The Evolution of Homework Collection - A New Routine To Keep It Simple

Teaching is a wonderful world of constant change. Although some of the changes we make in our classrooms are mandated, many are based on our own professional judgement. We are given the creative power to tweak our classroom environment and routines in ways that make each school day meaningful and exciting for students. One of the best things about being a teacher is making small tweaks within a year or throughout several years to maximize efficiency in the classroom. 

Tweaking Your Homework Collection Routine

One of the classroom routines I have been tweaking every year for seven years is my routine for collecting homework. Those first few minutes when students walk into the classroom are filled with a lot of hustle and bustle...and an occasional unexpected surprise. Homework collection should be quick and seamless. A few routines I have tried with short-term success are:

TURN IN BIN

Students place their homework in a turn in bin. The pros? Homework submission was quick for students. The cons? I often found nameless papers and it took too much time to sort through the pile to figure out who had & hadn’t turned in homework.

CORNER OF THE DESK

Students place their homework on the corner of their desk before starting their morning work. Teacher walks around and collects homework from each student. The pros? I was able to greet each student at their seat first thing in the morning. It was easy to see who had & hadn’t turned in homework. The cons? The collection process was time consuming and homework crowded students’ work space.

STACK ON THE STATION 

Students place their homework in a pile at a central location on or near their table group. Teacher walks to each group’s “turn in spot”, thumbs through papers and collects. The pros? I was able to collect homework fairly quickly. The cons? My less organized students who benefit from visual cues (they didn’t take note of the flat stack of papers piled near their seat) consistently needed reminders to turn in homework.

My Favorite Homework Collection Routine

The routine that has been most efficient for my students is very similar to the group station routine with an added layer of organization. The Homework Drop Box makes turning in assignments quick and easy for students and teachers. 

HOW IT WORKS

At the end of each day during Tidy Up Time, our Teacher’s Assistant places a drop box at each table group. 

When students arrive the following morning, they walk to their group drop box, find the file folder with their name on it, and drop their homework inside the folder. Students place their assignments in their folder standing tall in portrait-style rather than laying down in landscape-style. This allows the teacher to quickly walk to each station, thumb through each folder and instantly see who has and hasn’t turned in homework. 

The teacher can then grab the top of all the papers at once and pull the assignments out into a neatly organized pile. 

In my classroom, the Teacher’s Assistant then moves our drop boxes out of the way until we need them later in the day, or until the next school day. 

Having a smaller file box at each group, rather than a larger one for the entire class eliminates the problem of a long line to turn in homework. This means students settle into their seats and start their morning work without wasted time.

Although some of the changes we face as teachers tend to throw off our equilibrium for a moment, focusing on smaller changes that benefit our students helps bring us back to a more balanced and efficient groove in the classroom. 

BRING THIS ROUTINE TO YOUR CLASSROOM

If you are interested in trying the Homework Drop Box routine in your own classroom, grab my free Homework Drop Box Labels here and my favorite study, slim file bins here.

Cramming It All In {w/ iTeachSTEM}

Teachers are experts at fitting a TON of content into every little minute of the day. We have to be. With growing class sizes, challenging standards, and increasing demands on our time, it's necessary to be a master of manipulating time. Cramming learning into every possible activity.

With that being said, I will admit. I struggle BIG TIME with this. I have sooooooooo many awesome ideas. I have sooooooooooo little time to teach each class. This leads to soooooooooooo much rushing throughout the day. My poor fifth graders hear me say, "We have so much to do and not enough time to do it!" almost every single day.

So what can a teacher do?
How can we compete with the increasing demands on our time without giving up what really matters? Teaching our students. Not just the content standards, but how to be responsible. Kind. Courageous. Honest. Caring. Adventurous. Trusting. Wise. Careful. The list really goes on and on and on.

I've found that the best way to squeeze more time out of the day is to be sure to set up specific routines early in the year. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I swear that as a new teacher ten years ago I had no CLUE how important this was. I actually assumed my 10-year-old students would kind of figure it out. HA!

Over the years I have tried so many strategies. And let's face it - there is NOT a one size fits all answer. As a fifth grade teacher who is responsible for instructing four class periods each day as well as lunch, recess, specials, assemblies, etc. I have had to be creative with my time. Here are three ways I have found to help "cram it all in" each day.

I know that a lot of teachers swear by "morning work" and I can totally see how this would be an awesome use of time. However, at my school students are provided with breakfast to eat in the classroom each morning and some students don't arrive until a few minutes before the bell rings. Also, since I only have my homeroom class for those 15-20 minutes, my other three classes would miss out on that morning work time - especially since I would want to use class time to review what had been done.

Since my schedule runs more like a middle school, with students rotating every 70 minutes, I find that doing a quick bell-ringer type activity works much better. Students are trained to answer various types of questions on their white boards (quickly) and flash their answers on my signal. This is a great way to start class since it gives students a moment to get organized and join in as soon as they are ready. It also allows me to assess their understanding of the subject matter before jumping into the lesson. (I kinda love that one student also wrote "Mrs. Coker is awesome" on her board.)

This year, a new law was passed in Tennessee. Students MUST be given a certain number of minutes of physical activity per day. Recess and PE are great, but we needed to add a bit more into each day. As a teacher who already struggles to "fit it all in", I wasn't too sure how I would be able to include more free movement each day. Don't get me wrong, I know the importance of physical activity and even agree with the idea of adding an extra recess each day. But HOW could I give up precious instructional time without falling behind quickly?

