Okay, another question for el. ed teachers about your 'administrative' classroom things.

When do you take attendance, check notices, check homework, have the kids copy homework, conference, and do calendar work?

I used to do ALL that and then some first period and the rest of the day was all about lessons and activities. Now, because of some bizarre thing, those things are now done over the course of 3 periods, hence cutting in to various parts of the day and things are not getting finished.

I'd love to see how everyone schedules their day. Esp. NYC teachers.

Re: Okay, another question for el. ed teachers about your 'administrative' classroom things.

There is soooooo much paper work to do and it is so overwhelming especially first thing in the morning. I am not in the classroom anymore but I was for 5 years in a NYC school. Depending on the age of the kids I like to establish morning routines where the kids take on the calendar duties and we go over it very briefly. The other kids are doing a problem of the day or a morning edit (I always read it aloud before they start).Notes are placed in a basket (and for the forgetful kids I do a quick folder check) and repond if needed during my prep. Conferening takes place during the specific parts of balanced literacy block. We can never skip it, it throws my day and the kids day totally off. Our administration is great about homework because the bottom line it we have a lot of kids in a room and it takes up a lot of time! We select random kids and check a handful of homework a day but by the end of the week it all gets checked. In terms of copying homework K-2 does homework sheets to eliminate the homework copying and get out important info to the parents. At the end of 2nd the kids copy it as a do-now in the morning or before hey leave for the day. It is a skill they need to learn. Hope this helps

Re: Okay, another question for el. ed teachers about your 'administrative' classroom things.

for the first 30 minutes of the day the kids do word work, usually a phonics page, spelling work or handout that i think they need. i spend 5 or 10 minutes getting them ready and then about 15 minutes taking attendance, going through parent notes, book orders, etc. i have monitors who set up my schedule for the day.
i check homework at the start of the subject it pertains to. also, i don't check all homework. for example, for math i tell them to open it. i glance around and then at some point i grab the handful of kids who had no clue and help them understand it. writing homework i check sporadically by collecting a handful of notebooks at a time. handouts i save for friday and check over the weekend.
The best thing i started doing is giving the kids a homework calendar for the week every monday. it sounds like a lot of prep work but it's really not since i have a pretty good idea what i'm doing all week anyway. and i have them keep it in their "take home" folder so that if i have a change they just take it out and change it. No more copying homework. it makes me so happy because it wasted so much time.

Re: Okay, another question for el. ed teachers about your 'administrative' classroom things.

I make up a homework contract for my first graders. I also have given them mailboxes. I know they are absent as they walk in in the morning and put the attendance right back out in the hallway.

Re: Okay, another question for el. ed teachers about your 'administrative' classroom things.

i take attendance first thing. then read aloud or shared followed independent reading when they practice what we just learned with their just right book. then word study, followed by guided & centers, then writing workshop...

i check the word study hw before we start the new lesson. i check the math hw before lunch, but go over it afterwards. anyone who is missing hw will stay in for recess. any other hw assignments i usually collect, then check off who turned it in during the course of hte morning.

its annoying and time consuming, but it needs to get done.