Teaching Tip: Taking Attendance

Taking attendance is a necessity in the classroom. However, I have found that sometimes taking attendance is difficult during transitions or while setting up for an activity. An easy way to take attendance daily is to have the name of your students on clothes pins. Hang a clothesline in your classroom where the pins are organized in alphabetical order. When the students enter the classroom, you can have the students take down their clothespin and put it in the attendance basket. The students that are remaining on the line are the students that are absent that day. It is also beneficial as you can hang any handout that the students needed for that day from the absent students clothespin. When they come in from their absence, all of the work that they needed from the day before will be on their pin, ready for them to complete.