Turning A New Corner

BEST PRACTICES in EDUCATION.

This blog has been long on whining and short on encouragement. I have finally decided to focus on WHAT WORKS and not so much on the problems of urban education. So the logo to the side isn't really a Best Practices icon for schools, but it was superior to what I could find on an images search so we will go with that, for now.

I will start with something small. For years I have been frustrated by the inability of my 9th graders to bring back (the next day usually) a handout I passed out the day before. This year (4 weeks old now!) I have made maybe 8-10 handouts (not a class set they use/return) but one that they need to take notes on, etc. Since I want them to SAVE them and not lose them, I have remembered every time so far to have them 3 hole punched for easy saving in their 3 ring notebooks. Ah... the lowly 3 hole puncher. We all have one or more in our classrooms and a few times a month some student will ask to borrow it. Even better though is two of three copy machines will make the punch for you as it prints your copies at the same time so the kids get theirs with the punches there. And for some reason this year I have remembered to punch their papers for them, in a small way to encourage them to be organized, save their materials and not lose them. It seems to be working too!