Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Teacher Things

I am not by any means an organized person. When I lived at home I always knew where my keys were, though...on my bedroom floor by my night stand! Organized chaos? Maybe. As God works on my heart to reveal areas in my life that need "organizing", He has helped me to see areas in my classroom and with my students that need some organizing as well. Here are some things I started doing this week in an effort to bring glory to God through my teaching and other classroom areas:

1.Individual filing trays so the person who passes out papers at the end of the day has somewhere to put the papers instead of on the desks or table where the person cleaning those is working!

2."Duties" (pass out papers, erase chalkboards, etc.) for the end of the day are on long craft sticks. When a student picks his or her duty the stick will go in that student's tray. Before the students leave I can check their tray to make sure the duty was accomplished.

3.When some students had a hard time remembering some of our Europe countries and capitals, I let them keep the flashcard to peek at throughout the day. At recess, they had to tell five people "The capital of ___ is____." Just a strategy to get those facts better cemented into their brains!


These things are major breakthroughs for me. I feel as though I have been relieved of a heavy burden. Some of them require more work and conscious effort from me than before, but I need that. I need to be more involved especially with the process of wrapping things up to go home. I tend to get working on a project and kind of just holler at the kids about homework and duties then feel badly so I get up and see them out the door right at 3:10. Bad teacher! God has convicted me to be organized and to help my students learn responsibilty as well. Organization in all areas of ones life really does help keep the mind focused on God, I think. Now for my desk drawers...

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