78. One Minute Hack to Get Students Prepared for Class

Johanna Kuiper 0:00

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Don’t let August and September fool you. The number of students prepared for class when the bell rings dwindles as the school year progresses. So how can we help students get all their needed supplies out and ready to go without asking a bajillion times in today’s episode, I’m breaking down my one minute hack that has saved my sanity the past two school years. Let’s get started.

Welcome to solving for the undefined podcast. I’m your host, Johanna, founder of Miss Kuiper s classroom, the place that equips teachers in creating a healthy math classroom where students can thrive no matter their academic abilities. But it’s not always about the numbers, and that’s why I’m here bringing you the formulas to solve your problems, math and otherwise, plus strategies on cultivating that necessary math mindset, and that’s what you can count on.

Hello, hello. Welcome to a brand new episode today. I’m sharing that one minute hack that has saved my sanity the past two school years, in terms of students having all their supplies out and ready to go. And I’ve kind of hinted in it the past couple of episodes, but today we are talking about the Supply Roundup.

And the supply Roundup is to help transition between sections of your lesson or sections of your day, if you teach elementary, and the structure of it helps it get done quickly, but also get students up and moving, which is also very important. And within this supply Roundup, students are getting up, they’re getting their supplies, and they’re getting back in their seat as quickly as they can, because they only have one minute to do it. So I’m going to break down what goes into a supply Roundup, kind of piece by piece, then how it helps, or why you need to use this. And then lastly, how to actually implement this and do it with your students.

So first off, we need to break down the anatomy of the Google slide or visual that you put on the screen, because this is the essential piece. Is supply roundup cannot work without the visual. So I like to use Google slides because that’s what I’m most comfortable in. But you could use PowerPoint. You could print it out if you want to be fancy, but first thing you need on this slide is literally what you want students to get out or get ready for the next piece of your lesson. So typically for me, if I was doing a supply roundup before like the main lesson, or before we do notes, I would have students get out a pencil and a notebook, and so the screen will have a big bubble where it says, Get out a pencil and a notebook, and with the words, get out a pencil and a notebook.

I have a visual of a pencil and a notebook, and the visual is there to help reinforce the word, because students could quickly glance up at the screen, see the two pictures and know that that’s what they need to get out.

The next piece that I have on my slide is frequently asked questions. So I have the title, supply Roundup, the bubble that says, Get out pencil and your notebook with the visuals. And then in the bottom, I have two questions. The first one being, don’t have a pencil. And then the answer, check the pencil can on the counter. That’s kind of like the pencil graveyard. And then the second question is, don’t have your notebook? Get a piece of paper from the counter. So I provide pencils and paper for students who don’t have them, because I’d rather that they have supplies to complete the activity then punish them for not having the supplies.

And lastly, the third thing I have is a one minute timer. Now this one minute timer, the purpose of it is to create urgency, and I like to use one that has upbeat music, because it gets students in the moving mood. The timer also makes sure that this doesn’t take forever, because if you didn’t have the timer, students would take as long as they possibly could so they wouldn’t have to do any academics that day. So that is the anatomy of the Google slide visual that I use for the supply Roundup.

Now getting into how does this help, or why should you use this with your students? First of all, it gets all of your students to be prepared, like if you have students who were late or who didn’t have the supplies that they needed. This allows them the opportunity to get up to speed with the rest of the class. It also contains the chaos. So if a student was late or didn’t have supplies, when it was time to move into the lesson, and I told students to get out a notebook and a pencil, they one wouldn’t have it on their desk, so they would have to get up to get it, or two, they would have to raise their hand and ask me for those supplies, and then I’d have to tell them where to go get them. So it eliminates all that chaos and pushes it into a one minute time frame. It also eliminates the need to repeat what supplies students. Need to get out because you have the visual on the screen. So for me, especially after like the first three or four times that students have done a supply Roundup. If students ask what they need, most of the time, other students will answer. But for me, I just take my hand and I show them the screen so I am not repeating anything. I want them to rely on the screen. So if they ask, I’m not going to verbally say anything. I’m just going to point to the screen.

