We have been blogging a lot about organizing your classroom and I thought I would share the way I handle student passes. Throughout the years, I've tried every kind of pass that I've come across from the typical bookmark shaped passes to necklace type passes, but they all seemed to have problems with getting lost or students liking them because they looked "cool" and taking them home or falling in the toilet, etc., you get the idea. Anyway, a couple of years ago, I changed over to using wooden clothespins for passes. I give each student 2 clothespins at the beginning of the year with their names written on them. They use one for our classroom job board and the other as part of our pass system.
I tape a strip of tagboard to the top of a book case, vertically, with thick booktape so that it hangs freely. On the tagboard, I have written all the possible places a student may need to go and have a matching clothespin with the same place name on it. When a student needs to go to the restroom, he/she brings their name clothespin and exchanges it with the one hanging from the sign labeled "restroom". Then, he/she clips the restroom clip to the collar of his/her shirt.
This system has many benefits. It allows anyone in the hallway to see where the student is supposed to be going so they know the child has permission to be out of the room and allows for correction if a student decided to "take the scenic route" to get there. The clothespin is out of the way and is secured to practically eliminate the possibility of accidental "dunking". The pass is not horribly ugly, but isn't "cool" enough for someone to want to steal, but if they do, it doesn't cost much to replace it and it doesn't provide a big interruption in the flow of class comings and goings. Finally, one of the biggest benefits is that in an emergency, I can pull the list off the bookcase and take it with me and know exactly where any "missing" students are located. This allows me to be able to inform administration if I child is not with my class for fire drills or any other type of emergency. I make sure to include any special classes my kids leave for on the list as well by listing either the teacher's name or the room (Reading Lab, etc.).
Let me know what you think and please share any ideas you may have for any kind of organizational procedures! I'm always open to suggestions and looking for improvements that help keep my class on track. :^)