MAKEUP HELP Appoint a student “secretary for attendance” to write the names of absentees on the board each morning, suggests retired Miami-Dade, Fla., teacher Janice Cox Jones. As worksheets or school fliers are distributed, the secretary writes the name and date on the absentees’ papers and places them in a “makeup folder,” along with any answer keys if applicable. “The silent and seamless method” maintains continuity in the classroom and “promotes accountability,” she notes.

QUICK CHART Fourth-grade teacher Holly Butler of Santa Cruz, Calif., creates classroom seating charts by using thin magnets (available in office supply stores) to which business cards can be attached. She then buys blank cards and attaches them to the magnets, one for each student. When it’s time to rearrange students’ seats, she just moves the magnets around on her metal wall. Because they’re all the same size, she can arrange them like real desks and easily view what her new arrangement will look like.

FAST GRADING For a quick way to grade hand-marked multiple choice tests, make an answer key and then use a hole punch to make an overlay, suggests Philadelphia high school teacher Alan Bronstein. He also colors the key with a red marker so that when he places it over a test, the empty “white” circles jump out. It is then easy to see if there is a mark in the circle. He slashes the empty circle with a pen and counts the slashes to obtain the grade. This method is also easy for student graders to use, he notes.