What I do with graded papers

Grading papers. Ugh. It's kinda like laundry - it just never ends!

Every teacher has their own way of keeping these papers organized from collection to being sent home, and I thought I'd share my method for those interested.

I have classroom managers, and one of those positions is a Pick Up Manager. The past two years I actually had my Pick Up Manager collect papers in number order (alphabetical), but this year I haven't done that. It does make it easier to input grades if they're already in order though.

Once papers have been collected (or maybe students are turning them in individually), they go to the inbox. The inbox has two shelves - the top is for my homeroom and the bottom is for my switch class.

From there, I may go ahead and grade them, or move them into another paper sorter to keep out of the way until I get a chance to grade them.

The paper sorter is 3 years old, and used to be my inbox when I taught three classes, or it's falling apart a bit. Teaching two classes, this is how I use it to sort papers...

• The first column is for my homeroom, and the second column is for my switch class.
• The top row is for papers that still need to be graded.
• The second row is for papers that have already been graded, but have not been entered in the gradebook.
• The third row is for papers that have been graded, entered in the gradebook, and are waiting to be filed to go home. My kids know this, so if they see papers in the third row, they ask me if they can take them to go file.

When papers are ready to be filed, I stack them near the folders they're filed into.

The black tray on top is for papers that need to be filed. I don't like having mailboxes, because I think they take up too much room. I value my space! So I keep hanging file folders for each student. Every Tuesday, the papers go home.

Instead of using student names, I use numbers so I don't have to change it every year. I've used these folders two years now, and I'll use them again next year. They're in great shape still. Sometimes students forget to write their number on their worksheet, so I have everyone's number typed up and stapled on the wall behind the folders.