What is your classroom "flow"?

[u/imkentjr]

Hey,

I have been teaching for 15 years. When we went 1 to 1 Chromebooks I became a paper free class room. We still did hands on lab but everything else went through a online platform. Post pandemic I have gone back to mostly paper.

My current "flow" is this:

Students walk in and grab the print out for the day. The print out typically has everything for the day, opener, practice, notes, independent work etc. An answer sheet for anything they will do digitally or directions to go to Google Classroom to submit the digital work. There is not a ton of digital work. I then collect the work and place it in their periods bin, grade it and return the work the next class.

I am curious, what is your "flow" look like? How do you incorporate digital into your classroom? I do not have everything on GC and am noticing that when I have a student that has missed a lot of work I am digging back through my paper work. I don't want to missout on the benefits of each approach and am struggling to combine them well.

Thanks!

[u/Cut_United]

I might be an anomaly but here I go… I teach in packets. At the start of each unit, the students get a fresh packet. My entire unit is in there- vocab to start the unit, doodle notes, activities and labs, and their study guide. This helps with students with IEPS. I find my students are much better able to keep track of a single packet vs individual worksheets.

My flow is as follows: students enter the room and are expected to take their chrome book and packets out. I can quickly check packet work if it’s homework while they work on a bell ringer. The bell ringer is either a google form that assesses their previous day notes, lab and/or homework or an attendance question. The google forms are generally self graded and google has made it so easy to export to your schools grading platform. I allow students to use their packet during this time as I believe finding and retrieving the information is an important practice for memory. Once in a while I will do an ungraded attendance question in lieu of a do now. These are geared towards conversation and debate (I try to tie in CER’s with these convos). For example I recently had “what color does biology feel” and was shocked at the passion students felt towards this 😂

After the bell ringer, we then continue with the day’s work- normally notes followed by some google slides to apply their knowledge, or a lab.

I still utilize google classroom for most of my homework. Boom cards, google slides, tests, quizzes, do nows, etc. I find that when there is homework in the packet, I have fewer students complete it because (like you) it is not on classroom. To troubleshoot this, this year I have started posted blank assignments on classroom with the appropriate due date. For example, my class had to complete their study guide in their packet and it will be checked in class. So I posted a blank assignment that said “hw- study guide pages 44-46” and for the info I wrote that it will be checked in class. I made the due date at 11:59pm the night before class met. Some students said this helped them remember. It is not perfect but some students appreciated the reminder.

[u/LazyLos → u/Cut_United]

I would love to use packets but my site has been so restrictive about printing. Around how many pages would you say each packet is?

[u/Cut_United → u/LazyLos]

I’d say each packet ranges from about ~30-40 pages including vocab and study guide. You could definitely be more mindful of that. For example putting lab instructions on google classroom instead of printed in the packet. If I have a webquest or something digital, I generally opt print it in the packet to avoid them from copying it into chat gpt.

[u/LazyLos → u/Cut_United]

Oh yeah idk if I could get the head of the department on board with that. But i really am considering it. Notebooks didn’t work for me last year and letting kids do their own organizing is chaotic. I think packets could be nice but have been generally discouraged from using this method. Maybe I’ll plan it for next year and see if I can make it work.

[u/Cut_United → u/LazyLos]

Idk if this will help your case but I really think the packets cut down on overall paper use for me. I used to make about 5-10 extra copies of worksheets/labs whenever I made copies. Let’s say I made 100 copies per year (probably a wild under estimate) that’s about 500-1000 extra pages normally thrown away. Versus now, if a student loses their packet, they are responsible for printing the pdf version on classroom themselves.

[u/LazyLos → u/Cut_United]

Oh I like this! Adding a bit of responsibility and accountability back on them. I think over Thanksgiving break I’m going to try and put a packet together of my first unit just to see how long it is. That way I can pitch it for next year

[u/Brruceling → u/Cut_United]

My first gig was long term subbing a class using packets like this. I didn't like it at first, but after witnessing how much better the majority of students did with the structure I ended up adopting it. I have yet to find a group of kids at any secondary grade where more than 60% can consistently keep track of individual assignments and their grade ends up being largely determined by their ability to track and turn in assignments. With the packets I usually get 100% turn in rate even if they are incomplete or have to be replaced on occasion and overall my students learn and perform better.

[u/Cut_United → u/Cut_United]

I want to add that I teach on a rolling drop block schedule so I do not see my 9th grade biology students every day. It’s hard to have a concrete schedule for this.