What Works-Keeping Track of Comings and Goings

An art room can be a very exciting and busy place. But with one teacher and 26 students you can’t always keep your eye on everything and remember everything. There are a lot of distractions in an art class.  One student may ask to the bathroom and two minutes later another asks to go to the nurse.  But within those two minutes, you may have a glue spill in the front row  and a broken pencil in the back row. It is a lot to keep track of. Is there an easy way to keep track of it all? How do I remember who has left the room and who’s comeback with all the distractions and excitement going on?

Well, I have  found a little white board  hanging on my doorknob can be very helpful.  When a student leaves the room, they sign their initials. Signing on a white board is not something a student will forget or overlook doing. What middle school student doesn’t want to leave their name or initials somewhere? 

If someone asks to leave a few minutes later, I can just look over to the doorknob and see if there are already intials there. I can then make my decision if I can let someone else to leave the room. It’s a quick and easy way to keep track in an busy art room.   


Would this work in your art class? Let me know.