Where's My Clean Desk?
This was my desk at the beginning of the year. Cleaned off, everything done and in its place.
And this is it now.
The pile of things to do and grade is taking over. I feel a bit guilty, but I just left it on Friday. I have too much home and family things to do this weekend to spend countless hours trying to get caught up.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m drowning in
paperwork and grading at this time of the year! No matter what year it is,
where I am teaching, or what my class personality is, October and November
always seem to have this constant stress of too much to do.
Do you feel this
way too? I’m revisiting my grading time savors list to help streamline my work,
and I thought something here might be useful for you, too. Check out the link below for other time
saving products in my TpT store!
1. Don't grade too much!
The assessments you choose should reflect what the students
have been learning and practicing. It
shouldn’t be a stack of everything they have done. Being a little more “picky”
about what you include in your grade book should save you some time!
2. Use an assessment for multiple things.
Ask yourself, “Can I assess more than one area with this
assessment?” Maybe you have a spelling test and you have your students use
their words in writing. Take 2 scores from this test – one for spelling/word
work and one for writing. Maybe you have
your students write how a certain person in social studies contributed to
society. Use that score for social studies and for language arts. Does your math test on multiplication assess
the student’s ability to use multiplication in real-world problems? Take 2 math
scores (math computation and math reasoning). This way, you’re not grading
separate papers. Big time savor!
3. Grade in batches
This was a HUGE game changer for me! Instead of grading Brandon’s science test,
then Macey’s, then Marcus’s, now I grade page 1 of everyone’s test, then go to
page 2 of everyone’s test and so forth. Grading the same thing in smaller
chunks actually uses your short-term memory to recognize correct answers
quicker. I can quickly breeze through a page of multiple choice questions,
remembering the sequence of the answers, making grading go faster.
4. Keep your answers on the left side of the page.
If you create your own tests/assessments, try to keep your
students’ responses all on the left side of the paper. Even if you give your students space to work
out their math problems right where the problem is on the page, have your
students place their final answers in a column on the left. This lets you grade
quickly, letting your eyes run down a single column for answers. If you need to
check the details of a problem, it’s still there, but your eyes don’t get hung
up with searching for the answer.
5. Self-checking assignments
Not all assignments can be checked by the students, nor
should all of them be set up this way. But there are benefits for having
students check their own work at times. Students have immediate feedback on
their work. They can learn from their mistakes, and take time to look at their
work to see what they got wrong. I know when I pass papers back to my students,
most of them look at the grade at the top of the page and shove the papers in a
folder to take home (if we’re that lucky). Checking things in class forces
students to notice specifics about their incorrect answers, as well as gives
them a chance to ask questions or see the correct response. Scoring things in class
also saves you the time to have to go through everyone’s paper.
I self-check as much as possible in class. I have to train my students how to do this,
though. My rules are (1) pencils away, (2) checking pens out, (3) write a
question mark next to something that you’re not sure of, and (4) write how many
you missed at the top and CIRCLE IT.
Sometimes I have an assignment where students check their
work with an answer key. It is sometimes as simple as completing a page of math
problems and checking with my teacher’s manual that I lay out on a table (or
the corner of my desk) for them to use. It’s easiest to make a few copies of
the answer key and place them in different areas around the room. This way,
more students can check at the same time. My rule with these is that if they
have an incorrect answer, they must circle the problem number that is wrong and
go rework the problem. They are not allowed to just copy the right answer and
say it’s done. This kind of self-checking is best for review or practice pages.
They are not going in the grade book, but intended to give more time and
practice with a particular skill.
I hope these time saving tips help you streamline your work
so you can enjoy life outside of your classroom! I know I’m definitely going to focus more on
these this coming quarter, too!
Here are some great time saving helps that you may be
interested in from The Owl Spot!
