mrg05

As this school year ends it’s final 10 weeks, it’s time for me to start rethinking the way I do things for next year. What routines and systems do I want to keep? Improve? Replace?

One routine I know I will DEFINITELY keep is our enter and exit procedure.

HOW WE ENTER:

1. Hello! (I stand at the door.)

…with my clipboard during the entire passing period. Students walk onto the walkway that leads into the portable and have no choice but to talk to their teacher. This allows me to have able to have brief one-on-one interactions with every student everyday. This has been HUGE.

S’s: “Mr. G, what’s up with your Lakers? What happened to them last night?,” “Mr. G, I have a question about my grade…”

Me: “Hey, how was your weekend?” “How are you today?” “Feeling better?” etc etc

One dimension of being a teacher is fostering good personal relationships with every student. As teachers who deal with 130+ students daily, the task seems overwhelming. But this enter procedure ensures that we all get in at least a few seconds of one-on-one time everyday. I love it.

2. Openers.

Like many other classes, students enter the room and there’s something on the whiteboard for them to do right away. We have opener/exit slip half-sheets that students pick up from a shelf near the door. Students grab them, sit, and get to work on the opener. Usually questions refresh important concepts from the previous day or preview the new day’s material. Nice, simple, calms down the class, and enables me to take care of all my administrative duties (attendance, checking homework, etc) while they go to work.

After, we review.

HOW WE EXIT:

1. Exit Slips.

I have an exit slip question premade on my slidedeck so that when there’s about 2 minutes left in class, I toss it onto the whiteboard so that the students can work. (The exit slip sheet is on the back of the opener – so they just flip it at the end of class). It’s usually something real simple and quick, but good enough so that, after collecting, I can quickly glance at each students exit slip and know whether or not they understood the day’s lesson.

It’s a great, quick way to assess not only their learning but my own teaching. If the majority of the class got what I believed to be a quick, simple question incorrect, that tells me I must reteach and reinforce the material through a different angle.

How quick? After collecting, I looking through each half-sheet takes only a little over a minute. All I’m doing is checking for general understanding, not the particulars.

Lastly, I include a section on the exit slip where students can leave me a message. Any message. Whether it be to tell me that they do not like their seat, or that they did not understand the material, or that class was absolutely horrible. I’m trying to provide students with as many avenues to speak with me as possible here. If a student feels more comfortable leaving a note, here’s their chance. This has also worked great.

2. Goodbye! (I stand at the door, again.)

Standing at the door at the beginning of class is great because students file in at different times, allowing more time for conversation.

Standing at the door as students walk out is great because you can do a quick-check of how each student felt about class. So this is what I do. I stand there and students submit the opener/exit slip straight into my hand and I check in with students as they file out one by one. I ask students how they felt about the day’s material, Check in with students who had a difficult time with class. And I try and pry into the conscious of those who just weren’t there that day.

Me: “How was that? Did it make sense?” “Yo! What was up w/ you today? Didn’t get enough sleep last night?” “Alright man, well.. let’s do better tomorrow.”

S’s: “Yeah, it made sense today. Much better than yesterday.” “You going to catch the Warrior game tonight?”  (no) “Alright, Mr. G, see you tomorrow.”

And after that last student walks out, I’m there at the door ready to get it all started for the next class.