Three Tiny Tips

Hey, hey!  It’s Megan from I Teach. What’s Your Super Power?  Sometimes, you need big picture management ideas.  Sometimes you just need a tiny tweak to make like a little simpler.  I’m not blowing your mind today, but here are three little management tools to make your classroom life a little smoother.

1.  Yep.  Those are dots.
I worked in a room recently where the teacher had these on the desks.  Loved this idea!  Tired of calling kids or tables or whatever?  How about: green dots-get the papers for your tables.  Or pink dots find a pink dot partner.  Or yellow dots collect the recycling from your table.  You get the idea.

2.  Where the heck are those kids?
Here’s my solution.  Because you DO NOT want to be the teacher standing at the fire drill that left a kid in the bathroom.   This also solves the “I thought you said I could go to the bathroom” kids too. You know, the ones that ask you telepathically and take you blinking as a yes.

Here’s a picture of my restroom chart:

Anybody can go to the bathroom whenever they want unless I’m teaching.  The catch? Those squares are only big enough for one magnet.  So, only one boy and girl at a time.  I can see what number is not covered and know instantly who is missing.

Awwww, you like my sign?  You can purchase an editable one for $2 in my TPT store.

3.  Count to 10.
Or 20 or 100 or 50.  But give kids an ending time.  I love to see their faces when I say they have to be cleaned up by the time I count to 50.  And then I start counting by 5’s.  This also reinforces number patterns, so it’s a win-win.

Hope you find these tiny tips helpful.  They’re no Class Dojos or coupon systems or classroom economies or whatever.  Sometimes you just need simple solutions for simple problems.