And kind of the last reason why I do this with my class is because it integrates movement and gives students a break, especially if we were just sitting for a while. It gives students an opportunity, in a contained way, to get up, do something and come back to their seat. It also gives students the opportunity to sharpen a pencil if they need to, so they’re not interrupting with the loud of the pencil sharpener, or, you know, just an opportunity to quickly tell a friend something, so it just gives students, overall, a break, mentally and physically from the normal routine of class, and gets them to do something productive, but also gives them a little bit more leeway in how they do it, if that makes sense.

Next thing that we’re going to talk about is how to actually implement this in your classroom, because you know why it works. But now let’s talk about how to do it. So first I use this probably one or two times throughout the class period. So the first time I do it is before we do our math, adjacent warm up, which, if you haven’t heard about we talked about in episode 77 the one right before this. So when class starts, I greet my class, we go over the agenda, and then I have them do the supply roundup to do the math adjacent warmup. And for this one, it’s typically a whiteboard and a whiteboard marker, one per group. So this time, I’m only having about nine students stand up one per group to get those supplies and bring them back to their desk. Then after we do the math, adjacent, warm up, if I need students to put those supplies away and get out like their notebook, I’ll put both of those tasks on the supply roundup so it’ll say two things, put away whiteboard, marker and whiteboard to get out pencil and your notebook. So there are two things that students have to potentially do during that one minute. Now you can use the supply roundup at any point in your lesson where there’s a transition or a change in materials. So for me, that’s usually two times for the math adjacent warmup and then for the main thing that we’re doing in that lesson.

So the very first time that you do this, you will want to make sure you go over every piece that you have on the supply roundup slide. So you’re going to tell students, all right, we’re going to do a supply Roundup. What that means is you will have one minute to get out the two supplies that I have on the screen, which is a notebook and a pencil. If you do not have those items over here on the slide, I’m going to share with you what we’re you’re going to do. So first, if you do not have a pencil, you’re going to go to the counter and check the pencil graveyard can. If there’s no pencils in there, you can either grab a marker or ask a friend for one two. If you do not have your notebook, you will need to get a piece of paper from the counter. Then I’ll ask, what questions can I answer for you? If there are no questions, I’ll say, All right, you have one minute to get your supplies and be back in your seat. Go ahead and begin. And then I will start the timer, and the upbeat music will play. Students get up, get their supplies and come back to their seats. What I also like to do the first couple of times that I do this in the school year, is incentivize the first three teams. Or if you don’t use teams, the first row done will get a prize. I use what’s called praise tickets, which is my school’s currency, but you could use candy, cute erasers, classroom points, whatever system you have for rewarding students, you can use that to incentivize your kids, because you want to make the one minute timer matter.

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So if you’re incentivizing the first three groups done or the first row done, it’s going to help create more urgency and give reason for why we have a one minute timer. Now, each subsequent day that you do a supply Roundup, I would share a little bit less with students. So maybe day two, instead of going through all the things that you would see on the list, say, if you don’t have a pencil and a notebook. This is what you’re going to do, and point to the two frequently asked questions that you have on your screen. And then maybe the next time that you do a supply Roundup, you’re just sharing what they’re getting out. And then maybe the next time you’re just saying a little bit less each each time, because you want students to come. Them more independent when they’re doing a supply Roundup, rather than relying on you to share all of the information. So by mid school year, I’m just telling them what they need to get out. You have one minute. Go ahead and begin. If you want to make it fancier, you can add some call and response to it. So say something like, all right, you’re going to get out a pencil and a notebook. You’re gonna get out what, and then like gesture for your students to like respond. And I’d probably coach them on that if you don’t do call and response regularly, but that is a way to get students more involved and thinking about what supplies they need to get out. So that is a supply Roundup.

Today we’ve gone over what a supply Roundup is, how to have the visual ready to go, why this is important, and then how to actually implement it in your classroom.

One last thing I’ll say before I wrap up, today’s episode is the very first time I introduce a supply Roundup is day two, when I do the 100 numbers to get students talking. So if you don’t know what that is, listen to episode 67 where I go over my first week of school activities, because I talk a little bit more about all the activities I do the first week of school. But day two is where I introduce the supply roundup for the first time. All right, as always, if you have any questions about today’s episode, please reach out to me on Instagram @misskuiper and I’m happy to answer any and all questions. And with that, I’ll calc-u-later.

Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode. To find all the links and resources to things talked about in this episode, head on over to misskuipersclassroom.com and click on podcast

Transcribed by https://otter.ai