The "End of Day Buddy" System

I've been thinking about a student that I taught several years ago who had a difficult time remembering what he had to take home.  I learned from his mom that he'd rush in the door saying, "Hey Mom, I've got this assignment about reindeer that I've started at school.  Look at it." and he'd start digging through his backpack and then look up dejectedly and say. "Oh, I left it at school."

So we created the 'End of Day Buddy" system.  I paired those organizationally-challenged students  with those who were better organized.  In fact, it got to be that I could pair any two students and they would work with each other.  I'd hear - "Do you have ????" and '"Nope, wait, it's right here." and together they helped each other get organized at the end of the day.  It certainly reduced the number of times I would hear from parents about lost assignments or projects.

From a teacher's perspective, it meant ending the 'official' teaching part of the day perhaps five minutes earlier to give students the chance, in a supervised setting, to get themselves organized. But the time spent at the end of the day meant so much more time available in other ways because assignments went home, Communication Logs went home, and we didn't spend time trying to get caught up or figure out what was lost and then start over. Besides, learning how to be organized is a worthwhile skill - see the Learning Habits and Works Skills section of the report card (and coming soon - a post about a student-friendly version of those habits and skills!)

Here's a suggested Checklist from Understood.org that the End of Day Buddies can use.   The suggestion is that the Checklist goes on the backpack.

I like the larger size and would suggest that there be a laminated checklist for the top of the desk or the inside of the locker, as well as the backpack.

Those who have read Smart but Scattered, recommended in an earlier post, will recognize a list such as this one.  Note that lists such as these become 'invisible' with time.  Children are so used to seeing them that eventually they don't!  So switch them up.  After a couple of weeks, review the list together and figure out what can be removed or added.  Maybe change the colour of the paper.  Let your child 'own' it by suggesting what should be on the list and then personalize it (with stickers, drawings etc).

Here's to organization!