Arrive early

Schedule your staff to arrive at least 15 minutes before the students arrive.  Make sure they have enough time to collect their supplies, organize their clipboard, prepare their table and prepare snack.  Everything that needs to be ready, should be completely ready when students arrive.

Greet Students

Are your group leaders standing at their table or assigned area when students arrive?  They should be.  Train your group leaders to greet each child individually, using their name, when they first arrive.  They need to strike up a little bit of conversation with students and ask about their day.  Really devote some time to making students feel special when they get to your afterschool program.

Give Down Time

Just as adults want to relax for a few minutes when they get home before starting on dinner or chores, students want to relax, too.  Give about 10 minutes for students to just sit and chat when they arrive to the program before you start making any announcements or sending groups off to their assigned activities.

Giving students time to relax and creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for them when they arrive will help make your afterschool program something that students look forward to.  This can boost your attendance and reduce behavior problems because you have created a calm friendly environment where students want to be.

Table 1: Assigning Students to Teams by Grade Level

Table 2: Assigning Students to Teams with Mixed Grade Levels

In Table 1, you only have room for one team of second graders – probably 20 students at the most.  What happens if your program suddenly becomes very popular with second graders?  In Table 2, you have room for about 30 second graders.  Mixing grade levels across teams also allows you to move students from one team to another if needed, and that can be a great relief if a conflict arises.

Here’s another tip:  schedule one or two extra students on every team.  If you are working from a grant – as so many Afterschool programs are – you probably need to meet a particular attendance requirement every day to get your maximum funding.  No matter how hard you try and how good you are at getting students to show up, someone will always be absent.  If you overbook your teams by one or two students each, you should hit your desired/required numbers every day. 

How do I get my students to complete their homework?  We offer homework help every day in the cafeteria but it seems like some students are just sitting there and never finish.

We all know that homework is the one thing parents want Afterschool programs to get done before the students go home – and this is a reasonable request.  To meet this need, many Afterschool programs have all the students sit down in a large room and take as much time as they want to get homework done.  The thought behind this strategy is good, but the fact is that it doesn’t really work.

Yes, I just said that unlimited homework time in the cafeteria does not get homework done!  Students talk to each other.  They get bored.  They get distracted.  They daydream.  And, they don’t get their questions answered quickly enough.  How many times have you seen a child laying with their head on the table and their hand in waving in the air waiting and waiting for help?

There is a better way!  The problem is that the focus is gone from homework time.  If there are three hours to get homework done, homework will take three hours.  So, how do we fix this?

Regain Focus

Divide your students into smaller groups and get them into smaller quiet rooms.  Then give them only one hour to complete their homework.  Stagger their schedule so some students do homework the first hour, some the second hour, and some the third hour.  Students will focus on their homework and finish because they know they only have limited time to work.

Get Professional Help

Hire one person like a credentialed teacher to help with homework.  With smaller groups, that person will be able to help the students who need help fairly quickly.  That person should know how to group students based on their assignments for the day and tutor several at a time if they have similar questions.

Eliminate Distractions

Have pencils and other supplies at the ready so time is not wasted on searching.  Keep all the students quiet and engaged.  Provide reading books and coloring sheets for those who are finished so they do not get bored and start talking.

You and your students do not need to be slaves to homework.  These changes may take time, but by changing your homework strategy you can really improve your program.  You can be more effective in helping students complete their homework accurately and you can free up more time for other wonderful activities.

For more specifics on how to make homework time a success you can check out my article, “Seven Secrets to Making the Most of Homework Time” on the Curricubits website.