As a first-year teacher in a middle school that is bursting at the seams, educating over 1200 students, I do not have my own classroom and have to travel to five different classrooms throughout the day. Although this is a major challenge for me, especially in the beginning of the year, I’ll spare you all of my whining and try to give some tips for anyone else in my kind of situation.
Some things that are helping me get by this year:
1. My cart is my life; I don’t go anywhere without it. On the top shelf (of three), I put anything that my students or I need easy access to. Inside a milk crate I put several hanging file folders, one for each of my classes, homework, classwork assignments, formative assessments, miscellaneous handouts, and extra paper. I use the class-specific folders for collected homework and graded work to be passed back. Next to that I have a little bin for pencil sharpeners and a pencil holder. Warning: it may be risky to leave a pencil bin full of pencil on our cart…the pencils tend to all disappear by the end of class and with my limited time I can’t be bothered to track them down. I can’t forget the essential tissue box alongside the bins.
On the middle shelf I keep a class set of calculators and whiteboards, which is pretty heavy so I take the whiteboards off on days that I’m not planning on using them. On the bottom shelf I have another milk crate full of supplies, like glue sticks, compasses, protractors, extra pencils, erasers, markers, colored pencils, scissors, and highlighters. I also carry a fan on that shelf; it gets very hot in some of the rooms I teach in. On one end of the cart is a little holder for folders where I put a box of rulers and write-up slips (unfortunately, I need those handy at times). As a side note, this cart can be deadly in the hallways for students that don’t walk fast enough during the two-minute transition periods.
2. Online stopwatch. Passing the hundreds of slow-walking students in the hallway, getting to the room in order to get the Do Now up on the SmartBoard, set up, and greet students at the door all before the bell rings is simply impossible, but I try my best. I often lose a few minutes at the beginning and end of each class in order to set up and then clean up my materials, so the 47-minute periods are more like 42-minute periods for me. Because I am so pressed for time, I time almost everything in order to frame my class and stay on schedule. The Do Now, mini check-for-understanding questions or problems, partner/group work, and exit ticket are all timed. I have the stopwatch displayed on the SmartBoard, this way, students and I both know how much time they have to complete the task and students can take responsibility for pacing themselves appropriately. When necessary, I extend the time.
3. USB Flash Drive. Along with my cart, my flash drive is essential. I keep it on my lanyard that holds my badge and keys. It is 64 GB and has on it the curriculum map for the district, any documents I need to print for homework, classwork, or handouts, and my daily lessons. I make a SmartBoard lesson for almost everyday of school. In general, the first slide of my lesson is the Do Now, followed by reminders or announcements, daily agenda with time allotments, daily objectives and standard, content slides, and wrap-up and homework slide. My days are always hectic and traveling sometimes makes me a bit flustered, so having these slides well-prepared everyday helps to remind me of my plan for each class and I’ll have them for next year! Make sure you safely eject the flash drive before yanking it out of the computer! I made the mistake of not doing this the other day and lost all of my files…sigh.