Many new teachers make the mistake of not utilizing every second that a student is in school. Many waste the first 10-20 minutes taking care of, what I call house keeping tasks such as; roll call, lunch count, gathering late work, collecting assignments etc. Usually the students just sit through all this or goof off.
When I first adopted my early morning entry tasks I got several bonus pay offs. Most of my students always arrived on time because they knew that they could be behind 2 or 3 short assignments in the first half hour of school. Each morning I put assignments on their desks in the order that I wanted them to complete them.

These assignments were some that they could do without instruction. The pile usually contained a reading direction that they had to read and do. It consisted of 3 or more parts and was used as a reading grade. Ex. Get a piece of paper, put your name in the left hand top corner, draw a circle and put your neighbors name in the circle. Then put your paper in the directions basket on my desk. As the year went along the directions got more complicated. This solved the problems later in the day with reading directions on assignments. When students asked me how to do something I would tell them to read the directions and them when they said "I still don't get it" I would reply. "That's funny this morning you got a 100% on your directions paper and it required you to do six things. These directions only ask you to do two. Try again."

Under the directions I would put a handwriting (cursive) practice page. Handwriting practice is very important if you want to be able to read a students work. Under the writing assignment there might be a math drill, or writing prompt or maybe even a paper that I needed them to redo.

The students came right in and went right to work while I did my housekeeping chores. Using this method I was able to get some needed assignments in a minimal amount of time. Sometimes they had more than 20 minutes to get their pile done depending on what needed to be accomplished. Later I expanded to putting accelerated math assignment folders, or review pages.

This use of entry tasks solved problems such as tardiness, reading directions and following them, making time for much needed handwriting practice. The time was not wasted and I rarely had to tell them to settle down and get to work because school had started. This practice can be adapted to any classroom to fit your specific needs.

Caroline Mackay is a retired teacher with 37 years experience in teaching and educating students in the elementary schools. She wrote, produced, and directed plays and programs to encourage the display of patriotism, how to stay drug free, celebrate holidays and encourage physical fitness. Being artless herself she developed some Art Starts to encourage her students to express themselves through art. Making education an exciting fun experience she developed games and learning activities to keep the students engaged in the learning experience. She is the host of http://www.ezeducationplays.com where you can find plays that teach and entertain children.