A few years ago, my district built a new middle school. We transitioned from a 7-8 building, to a 6-8 building. In addition to this, our overall master schedule had a major overhaul. As a result, all 3 grade levels have a different schedule and different transition times, so we don’t have ringing bells. If you know me at all, you know how frustrating this has been. I thrive on routine and schedules, and not having bells to hold my students accountable on transition time has been hard for me. Over the last couple years, I have tried several systems to try to maintain an efficient transition time. I teach science, and 42-45 minute periods are already plenty short. Longer than needed transition times had shortened some of my class periods to a point where those classes weren’t able to complete lessons. This was unbelievably stressful for someone who “teaches to the bell.” Some classes were just able to get more done than others, because they had 3-5 extra minutes. Bells in Middle School…Over Christmas break, I asked a question in a Facebook group. I was curious if there were a lot of schools in this situation. I assumed my school was an anomaly. Boy, was I wrong! Here, it turns out, there are a lot of middle schools without ringing bells. There were also other teachers as frustrated as I had been, because of the lack of efficient transitions. Many suggested that I set alarms on my cell phone, but I didn’t like that idea for several reasons. I had tried an idea that a colleague uses, but I talk to students too much during transitions, so even I lost track of time, and her system didn’t work for me either. Alarms & Clock AppDoing more research over Christmas break, I discovered the Alarms & Clock App on my school PC. In this app, I was able to set multiple alarms. I started experimenting with this when we returned from Christmas break. After determining an ideal transition times for each period, I set my alarms. I didn’t want to give them too much time, but I also didn’t want to rush my students to a point that their lateness was out of their control. There is an alarm sound at the beginning of all of my class periods, except for first period. Students are expected to be in the room before the alarm sounds. My school PC feeds into the speakers of my room, so the alarm is broadcast across my classroom. I was generous for the first two days and reminded students of the time that their alarm would sound. I told them I would start marking them tardy after the 2 practice days. We are in our 3rd week of this system its its working well. I record names of tardy students on a list on my front counter with the date they were late. After 3 tardies, I assign a lunch detention. With 120 students, I have assigned 3 lunch detention in the last 2.5 weeks. They really are responding well to this new system. If you are also frustrated with the lack of bells, I encourage you to try this system.
If you’d like ideas on how to organize interactive notebooks within your classroom, or on how to organize work for absent students, please read my other articles. For interactive and hands-on science activities, please Follow Me on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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Kristy ShearerI earned my teaching degree in 2007 and was hired immediately. In 2016, I earn a Master of Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Texas at Arlington. In this degree, the focus was science instruction using the inquiry-based Learning Cycle Model. This degree forever changed how I will teach. It was an amazing program and really taught me how to effectively have an active, hands-on class. SCIENCe interactions
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