Postiphobia–the fear of running out of Post-It’s– is a real problem. I should know, I suffer from it.  My Postiphobia is so bad that I have begun to hoard them, and last year I am embarassed to admit that a perfectly lovely student asked for 1 (a single post-it, not a pack) and I gave her the most horrified look and said “No, these are MY post its”.  She looked at me like I was insane.  A few minutes later I was forced to admit–I am insane where Post-its are concerned. I gave her a pack and apologized for my insanity.

Those little guys are addictive and I admit I am obsessed with having every color, every size–and I need them everywhere. I have them at school, on top of the desk, in the desk, on the walls.

A poster activity I did the beginning of the year. I gave every student 4 post-its and one at a time, they supplied the answer to post on the big posters.The big posters  were titled: 1)The room need to be _________ every day.  2)  In order for me to be successful, Mrs. Faulk needs to ________  3) Mrs. Faulk should be ______________ in class.          4) This year I am going to improve by __________.

Overwhelmingly students wanted the room to be quiet and clean, and I needed to be funny, kind, understanding.  They also thought I should teach every day and never assign homework. Post Its were anonymous so it was a safe activity for day one and the big posters stayed up all year to remind us of our goals.

The yellow post-its were used to number/label the desks so students can switch seats easily, and I don’t have to go thru extensive directions that students do not understand. (Your new seat is the front, left seat in row 6)

This also corresponds to my several seating charts…which makes it easy to change seating as we change activities during the week.  I am grateful that at the middle school I am on ground floor and the noise we make from moving desks on a regular basis does not disturb my neighbors like it did at the high school

Last year I had little notes everywhere, scraps of to do lists, reminders, grocery lists, I even had notes to remind me where the notes were since they seemed to duplicate over night and be everywhere. So I decided that I need to be a little more organized about how I use these guys.  I made templates for them which I have been using at home so far to help me keep track of chores, and to remind me of what I need to prep, print for the beginning of the year.

I’m putting the one below at the front of my planning binder so I always
know what I need to do ahead of time–no rushing in at the last minute
in the morning and crying to the teachers in line at the copy machine
about some fake story about my “missing copies”….not that I
ever did that….no, I did not.

The one on the right, with blue post-its is the one on my refrigerator with my chores for the week.  I think I might also have one of these on my wall at work to remind me of any apointments/meetings for the week so I am always prepared. Here are the links if you want them:
yellow and pink
Yellow school planner
Blue Version

I couldn’t decide if I like the portrait version or the landscape version so I made both and decide I like them both, for different uses.  Or maybe I  just like having little post-its and big post-its on the same page…..

In addition to these post-it templates, I decided to work on exit ticket forms and warm up forms (some of you call these bell ringers) for next year.  I really struggled with doing warm ups last year because of all the tardy students on a daily basis.  I only have a little tiny white board and I am required to write a whole lot of info about the lesson instead of the lesson itself.  So I was using the elmo and projector to write the warm up, but if a student came in late I was not able to start my lesson until the warm up was done. So I decided to pre-print the problems on the warm up so that even if a student is absent, they are still responsible for doing that review. And I added a place at the end of each week to reflect about the week and give them an opportunity to write.

Here is what the template looks like, front and back

There are so many ways that I use checking for understanding in the classroom and one of my favorite ways is to use an exit ticket. I 1 have also decided to go ahead and pre print these with questions and problems so that they are ready to go.  Currently I have finished the first 7 weeks of exit tickets (I plan about 1 ir 2 a week, depending on the learning target).  I also use plickers as a check, as well as various other methods. And if you are wondering–I OVERPLAN, if I have too much, great–I can use it for test review, finals review, review at the beginning of next semester.  I also decided to do 3 different versions on each sheet (each target). This way, absent students can “make up” the activity without getting a copy of his friends.  If you want this template, here it is:  EXIT TEMPLATE