Duct Tape as a Time Saver

So far this year, my students have three composition books each. One is a writing journal, decorated with magazine clippings in a collage style. There is a prompt checklist glued in the front of the notebook that students can choose from if they don't want to write about the given prompt. I am very flexible when it comes to what topic students are writing on, as long as they are writing in response to something that interests them. For now, the goal is to write continuously for ten minutes. Students aren't "done" until the timer rings, and even then they are able to continue in their journal entry until they are finished. After each journaling session, the students read their entries to their seat partner. I tell them to read exactly what they have written and to stop when something doesn't make sense. I tell them to erase and make corrections when they need to. I really want my students to be able to spot their own mistakes so in future writings they can edit their own and each others' work. 

The other two composition books are interactive notebooks. These "live" in table group bins because space inside our desks is limited. There are eight students at each table group, so in order to make finding the appropriate notebook more efficient, I have come up with the idea to use duct tape on the bindings to color-code the notebooks. Here is an image of a science notebook. The duct tape doesn't have to be this long; it just have to be visible from the top of the bin. 

This method has been very helpful for table leaders to pass out notebooks when the time comes and I think I'll do it year after year! 

The math notebook has a red tape binding and soon we will have an ELA interactive notebook as well with a purple binding. I demonstrated the tape on one notebook and then was able to tear strips for the kids to put on their own notebooks. They all did this without any trouble which saved me the hassle of marking each notebook myself...yay! Looking forward to filling these notebooks with learning, foldables, and graphic organizers this year!