New Student Crate

When all my students start the school year on the same day or at least within that first week, getting them everything they need is easy.  Syllabus, information sheets, birthday index cards, and the like are at my disposal and when I see a new face, I simply give them the necessary sheets.

Getting information to new students beyond this time period is difficult for me. Granted, they will get their purple folders (I buy purple pronged folders for my students every year), but at times, I might miss giving them other forms they need. I've also made the mistake of not giving them their birthday index cards and I then miss their birthdays which defeats the purpose of the epic calendar.

This year, I decided to reserve a half-crate to organize myself through this shortcoming.

This is an old literacy crate.  I cleaned it up and labeled it New Student to help me remember where I've put their necessary forms.  If I'm busy, I can easily send the new student to the crate and have him/her remove a folder for him/herself.  

The folder contains a syllabus for the school year. I will have them fill out their index cards with their names and birthdays.  I will pick up the card and stick it in my filing system.  As the year progresses, I will have a few more forms to add to this folder: Writing Tips, Citation Rules...  Although a folder is not suggested to be used as an Interactive Notebook, I will try and use it that way this year.

I bought 160 purple folders at Wal-Mart at .15 each.  Buying spirals would've been impossible and we have limited funds at our school.  I will go against the rule and do the best I can to make this folder as interactive as possible.  We'll see how it goes.