Organizing your classroom is a great way to improve classroom discipline and save time. By following these simple tips, you can learn to cut out wasted time and energy and get back to what matters most - teaching!

Use ribbon lanyards to keep yourself organized. Your desk, door and filing cabinet keys should all be on the same lanyard and worn around your neck or on your wrist. This will keep you from searching aimlessly every time you set your keys down someplace new.

Use an attention code for getting everyone to listen up to the instructions you are about to give. For example, one teacher has suggested calling out "hey!" in a sing-song tone while the students call back with "ho!" She uses it to quickly get their attention when it's time to stop what the students are currently working on.

Remember that accordion folders are your friends. They can be used to store almost anything - worksheets, tests, quizzes, lesson plans and student information.

At the beginning of the year make a folder for each student and use it to keep a copy of all the communication you write or receive from parents.

Don't feel like you have to grade every piece of paper that floats by. Many times it is about the work and practice the student receives. Prioritize which papers should be looked over thoroughly and graded. The rest can be recycled.

At the beginning of each semester, give the elementary students in your room three bathroom passes. These passes can be used, but if they are not you can add extra credit points to an assignment. This will encourage your students to use the restroom during scheduled breaks instead of interrupting classroom instruction.

Grading is hard work, and there will be many times when you need assignments turned in early to meet the demands of your crazy schedule. Offer an incentive to get students to turn in assignments early. One teacher offers 2 extra credit points for assignments submitted early.

Before classes start create a column list from your class roster. Draw three or more columns after the list of students' names and run several copies. During the course of the year you can use these sheets to keep track of things like returned field trip permission forms.

Assign each of your students a number that matches with their number in your grade book. Have your students memorize the number and write it down in the same location on all of the assignments they turn in. It will save you time recording grades because you can put them in numerical order when entering them. It also makes it easy to see who has failed to turn in an assignment.

If you can store it electronically, do it! Teachers' assignments and classrooms change over the years. It's much easier to move to a new classroom if you don't have boxes and boxes of old papers to move to. Save it electronically and back it up often.

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