Name Plates

Let me save you a whole bunch of time with guiding students to their assigned seat.  This idea is an oldy but goodie:  nameplates.  This beautiful idea was inspired by my college professor Mrs. Test.  She gave all of us teacher students a piece of card stock which we were to fold "hot dog" style.  We wrote our first name as large as we could and had our names facing the direction of the professor so she could learn our names.  At the beginning of each class, she had these name plates on a table, and when we arrived, were to grab our individual name plate.  If any name plate were still on her table, she knew these students were absent.  Also, a book I described in a previous blog post called A First-Year's Teacher's Guidebook by Bonnie Williamson mentions this idea too.

Now, this is how I use these.  Once I receive my class list, I buy enough colorful card stock for each of my students, fold "hot dog," and I write each of their names on one.  I use these to assign seats.

Now I know there are many ideas with assigning seats.  These are a few ideas of what I have seen...

1. Writing students names on the desk with permanent markers.
2. Buying cute name plates, laminating them, and taping them to the desk.
3. Buying cute name plates, laminating them, and use VELCRO to stick them to the desk.
4. Assigning each student a number and taping this number to the desk.
5. Assigning each child a number and placing it on the back of their chair.

I feel like creating name plates saves the teacher much headache when changing the seating arrangement.  (Which you know we must do at the beginning of the year since most of us do not know our students at first.)  I have seen a teacher use the number 4 listed above.  Everyday during the first week of school, this teacher would move the whole desk around to tweak the seating. But then there is the problem if you have two or more classes of students.  What if in the first class, the number 1 student works well with the number 12 student, but in the second class, these kids do not work well beside each other?

I think you get my point.  With the name plate idea, all you have to do is move the name plates around.  

Please note that to do this, you need to have your seating chart written down or memorized since some kids will try to switch your name plates around so they may sit by who they would like.  This has not been an issue with me.  I just simply tell the student that I know they swapped the name plate and they need to fix it. Only one or two tries will ensure students that you know where they are supposed to go.  Hope this helps!