How Can Cooperative Groups Make Your Workload Lighter?

Set up your classroom in cooperative groups to make your workload easier.  If each group of four students has one captain, then that captain can manage the team.  Set up materials in your room in a central location.  I have found this works best if you set the materials in plastic drawers which you can buy in the office supply section of  Wal-Mart.  In each drawer place enough supplies for that team.  For an elementary classroom, I recommend having  six drawers full of crayons, six drawers full of markers, six drawers full of colored pencils, and six drawers full of  four sets of scissors and glue sticks.  Beside the supplies also have paper trays for each subject.  Direct your team captains to pick up and return the needed supplies and papers for each activity.  Give each student in a team a number 1-4.  To give students equal opportunities at being team captain, change the team captain number on the board each day.  Reward teams who are quick to follow directions.  You can keep a running tally and reward teams with the most points for appropriate behavior.  Below is an example of how you might label your team captain numbers so that the numbers rotate in a circle.