I decided to do some brain breaks throughout my lessons - especially on days when they are more "lecture intensive" and students are required to listen and take notes for the majority of the class. And you know what? I haven't been running out of time! Students seem to be better able to focus after a quick break. I still get through my lessons. And I am in compliance with the new law. Win-win-win!

If you teach older students like I do, you're probably thinking that so many of those cute little brain breaks all over Pinterest just wouldn't get your kiddos up and excited. Yeah. You're right. I tried a few and they flopped. Mostly my students wanted a chance to talk, walk about, giggle a bit, and stretch. But if I just gave them "free time" I would likely never get them refocused. So I use a lot of science "rap" songs from YouTube during my lessons. Students are allowed to dance, sing, or tap out a beat while the song is playing. BUT, when it finishes, they are responsible for answering some questions related to the content of the song. I love this compromise. If you teach science, feel free to check out this Pinterest board where I collect my favorite science (and a few math) songs.

Some days I just don't have a good song, so I grab my stack of brain break cards and challenge the students to something silly like writing their names on the air using the end of their nose. Not only does this get the kids laughing and relaxed, but it's so much fun watching them. (Teachers need a quick brain break too!)

If you're interested, check out my Brain Breaks for Bigger Kids on TpT. Or click on the picture above.

I used to dread "the timer" as a kid. My parents would set the kitchen timer when I refused to finish my dinner. (Sweet and sour chicken - the worst!) I would watch the timer count down while I tried to swallow one bite at a time. Somehow I would manage to get finished eating before the timer rang.

Now I LOVE my timer. I use it as much for me as for the kids. Let's face it. I get so caught up in an activity that I tend to lose complete track of time. I have been known to forget to take my students to lunch on occasion. Yikes! It's also a great way to teach students to budget their time wisely. As a teacher in the upper grades, I am stuck preparing students for those dreaded end-of-the-year standardized tests. Those tests are timed. And I'm not allowed to tell them to hurry up during the tests. So if I train them to be aware of the time and how much is remaining, I believe they will be better prepared for a timed assessment.

One of my teaching partners ordered this timer for everyone on our team a couple years ago, and I ADORE it. It's simple to use and very visual for kids. I display it on my document camera when I give my students a set amount of time to complete a task or exam.

Students have a very visual cue as to how much time is remaining. I still remind them when time is almost up, but this allows them to be a bit more independent. And saves me rushing students to lunch ten minutes late just because I was having too much fun discussing the process of photosynthesis.

Purchase one of these timers on Amazon.com here:

We have a saying at our school:
"Every second, every minute, every hour of every day for every Pirate."
How do YOU make every bit of the school day count for YOUR students?

Cramming it all in {Enchanted Kinder Garden}

I used to have a difficult time cramming every single bit of what I needed to teach into my day. Now, it’s not so bad. How do I get it all done? Here’s a little glimpse into my day.

During the summer, I get together with my team and we plan out our year. This summer, we used Google Docs to make it easier. As we talked, more than one person could be typing in a section at a time. If you don’t teach everything exactly like your team, you could always use this for yourself. Download the blank to get started.

After you’ve made your pacing guide for the year, it’s easy to refer to. You can also very easily move things around with your team if you decide to change your plan midyear. Each week, I make sure that my lesson plans are done by Thursday so I have at least 3 days to get ready for the next week.

I also make daily, yes I said daily, powerpoints for my lesson. These keep me on track throughout the reading lesson since that is a large majority of my day. I easily flow through the lesson and have ALL of our skills included.

I also have our groups included in these powerpoints. I do a tweaked version of the Daily 5. I set the groups to a certain time in the powerpoint and my kids know that when the slide changes with the sound effect, they know it’s time to clean up and come back to the rug. As they are cleaning up, I keep my group at my table for that extra one to two minutes and don’t waste any idle time waiting for the rest of the classroom to get to the rug. This is what my group slide looks like.

You can click to download an editable version.

It saves me so much time throughout the rest of the day by using a powerpoint with everything in it. I even link to pdfs, videos and so on. This also saves on time from me finding it on my computer, opening it up and so on. Once, I’ve made a particular powerpoint on a lesson, I don’t have to make it again. I just tweak it from year to year.

Every week, I pick ONE night to do my copying, planning, pulling, figuring out and my staring at the wall. Just ONE. I don’t choose any other days in the week to do any of that. A few years ago, I chose Thursday to stay. However, my Thursday after school I started working one of our clubs and doing after school care so it was too much in one afternoon. I decided to pick Friday after that.

Every Friday, I pull out my pacing guide (or open it up rather) and look at what’s ahead for the next week. I also check out how my kids did during our current week. I use this list to keep me on track.

This keeps me on track of what I need to do. I simply print this ONCE and laminate it. If you don’t want to laminate it, I’ve also put mine in a page protector and used a vis-à-vis to write on it with.

The last thing I do to make sure I CRAM it all in is to use my time wisely. In a nutshell, this means I don’t read from a basal or teacher’s edition or whatever it is that you use. Most of the waste of paper in these books don’t help our kids. I use what I know works for my kids. I put down the book. As I mentioned earlier, I use powerpoints to help guide my day. I also use these for morning meeting, math, and possibly for science/social studies.

I hope that helped you a little bit with fitting it all in. I know schedules and routines can be crazy, but with a little planning and thinking outside of the box to not waste time, you should be able to get most of what you want to accomplish done.