15 Ways For Teachers to Get Organized For the Beginning of the School Year

All teachers need a user-friendly system to help stay on top of the endless marking, checking and workpages. Plan as thoroughly as you can and if you don’t already have one, develop a system of organization. It’s truly amazing how much paperwork and marking goes into the first year. It’s easy for a new teacher to feel overwhelmed and confused. Try to avoid these initial feelings by planning your lessons ahead as much as you can. Rely on a system that is easy and user friendly. Consider these tips when organizing or opening your classroom for the fall semester.

Remember, being well organized and having well prepared lessons are also important to having a well-managed class.

1) Have a computer backup plan. Purchase a flash drive, a hard drive, or consider creating a Google documents account.

2) If you use a paper-based program, prepare everything you need for a smooth entry into the school year. Prepare important calendar dates; wait until your class is established to copy in the students. If you’ve working with an electronic system, decide on the grade weights or averaging system and establish the formula in the software.

Make sure you have a storage plan.

3) Have a plan for storing handouts like a stacking/filing system and a specific location for finding those stacks. Keep only 1 master copy of each file and recycle last year’s bulk copies. Make sure you have a copy on your computer!

4) Prepare a make-up work plan and location that is ready for action by the first day of school. You never know when you’ll need it!

5) Choose a location for this year’s paperwork. If you keep an individual student file for each student, have an organizational system for each class. If you keep a separate file for each course or section, organize by that system too. Try really, really, really hard to have an empty file cabinet drawer for this year. You can at least lay the papers down in the file cabinet and close the drawer, even if there’s no time or perhaps need to file in folders.

6) Old pictures and newspaper clippings tend to yellow and turn brittle. Laminate colorful pictures and recycle the rest. Libraries are a great place to donate unwanted textbooks and old readers that students no longer need.

7) For teachers in a staff teaching the same grade(s), a communal file or folder can be helpful for quick and easy access of workpages. Again, these should be divided into skill-sets and subjects.

Organize your own supplementary resource material. This can be a teacher’s checklist that you consult and use frequently, some uplifting words for bad days, or a a list of reminders.

9) Have a folder with the school policies and regulations. You should especially know where you stand in terms of how your school deals with discipline problems. Having this file within easy access will definitely help you when you are confronted with difficult and unanticipated classroom situations, which undoubtedly will happen.

10) If you are a reading teacher, you might want to have a folder for informal reading comments as you listen to your students read the first week. Pre-assessments e-assessments) during the first weeks of school are especially important for getting to know your students.

11) Have folders with letters ready to send home on first or second day to parents. You may consider a separate drawer with different letter folders.

12) Keep a folder with the necessary handouts for any new student that may arrive a week or a month later. There’s nothing worse than running around the room looking for important handouts for a new student!

13) If applicable, hang a bus list. Keep an extra copy in your folder.

14) Make sure you have a schedule for lunch and PE posted. This is VERY important to the students. Again, keep a master copy in your folder.

15) Have a folder with blank journal templates for the first day of school. Younger students can write a letter to their parents telling them all the things they learned that day. Older ones can write a list of goals setting their intentions for a good school year. Keep additional folders of blank seating charts, blank papers and other templates.

Sample Cover Letter For High School Students

Many teenagers who pass high school look for part time or full time jobs for earning pocket money. A job can be an experience building stepping stone if you already know what type of career you would like to make in future. Nowadays there is huge number of jobs available for high school student. You just need to prepare an effective cover letter if you want to secure a decent job.

In this article I would like to provide a sample of a high school cover letter which would help high school students, particularly juniors and seniors who want to enter the workforce.

Your Name

Your Address

Your City, State, Zip Code

Your Phone #

Your Email

Date

Employer Name

Company

Address

City, State, Zip Code

Dear Mr. /Ms. Last Name,

I am responding to the employment opportunity listed on your website. Please accept this letter and accompanying resume as evidence of my interest in applying for this job. I feel my qualifications and my skills would prove to be an asset for your organization.

I have recently passed high school from a well known school. Now, I am looking for an honored job that will add experience to my building career. Here are some of my key strengths that I would bring to the position. I am:

1. A self-starter.

2. Disciplined.

3. An excellent communicator.

4. Very willing and eager to learn new things.

5. Exceptional at customer service.

6. Great team worker.

Accepting challenges is the foundation of my life experiences and something I do with confidence. You will find me a totally committed individual with pride in being direct, spontaneous and communicative. I can maintain records, perform numerical calculations with accuracy and I need little direction to complete assigned tasks. These are the qualities that make an excellent candidate for this post.

