Keeping Your Classrooms

Nine Ways to Avoid Getting Stuck in the Cafeteria

You have finally done it! You convinced the principal and teachers to let you use the regular day classrooms after school so you can run a smoother, more effective afterschool program. Now you have to keep those rooms, which means you have to keep them clean and looking like you were never there. Following the steps below will help you maintain your classroom privileges and avoid getting stuck in the cafeteria all day.

1. Create a checklist for your staff to use when they enter and exit a classroom.

I call this the Entrance and Exit Checklist or E & E. Your list will be unique for your site but you may want to include checking for student projects in progress, writing on the board that should be saved, writing on the desks, or open windows.

2. Use the checklist every time.

Train your staff to observe the room as they enter and make sure the room is left in the same condition when they leave. Remember, you can not just pass out the E & E and say, “Here. Use this when you go in the classrooms.” You will need to walk them into a classroom and point out all the items they need to look at, tell them what they are looking for and explain why. If you do not take the time to do this, your staff will not use the checklist effectively.

3. Keep the mess in the cafeteria.

Reserve classrooms for homework, read aloud and other benign activities. Schedule anything that is messy or raucous in the cafeteria or outside.

4. Keep student bags and backpacks out of the classrooms.

Have students leave their backpacks in your main meeting space (perhaps the cafeteria) or outside the door of the room to avoid having afterschool program students get blamed for taking items from the room. Students should be able to take their homework out of their backpacks and carry it into a classroom without taking their whole backpack.

5. Use a seating chart.

Have your group leaders create a seating chart for their classroom and have students sit in the same place every time. (This is so you can prove it was not your students if something goes missing, or if it was your students, you can track down the exact student who took it.) Try to assign the same group to the same room each day so your group leaders do not have to spend time creating new charts every day. If that is not possible, make blank outlines of each room and distribute copies. That way, group leaders do not have to draw the whole room they just write in students’ names.

6. Save your schedules.

Keep written daily or weekly schedules with room numbers for all groups. We kept our weekly schedules in a binder for a couple of months and it helped us more than once when items were lost or complaints were made.

7. Set up a system for teachers to register complaints.

I recommend creating a form that teachers fill out and return to you. It should include their name and room numbers as well as specific information on what was damaged or taken and the exact date of the incident. Make copies of the form and distribute it in teachers’ boxes. If you use a colored sheet of paper that you don’t normally use, it will stand out on your desk when you receive a complaint. Make sure to include a cover sheet explaining the use of the form and where you want teachers to return completed forms.

8. Address teacher complaints immediately.

I can not stress this enough. The longer you wait the madder they get. Review the complaint form. Then contact the teacher to let them know you are looking into the matter. If the form is incomplete, get the details you need at the same time. Then do your research. Figure out if your group used the room, which group leader was in charge, which student was at the desk in question or anything else you need. Then get back to the teacher. If it was your group’s fault, do what it takes to fix it. If it was not your group’s fault, try to explain it in a kind way and remember the next and final item on this list.

9. Remember, it is better to build good will than to be right all the time.

In the long run, it is much better to foster good will by spending $5.00 from your own pocket to replace a “stolen” item for a teacher rather than wasting hours and building hostility by trying to convince them that your group didn’t take it. I once had a coordinator who replaced a missing package of colored pencils with a larger, better package of colored pencils even though she knew the afterschool program was not at fault. Three days later the teacher came to her office to confess that she found her original package of colored pencils in one of her desk drawers. The afterschool program has been very welcome in her classroom ever since.

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An example Seating Chart and an editable Teacher Complaint Form can be found in the Free Printables area.