Making Your Life Easier
There are many other tools that teachers have been relying on to help create a more organized environment. As you begin teaching, make sure to ask your fellow teachers what systems work for them. Then adapt their ideas for your own use.
Student Cards
If you decide that you want to call a parent, where will you go to find the phone number? You could go to the main office. However, this information may be outdated. A better method is to create student cards on the first day of school. All you need are some 3" × 5" cards and a container. Give your students a card, and tell them all to fill out the information you wish to know. You can write the exact format on the board so that all the cards will be filled out in the same manner. Here's the kind of information you may wish to ask:
Name
Address
Phone number
Date of birth
Class period
Parent name
Parent's work/cell number
Organize these cards alphabetically by period. You might even consider adding the student's assigned book number to the card so you have that information in one place.
A wonderful way to fully use these student cards is to mark down on the back any contacts you have with the student's parents. For example, you could record and date each phone call you made along with brief comments. That way, you will have a record for yourself or possibly even for administration, if a situation arises concerning the student.
Student Calendars
Having students fill out personal planners not only ensures that they're aware of their homework assignments, but it will also teach them an important life skill. It is very easy to create a blank calendar, print it out, and give one to each student. You should write an agenda on the board each day, and require the students to copy that agenda along with homework assignments into their calendar. Then, you can periodically collect and check the calendars for completion.
Some schools provide PTA or other volunteers to photocopy materials for teachers. Some do not even allow teachers to touch the copy machines. If this is the case in your school, you really have no choice but to plan ahead — it really is quite difficult to get those last-minute copies made.
A further benefit of this practice is that parents have a convenient record of what is occurring in your classroom. In your initial contact with a parent, you should explain the calendar system. You can continue to refer them to the calendar as the year progresses to help them remember upcoming events and see what work their students are doing. This reinforces the students' responsibility to stay organized and complete their work on time. Parents usually find this to be an effective and an extremely valuable tool for themselves and their children.