I was responsible for handling and organizing various important activities in my school. I have even participated in numerous cultural activities. I have working knowledge of MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Excel and Internet.

I would appreciate your consideration of my credentials. If you do think there is a shared interest, I would greet the chance to meet with you to hear more about your company, the requirements of the position, and how my skills would be a good fit.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Your Signature

Your Typed Name

I hope my article will help you in preparing a high-quality and eye-catching high school student cover letter.

Biometrics With PowerLunch School Cafeteria Software

The PowerLunch Lines They Are A Changing

Biometric software from M2SYS Technology is being used with PowerLunch point of sale (POS) cafeteria software at various PowerSchool customer district schools throughout the country for accurate and indisputable monitoring of meal credits.  Bio-SnapOn, a biometric fingerprint recognition system from M2SYS Technology, enables schools using the PowerLunch module of PowerSchool to setup a secure, reliable fingerprint system to more accurately and efficiently identify students.  Together, PowerLunch and Bio-SnapOn help to facilitate quick and unequivocal lunch line check outs that interface easily with back end accounting and inventory systems. 

Biometric POS PowerLunch Software Systems

The fast paced world of today’s PowerLunch POS environments demands user-friendly software that can handle transactions with speed and accuracy to maximize profits without sacrificing precision or security.  A biometric PowerLunch software system eliminates the need for students to remember a PIN code or use a barcode ID when they get to the register.  The student simply scans their finger on the fingerprint reader and immediately their identity is established and transaction recorded.  The process is fast, safe, reliable and accurate.  It maintains the flow of the PowerLunch line allowing students who sometimes only have 30 minutes or less for their lunch period to get in and get out as quickly as possible.  In less than 20 minutes, schools can setup and begin enrolling students in the system for future identification. 

More PowerSchools Adopting Biometric Technology

More and PowerSchools are turning to M2SYS as a trusted biometric component of their PowerLunch cafeteria management software technology to incorporate a secure student identification system that boosts the accuracy and security of transactions.  Fingerprint recognition has become the mainstream biometric modality of many PowerLunch line POS systems but as biometric technological advances have evolved, more PowerSchools are choosing advanced biometric technology such as fingervein, palm vein and iris recognition as their modality of choice due to the inherent benefits that are included in these hardware modalities such as lower False Reject Rates and a more hygienic scanning environment. 

Privacy Concerns

There are many rumors virally circulating about biometrics and its privacy implications for children.  Some fear that if a hacker breaks into the PowerSchool computer system and steals a biometric template, the damage is irreversible and not able to be corrected.  Others say that once a biometric template is established for a child, it gives free reign for any governmental agency to lawfully access that template to create a national registry of biometric identification information.  The truth of the matter is that biometric enrollment templates stored on a server are not actually an image of the fingerprint at all.  They are a mathematical representation of the data points that a biometric algorithm extracts from the scanned fingerprint.   The algorithm then uses the template to positively identify a child during subsequent fingerprint scans.  No image of the fingerprint is ever stored or transmitted across a network.  In addition, the algorithm is “one way” which means that the template that is extracted can never be used to recreate the original fingerprint image.  In other words, it is nearly impossible to reverse engineer the data that is sent to positively identify a child and successfully “steal” their biometric identity.

Biometrics Are The Future For PowerLunch Identification Technology – Bar Codes and PIN’s Are Not

As more PowerSchools adopt biometric identification technology with their PowerLunch POS systems, word is spreading fast about the distinct benefits that biometrics creates for efficient cafeteria management.  The focus on PowerLunch line best practices over the years has evolved into developing faster and smarter ways of planning and executing tasks with less staff, less overhead and higher security.  Biometric technology fits well into this evolution because it offers speed and flexibility for identifying students and can easily be interfaced into existing PowerLunch cafeteria management software systems at a very affordable price point.  It trumps bar codes (no card to forget with biometric identification) and PIN’s (no longer need to memorize numbers), allowing PowerSchools to implement a modernized mode of student identification with the peace of mind that their students are safe and moving quickly through the PowerLunch line.  If you haven’t heard about the benefits of biometric technology used with PowerLunch, we encourage you to contact us, or visit our Web page for more information.

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