My Students are Hilarious.

On one of the first few days of school my students wrote out their expectations for how the class would behave in order to get along as a whole. Am I the only one who finds this implied threat hilarious?

Can You Fix Messy Students?

Lots of students are disorganized. That is probably a massive understatement, especially if you have ever walked down the halls of a junior high during a locker clean out. My classroom is located on a wall of boys only lockers, so I think boys have a special train wreck tendency with their belongings. Locker clean outs are usually a flutter of crumpled paper and spare socks, while the smell of Axe Body Spray overwhelms the air. Whew!

Here are a few tips to help your students. I plan on adding more to this, but just to get us started:

• Require a binder for your class, not to be shared with other subjects.
• Keep a crate of folders for student portfolios in the classroom. These folders can be used to store important papers which should not be lost in lockers! My students like to decorate them at the beginning of the year. This is fun and it generally helps create awareness that it is a folder for them to use.
• If you have an important handout that needs to be kept the entire year, i.e. classroom procedures or a CliffNotes list of grammar, then print the copy off on colored paper which will stand out signifying, “Don’t throw me away!” To further this statement, go big and print on cardstock.
• Always have a three hole punch available for student use. Occasionally pass it around when you absolutely want something to be hole-punched and placed in a binder. How else will it happen?

Remember. if you want your students to be organized, try to model that behavior yourself! : )