I firmly believe in the motto, “Work Smarter, Not Harder.” You can’t do it all! There’s a pile of marking toppling over on the desk, last month’s marking is waiting to be filed, and report cards won’t write themselves! To free up some time, you’ve got to DELEGATE!
Home-School Notices
Communication between home and school can get crazy at different times throughout the year. I try my best to keep most of my communication digital, but there are often notices from the office, fundraisers, book orders, and other hard-copy items that need to be distributed.
I can’t tell you the number of times someone has knocked on my door with a handful of papers to go home after my break has ended. Or I grab a stack of papers from my mailbox and forget them beside the photocopier. And once in a while, I’ll find a notice in my classroom, one that I’ve left in an obvious place where there’s no possible way I’ll forget to hand them out and leave my students missing out on a valuable experience… with a due date already long past. Oops.
I’ve stopped making this my responsibility.
My classroom job board is printed on heavy paper, laminated, and fixed with adhesive magnets. I rotate the jobs weekly. One of these regular classroom jobs belongs to two “Paper Managers” who are responsible for collecting the packets of notices from a central location and distributing them into my student mailboxes.
Student Work Return
I keep a central location for student work to be turned in to me and returned so that I don’t continuously have piles on my desk. (That happens without their help, so this system helps me control it!) When students need to hand work in, it goes straight into my “In Bin,” and when I’m ready to return it, I place it into the “Out Bin” my Paper Managers check daily. Anything they find there is passed out to the rightful owner at an appropriate time throughout the day.
Grab these free bin labels right here:
Classroom Library
Over the 2+ decades I’ve taught, I have built a massive classroom library. The movement of books in and out is constant, but I rarely look at this space unless I’m helping a student locate their next read. I have a student monitor who is responsible for keeping the books tidy, reshelving titles placed in the return bin, and letting me know when they spot books that need repair.
Managing Classroom Technology
My students also have full control over managing our classroom technology. It was all out of my hands once I had our tech station set up. My “Tech Team” ensures that all devices are returned to their proper location and plugged in at the end of each lesson. Because I’ve assigned students to this, we have not had any issues with tech batteries dying or devices going missing.
I’ve labeled my Chromebooks, their charging cords, and the storage rack (a dish draining rack from the dollar store!) using washi tape I purchased at Michaels.
The dish rack is even perfect for my iPads in these thick carrying cases! You can grab the iPad wallpapers from my TPT store by clicking the image or right here.
Delegating these simple tasks to my students has helped me better maximize my time for other classroom priorities—you know, like planning great lessons, creating exciting hands-on activities, and ridding my classroom of the smell of preteen feet at the end of the day!
Other Things to Delegate
There are so many tasks you can delegate in your classroom! I’ve listed some additional ideas below.
- keeping the coat hook area tidy
- keeping outdoor shoes and boots tidy
- managing library cards in the school library
- collecting and returning phys. ed. equipment
- monitoring recycling
- keeping the sink area of the classroom clean and dry
- tidying the classroom floor (everyone is responsible for this one!)
- keeping the electric pencil sharpener emptied
What else would you add? I would love to hear your ideas, too! Leave me a comment here.
You might also be interested in the tips I share in this blog post:
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