This year I am team teaching! Whew… if you’ve ever gone from self-contained to team teaching, then you know how much work it is in the beginning to simply figure out all the little things.. like where does their stuff go? And who sends emails? And what time do we switch? For the love of Ryan Gosling what time are we switching today!?

For us, one of those little things was how we were going to do the clip chart. Yes, we use clip charts… don’t throw rotten eggs at me!! I know there is a lot of very public opinion on clip charts- but I say do what works for you and your kids. And a clip chart works for me b/c I use it mostly for positive reinforcement. So there.

We came up with this:

When they remember to do it, because well they are 6 years old… our helper for the day takes it with them when we switch and hands it to the other teacher. We then “reset”. Every student starts back on green for their afternoon class. If they didn’t then we’ve have some friends who would just always have a terrible afternoon on top of a terrible morning.

I try to avoid the terrible at all costs!!

In our take home folders we have a calendar where students color their 2 colors for each day.

Again, when they remember. They are 6 and I have about 26 other things to do when it comes time for them to color.

You will also notice down at the bottom of the clip chart there is a spot for “laps for tomorrow”. That is another thing that we had to get used to this year. We used to have recess at the end of the day, so students would walk 1-2 lap at recess if they clipped down. We now have recess in the middle of the day, so if a student clips down after recess in their afternoon class, they have to walk laps the next day… if we all remember. Are you sensing a theme here?

My favorite thing about it is that since it is a clipboard and not hanging on the wall, it doesn’t get stared at by anyone who walks in.

If you are team teaching this year, or just want a chart that can go with your students to specials and lunch, I hope that this mobile clip chart idea can help you.

Or if you despise clip charts maybe all this post did was reinforce why you don’t use them in your classroom. That’s cool! We are an equal opportunity blog here.

:)