Keeping track of classroom conduct with a class list

This post is about how I keep track of all the little things that go on in my classroom.  I felt I needed a way to really keep a handle on tardies, late assignments, absences, etc. Managing four different math classes of nearly 30 students each and keeping track of what happens throughout the hour is a daunting task.  I keep track of all the behavior/assignment completion type things that occur in class that are not part of a student's academic grade, but may be mentioned to parents via a report card comment or phone call.

I use a class list to keep track of essentially everything that goes on in my classroom.  I keep these "Class Conduct" lists in a binder (although during class the list sits out on top of my desk as I am constantly adding codes to it).  These lists help me to see behavior and homework completion trends in individual students, as well as, different class hours.

Binder with class lists and seating charts

Class lists and conduct code are stored in the left side pocket

This is the list of codes I use to keep track of everything.  I honestly just keep adding codes as I need them.  If there is something I want to keep track of I just add a new code.

My conduct codes

These are a couple of examples of what the lists look like at the end of the week.  I do not keep a paper gradebook anymore.  We use PowerSchool as our online grade book, but this helps me keep track of assignments that are late or missing due to absences.  I don't have time to enter grades during class so I will enter them during my prep or after school.  The list helps me know who is still missing assignments.

Class list example with codes (student names are listed in the left column (not shown)

Another class list example

At the end of the week each Friday, I file the Classroom Conduct lists in the file below.  The file goes into the Filetastic shown that is on to the side of my Teacher Material Bookcase near my teacher desk.  I have a different file where I have blank copies of class lists and I fill out the dates for the following week and have the new list ready to go in the binder for Monday morning (each class hour has a separate list).

File where I store previous weeks' lists

You can see the file midway down with lists from the entire year

I hope this helps all of you to see how easy and adaptable this system of monitoring behavior/work completion is.  The key is to have the list handy at all times to add to it as needed and to always store it somewhere where you can find the information at a moment's notice.  You can make up whatever coded make sense to you to help monitor whatever you decide is important.  Another thing I do to remind myself if I need to speak to any students about something is, I will attach a post-it note with the reminder to the class list.  Then the next day when I take it out (I always do attendance at the beginning of the hour) I pull off the post-it and give the student whatever message I have for him/her.

Slicing Three-Dimensional Figures- CC 7.G.3

CCSS 7.G.3 Describe the two-dimensional figures that result from slicing three-dimensional figures, as in plane section of right rectangular prisms and right rectangular pyramids.

I was really pleased with how the Carnegie Curriculum addressed this standard in the collaborative classroom text.  They devoted three lessons  to this standard:  slicing through a cube, slicing through right rectangular prisms, slicing through right rectangular pyramids.  My accelerated students really enjoyed these lessons and did a fabulous job working in their collaborative groups.

The lessons involved students making 3-d figures out of clay (although I used play doh).  Play doh worked very well and was easy to clean up and keep track of (each group got a different color play doh so there was no confusion).  I used the itty bitty containers that people give out for TOT sometimes.  This worked perfectly.  Each group had a container of play doh, a plastic knife, and dental floss.  Most groups preferred to use the plastic knife for slicing, but I did have a couple groups use the dental floss.  Students had to take turns shaping and slicing the figures.

This hand on lesson is something any teacher could easily put together.  I think it is helpful for students to see what those cross-sections look like because it can be difficult for students to sketch them.

My youngest son was not happy to see this play doh heading to school with me

Everything fit in a gallon ziplock

 Day 1 I forgot my camera so I have no photos.  Boo!  But really you can get the idea from the photos I took Days 2 and 3.  The students really enjoyed this hands on lesson and no matter how old they are, they still love play doh!

Slicing Day 2

More slicing Day 2

More slicing Day 2

 I only took one took two photos of them working the third day because I was so busy going around to each group and checking their answers with them.  Nice pyramid don't you think?

Day 3

Each lesson had a graphic organizer at the end where students had to cut out and match up the name of the cross-sectional shape with the appropriate diagram and verbal description of the way the figure was sliced.  I only took a photo of the graphic organizer the last day.  This one was done fairly neatly.  I tell you some of them lose those cutting skills they work so hard to develop in the primary grades by the time they hit 7th grade.  :)

Day 3 Graphic Organizer

I will admit that last year when I saw CCSS 7.G.3 I was kind of dreading it and thought it would be a pain and mess.  I am happy to say that the lessons were well developed and a perfect lead in to the lessons on surface area and volume (CCSS7.G.6)

Currently April

It is finally Spring Break and I could not possibly be any happier about it.  Especially since we are now in The Villages in sunny and warm FL enjoying ourselves immensely.  Everyone around here uses golf carts as the primary mode of transportation.  My oldest is 14 so he is old enough to drive the golf cart.  He is loving it and my middle who is 11 thinks it is so very unfair that he does not get to drive around.

Listening: to the sweet sounds of chirping birds and the wind blowing.  It smells and feels like summer here and I could not possibly love it more!  I am just enjoying breathing the warm air.  That may sound strange, but it is the honest truth.  I feel I need to soak up all the sun and warmth to get me through until mid June!

