TAKE ONE, PLEASE Place a chair or a desk in front of your entrance door and put on it any classroom materials that you want to distribute, suggests retired teacher Ron Baglio of Lynbrook, N.Y. Stand by the door the first few times you do this and instruct students to pick up a copy and get started on the task. No one has to waste time handing out materials. Soon, it will become routine for students to pick up copies when they see the desk or chair outside the door.

TRACK HOMEWORK To make it easer and faster to keep track of students’ completed homework or class assignments, Thomasine Kennedy of Beverly Hills, Fla., prints out her class list using her computer grade book program. She then copies the list onto a transparency. As she walks around the room, Kennedy checks off the students’ names using an overhead marker and records them later. The transparency can be wiped clean for the next use.

MISTAKES OKAY Library media specialist Trudy Duschaneck of Harrison, N.Y., hands out erasers on the first day of class to let students know that “it’s human to make mistakes.” She tells the children to use the erasers to correct errors and that it’s okay to ask for help when they need it. This puts students at ease, she says, “and erasers are good rewards instead of candy.”

CORRECTION On page 7 of the September 2004 issue of American Teacher, the name of one of the “Try It!” contributors, Barbara Tomeo, was misspelled. We regret the error.

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