FAMILY TIMES
Judy Gibson
Dells Events
Sept. 1, 2001
School doors open and kids and teachers come swarming back with high hopes and optimism for another year.
I always loved this part of teaching; a time it was really possible to start over completely fresh. Fall always feels like the start of the new year, not during the middle of winter, and I always thought Jewish people, who celebrate new year during this season, had the right idea.
One challenge for students I taught in middle school was getting organized. Very few children find organization and planning easy. Middle schoolers are beginning the transition from childhood, where they had a desk in one school room and there was a teacher to help them stay focused, to taking charge of their own learning.
Now they must organize their homework, books and papers and plan study time for different subjects and teachers. Good middle schools like the one here in the Dells have teachers in teams so they can plan together. But it is still up to the students to finish middle school ready to take responsibility for their own learning including some kind of organization for getting work done effectively and on time.
One of the functions of a homeroom teacher where I worked was to help with this very task. I would problem solve with the child, and sometimes also with the parents to get the proper books and papers to the proper classes and then home and back to school again. I remember I suggested a folder in a different color for each class to hold assignments and handouts. That way the student can grab the book and the right folder in a hurry for class or home. Those gigantic notebooks big enough for everything were too overwhelming and heavy for the students I knew. But I’m sure there any many other methods just as effective as the folder option.
Another function of a homeroom teacher in my school was conducting mandatory locker clean-ups and inspections. Nine times out of ten the child would open the locker door to a total chaos of papers, folders, books and various items (some of which I would rather not try to identify) flooding out into the hall.
Some students creatively built little shelves to keep things organized and I know these days locker organizers are probably available, but this task “getting organized and having the right stuff at the right time”is one of those things learned well at school.
At some point my daughter went from horribly messy (having a bedroom that had little paths through all the stuff) to being quite neat and organized which she is to this day.
Of course being organized and efficient can be taught at home, but I think schools do it well. The rewards are immediate and obvious – having that homework done, in the right folder, and carried to class to hand in on time.
It’s the little things “don’t you think?” that make life easier.