If your students are like my students were, they struggle with remembering when tests are scheduled, when projects are due, when holidays begin (okay, maybe not so much), and just about any other date you can imagine. My classroom had this huge whiteboard on the side wall that I really had no use for. I decided to use it to create a really gigantic wall calendar such as I'd seen other places.
I used that blue painter's tape and some cool letters that I found. I color coded classes since I taught two grade levels: red for seniors, green for freshmen, and blue for everyone. The beginning of each month I recorded all dates that I knew. Some dates were recurring (every Wednesday vocabulary quizzes, every Friday mini-lesson quizzes, for example). I put them up anyway. Because of the way I planned, I knew most major test dates and most project due dates. If these dates needed to change, it was a quick fix since they were written in Expo markers. School calendar dates were easy enough since we got them at the end of summer.
I cannot tell you how much easier this made my life. At the beginning of the school year, I would tell my students to get into the habit of checking the calendar as soon as they walked into the room. No one could ever say, "I didn't know we had a test today, Ms. K" because all I had to do was point to the calendar. The rest of the class would just laugh.
If you look closely at the picture, you can also see that I used a portion of the board to post Make Ups. Actually, I would just write the names of any student who owed me any graded work. It was up to them to find out what it was that they were missing. Again, no surprises.
Keeping kids informed of this type of information can sometimes be a great, big pain. Anything that will make my life easier has got my vote. I highly recommend doing something similar if it is at all possible. Good luck!!
