticky note stating the subject matter and the date that I will be using it. We have bins for Monday through Friday which we place each set of materials for that day in the week before teaching. It makes it easy the night before to grab the stack of materials. We place the materials for the day in a bin near the front of the classroom for easy access. Students hand in worksheets in a finished work basket. It makes it easy to grab and grade papers. There is also a filing system to place leftover papers from the day in a day of the week slot. For example, if I have leftover phonics worksheets from Monday, I place them in the Monday bin. It makes it extremely easy to find work if students are absent, out of the room, etc. This filing system gets emptied out at the end of the marking period. Everything is extremely organized in my cooperating teacher’s classroom in shelving units, drawers, and filing cabinets. If I need something, I know exactly where to look for it. I hope to achieve this set up in my future classroom. It has been very beneficial to be placed with someone who is so extremely organized. She has kept me on the ball and has shown me ways to stay on top of things and plan ahead weeks in advance. It is hard work to manage so much “stuff” but when you have a way to work with it, it makes it manageable.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the paperwork has been the most difficult aspect of this experience. In my general education placement I was completely overwhelmed by the paperwork. I quickly realized I needed to develop my own system. Without my own system I felt as though it was complete chaos. I decided to have one basket for students to place their completed assignments in. I had one fold for myself to keep completed and graded math homework. I kept other items to be reviewed and graded paper clipped together in my assigned drawer. When I finished grading an item I would place it on students' desks face down. Notes that were to be sent home would either be placed in the students' cubbies or stapled in their assignment books. I really liked this procedure of stapling important items in the assignment books. This made sure that students did not lose the paper, and that parents saw the papers.
ReplyDeleteWhile this combination of systems did help me stay relatively organized, I still felt as though it was a bit chaotic. I feel when I have my own classroom I will be able to implement a system that works even better for myself. I would like to have folders to send home graded assignments. On this folder will be a spot for descriptions of the items sent home, and parents are to sign the folder, and send it back to school. I would like to have individual subject assignment bins for students to turn in their work. Stacked under these bins would be bins for me to keep assignments that need to be graded.
Overall I feel as though my placements are helping me decipher what does and does not work for myself. I think learning both of these items is beneficial for me. When I learn something does not work I know that it is not something I should try when I have my own classroom.
There is a lot of “stuff” to manage as a teacher, especially a special education teacher. On top of lesson planning and making copies, there is a lot of other miscellaneous paperwork and duties that we must complete. Some examples of paperwork are IEPs, BIPs, and Incident Reports. All of these things take a lot of time and it is time that is not included in the 40hr work week. Teachers must find time to fill out all of these things aside from the planning and teaching.
ReplyDeleteAnother time consuming part of the “stuff” that teacher have to do is make-up work for students who are absent. As an example, giving a spelling test to a student who was absent the previous day can take a lot of time. The words must be read aloud to the student in order for them to spell the words. There is not a lot of down time during the day for such things. Other than having the student come in for recess to make up the test, which is more or less punishing them for being sick, there is not much else we can do. Also making sure those absent students are given all of their work and keeping track of who missed what and who needs to turn what in. It is a lot of extra hassle that I never really thought about until recent while student teaching. In order to solve these many issues, I often times have student volunteers help to issue spelling test and things of that nature. Also, when a student is absent, I assign a buddy to keep track of what all they missed in each class and what assignments the student will need to make up.