Loving: that Spring break is finally here.  Third quarter went so fast.  Usually it seems to drag on forever, but maybe because we are implementing a new curriculum and I finally feel like I am getting a handle on things, I feel like I blinked my eyes and *poof* third quarter was done (it actually ends next Tuesday, two days after break is over).  I am completely loving chilling at the pool with the boys twice a day and not having a care in the world (at least for the rest of the week).

Thinking:  Of how much I am enjoying my vacation.  I have already read two books over the first three days and I have two more I brought along.  I brought a bunch of education related books, but for now I am enjoying my novels.

Wanting:  For this vacation to never end, but at least for traffic to be less sucky on the way home than it was on the way down.  It was Ok until south of Atlanta and then it was a slow moving parking lot for much of the way.

Needing:  Nothing but great memories of the time we are spending together as a family.  I will take less arguing from my boys every time we go to the pool. You know what they say, three's a crowd so there always seems to be one odd boy out.

Advice:  If you haven't already started a blog I say "Go For It"   I would tell you to blog regularly, but then I would risk being called a hypocrite because I cannot seem to keep up with blogging regularly myself.  I am still hanging in there and hoping to get caught up this summer.  Ha Ha!  We will see.


Join Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade for the April Currently linky party.

Entrance/Exit Slips

I have been using exit slips in my class more frequently and I am really loving them for a quick and easy formative assessment of students' understanding.  I really should call them "Entrance Slips" because I tend to use them in place of a warm-up the day after teaching a lesson.  We have 60 min classes, but I rarely have time to give an exit slip and prefer instead to let students start their homework assignment with any time left at the end of class.

If I use them as "entrance slips" I have them on student desks prior to class starting or I hand them to students as they enter my room.  The slips are designed to only take 3-5 min to complete.  Students complete the slip while I walk around the room stamping homework.  There is also an answer key projected on the SMARTBoard with assignment answers so students begin correcting the assignment once they have handed in the exit slip.

One of the things I really like about using the exit slips is that I choose the questions to write.  I have found this is a great way to get at students misconceptions, like question 4 above.  Quite a few students forgot that lines are infinite so you can't have one longer than the other despite what the drawing looks like.  My students also liked having the slips as an additional review tool for assessments.

 I have used the exit slips to form small groups for mini lessons.  I've gotten very positive feedback from my students about working in a small group focusing on only what they need.  They really appreciate not having to go through concepts they've already shown they mastered via the exit slip.  The exit slips give me a much better handle what concepts each individual student has mastered and what they need more instruction on.

I find I am able to check the exit slips very quickly so I can do same day feedback if I have time.  In the picture above, I created a checklist of the skills the students did not get correct on the exit slip.  The squiggly lines mean that student mastered everything on the slip.  I am able to see trends in students and even classes.  This allows me to customize my instruction and small groups to meet the needs of each individual learner.

Entrance/Exit slips are a very powerful formative assessment tool that you can use as a teacher to get lots of information very quickly.  My ultimate goal is to create learning stations for the concepts I am assessing and then if students need more practice they can either get a mini lesson from me on it or they can work individually, in partners, or small groups to work through the learning station.

Do you use exit slips in your classroom?  If so, how do you use the data you collect to drive instruction?  If not, I highly recommend you start using them.  It will take some work up front to create the exit slips, but I promise they are well worth your time and effort.

Currently March

I am joining Farley for her  March Currently post.  It's a great way to connect with lots of awesome teacher bloggers and fun to see what everyone is up to.  Join the fun!

Listening:  My husband and I are on our annual weekend getaway to Madison.  My parents have the boys for the weekend so we are chaos free! Greg had to go down to his company meeting so I am chilling in the hotel room right now typing up this post.  Our hotel room is located on a busy road and our room faces the road so I can hear the sound of cars whizzing by.

Loving:  Greg surprised me yesterday that he had made dinner reservations at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Middleton.  We had the most delicious meal last night.  My favorite is their Spicy Lobster appetizer.  OMG is was amazing.  The whole dinner was phenomenal and we had the nicest, sweetest waiter.  It was and epic date night for sure.  After dinner we met up with one of Greg's coworkers and his wife and went out for drinks.  It was super fun to hang out with them again.

Thinking:  I'm trying to decide what I want to do with a free Saturday in Madison all by myself!  The possibilities are endless.  I can't believe I do not have to referee arguments and fights over who is sitting on what couch and then attend three different basketball games like I do every Saturday.  My first order of business is to decide Panera or Starbucks for breakfast.  A blissful day awaits me for sure!

Wanting:  I am really excited for my Amazon order to arrive.  I bought my oldest a new Otterbox for his bday (which was last month) and a 10 pack of thin Mr. Sketch markers, I did a blog post about all the books that were in my cart and I ordered ALL of them!  I already got my Teach Like a Pirate book, the rest of the order is coming Tuesday.  I will have plenty of reading material for our Spring Break trip to FL.

