As a middle school teacher, you know that it’s important to keep track of your students’ academic performance, as well as any behaviors, incidents, and other important details about them. This can help you tailor your teaching style and activities to better meet each student’s individual needs and to help them reach their full potential. But let’s face it! You may have all this intention for student record keeping and then suddenly you have 85 little faces in front of you every day and the school year’s cranking and all the details can easily get lost in the sauce!
When I first started teaching I remember feeling really overwhelmed when it came time for parent-teacher conferences. This is because I always felt like I knew a student pretty well as he or she presented in class, but I would have a difficult time remembering specific incidents or examples to share with their parents. Or in some cases, I felt like I didn’t have enough information and data to share because I hadn’t been doing a great job of student record keeping.
Tip #1: Student Notes Spreadsheet
If you can relate, I’m here to tell you that I figured out a system for student record keeping that works for me!
One way to keep track of these details is to create a simple spreadsheet to house all of the important information about each student. You can use this to write down the student’s background information, family information (like siblings that you know), any interests or hobbies they have, behaviors and incidents, and positive things (like when the student has a great day of participating or working with others or when they are kind to you or someone else). You can also include information about absences or changes in the student’s life like divorcing parents or a death in their family.
Each school year, I make a spreadsheet with a list of each of my students’ names and I make columns with these headings: Observations/Interests/Family, Behaviors/Incidents/Noticings, Positives/”I See You”, Academic Concerns, Contacts Home.
For example, my student Luca’s row of the spreadsheet might say:
Brother Tucker, has new baby in the house, in Competitive Math League, has chickens . . . giggling in class/immature behavior 12/5 . . . great participation during density labs . . . does not use punctuation! . . . emailed mom 12/5 about behavior (received supportive response)
Check out the link at the bottom of this post to download your own copy of this Student Notes Spreadsheet in Google Slides!
Tip #2: Google Form Check In
You can also use technology to help you check in with your students or give them a place to share concerns or ideas with you. Set up a Google Form on which students can type you a message if they have an academic or social concern. You can set up your Form so that you get an email if someone completes it so that you know when you get new submissions. This is a good way to triage concerns and to give students a place to share their ideas, feedback, or questions with you.
Likewise, if you notice that a student is struggling with a concept or if they tell you this themselves on the Google Form, make a note of it on your Student Notes spreadsheet and highlight the box so you remember to follow up again. Then be sure to follow up with them to further explain the concept or provide additional resources that might help.
Tip #3: See Your Students
In addition to tracking your students’ academic and behavioral concerns, you should also keep track of their growth in understanding and positive efforts that they make towards their own character building. For example, if you notice that a student has made strides in a particular area, make a note of it and send a ‘bragging’ email home! This will make your students feel seen and they will appreciate being recognized.
My school has a really sweet little program called “I See You”. Teachers can take “I See You” slips, which is just a little notecard, and write to the student when they’ve spotted them doing something kind, giving good effort, or showing great character as a member of the school community. I make a note of any “I See Yous” that I write on my spreadsheet so that I can remember later!
It’s also really important to take your students’ temperatures each day. By this I don’t actually mean taking their temperatures of course. What I mean is to get a sense of how your students are feeling. Middle school students are going through so many changes and have so much going on in their social and family lives. It’s important to recognize when a student needs emotional support because nothing that you teach is going to matter otherwise.
Tip #4: Make the Effort to Connect
Showing a genuine interest in your students’ lives can help you better connect with your students and create a positive learning experience for everyone. This goes a really long way towards teaching the whole child. But, sometimes connecting with every student is hard with all of the things on our teacher plates each day!
One strategy that I find helpful is to make sure that I actually LOOK at each student in my class each day. For example, while they are sitting doing their Bellwork assignment for the day, I walk around and LOOK at each of their faces and I try to assess their mood and state of mind. This helps me feel more aware of where each student’s head is as we proceed into the lesson. I try to ask a few students a question as I walk around. I try to vary who I ask questions to each day so that in a week I’m getting around to each person.
When someone tells me something interesting or when I notice that a student seems a little off to me, I’m sure to write it on my Student Notes Spreadsheet! When I reach out to parents, I have specific dates and incidences logged and this helps tremendously with communicating about a child.
Finally, it’s important to keep track of the little things when it comes to your students. Ask them about their families, the movies they like to watch, the sports they’re interested in, and any other interests they have. Write these on your spreadsheet as you learn these things throughout the school year!
Check out my Science Interest Survey and Brown Bag Biography Activity in this blog post as beginning of the school year activities to help you get to know your students’ interests! Knowing some little quirky things about what your students like and who they are as people outside of school will come in super handy when you have a parent-teacher conference, an IEP meeting, or when you have to speak about a student at any point in the year. You’ll be better prepared to connect with and serve your students with the best possible outcome in mind!
Click here to Make a Copy of my Student Notes Spreadsheet in Google Slides!
If you have more ideas related to keeping records of your middle schoolers through the school year, I’d love for you to share in the comments below!
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