Needing:  I need to get over the fact that it is March 2nd and Spring Break is now less than four weeks away.  We told the boys the other night that we are going to FL and they went wild.  Cooper (my 7 yo) asked right away if we are going to Disney.  We will be staying with Greg's parents in the Villages and are thinking we will do a day trip to the Magic Kingdon.  I'm not a huge fan of  Disney (hate crowds), but I would like the boys to at least get to experience it.  We are going to be so busy with BB and LAX until we leave I am getting anxious just thinking about it.  If anyone has advice for a day trip to Disney or what to do/see near the Villages, let me know.  Also if anyone lives near the Villages and wants to meet up for a lunch or dinner let me know.

Like:  Sparkles.  I love anything sparkly or glittery, nail polish, make-up, clothes, headbands, shoes, you name it , I love sparkles.  I had a math class a few years ago that had a very challenging student (who I came to love) and when things would get crazy, I would say "sparkles' and smile.  It became our class inside joke and when I see those kids now (they are frosh) they still always mention sparkles!

Love:  Starbucks, that's self explanatory.  My favorites winter drink is peppermint soy mocha no whip. I also love their passion iced tea lemonade unsweetened.  I have found a way to replicate that drink and I drink it all the time year round.  If I forget to make a batch of the tea and have to go to school without my passion iced tea lemonade I know my day is going to be long and boring drinking plain old water.

Hate:  Stupidity.  I mean the kind where people pretend they don't know something so they can get out of work or avoid a conflict.  I have zero tolerance for it.

Creating a Learning Station

I have done several previous posts about Learning Stations.  This post is to show you how easy it is to create a learning station in place of just having students fill out a worksheet.  It's nothing fancy and I created this learning station in just a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

I started with creating an exit slip for a lesson I had taught on Triangle Sum, Exterior Angle, and Exterior Angle Inequality Theorems.  I made this a brief three question exit slip.  I then created a station for each of the learning goals being assessed on the exit slip.  The exit slip was quick and easy to grade and based on what answers students got wrong (and what the mistake was they made) I will assign students to the stations.

Exit Slip

 There are three different stations and each has six questions.  Are you curious to know the secret to this easy station creation?  I just took problems off a skills practice worksheet and put them on index cards numbered 1-6 and then laminated the cards.  Believe it or not, the students are much more engaged in doing this skill practice because they get to move from station to station, the questions are differentiated based on what their needs are, and most importantly, they aren't completing what they consider to be a boring worksheet.  You can decide how many question each students completes per station.  I

Station 1

Station 2

Station 3

 I really wanted to find some clear picture frames to hold the station directions, but the last time I was at the Dollar Store I could not find any so I improvised and just used a plain old sheet protector.  The sheet protectors make it easy to store the stations in a three ring binder.

All three stations fit in a binder for easy storage

Sheet Protector storage

You can store the index cards on in the back side of the sheet protector.

Back side of same sheet protector above holds cards for storage

I hope this post inspires you to try to switch things up and turn a simple skill review or remediation activity into a learning station that students will find more engaging.  I would love for you to leave a comment linking any station activities you have done in your own classroom.  My 7th graders love any activity that allows them to get up and move around the classroom while learning.

Books currently in my cart on Amazon

Proof that I am a grown-up is how much of my own money I choose to spend on professional teacher resource books lately.  All of these books are currently in cart on Amazon.  I just need to place my order.  A couple of these are a for sure purchase and a few may by saved in my cart for later.

Last summer I joined an online Guided Math Book Study.  We read Laney Sammons' book.  It was a great learning experience for me and I need to read through all those linked post to refresh my memory.  I find this book on using Literacy Strategies to make meaning very intriguing.

Building Mathematical Comprehension

As I was browsing through some books on Amazon I found the book below.  Don't know much about it, other than I can always use help with literacy strategies.

Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction

This book on Math Workshop for Grades 4-8 was recommended to me by our awesome middle school literacy coach @UWKatie.  Katie is phenomenal with all things literacy and I love when she passes on tips or recommendations to me.  She knows I want to do math workshop in my classroom, but I haven't found much guidance for the middle school level.  I hope this book will be the resource I need to get myself going on math workshop.

Minds on Mathematics, Using Math Workshop to Develop Deep Understanding in Grades 4-8

This book has been talked about all over Twitter by people I follow and there are even a couple online books studies here and here.  I've heard lots of great things about this book by people currently reading it and I follow the author @burgessdave on twitter.  He is a great down to earth guy.  I enjoy reading books by people that get what it's like being a "real" teacher in a "real' classroom.

Teach Like a Pirate

If you have read (or heard about) any of these I would love for you to leave me a comment.  Especially the first two because those were not really recommended to me by anyone who has actually read them. I teach 7th grade math and there are not nearly the resources for this age level when it comes to math resource books as there are available for the elementary level.

I promise to do some follow-up posts on the books I end up purchasing.  What are you currently reading?