CHAOS
Chaos. That was may classroom, utter chaos. I'm not talking about student behavior. I'm talking about student work. It was everywhere, on my desk, on tables, in boxes, and ALL ungraded. I got so far behind with my grading I had to resort to a check system for nearly every assignment for 2nd quarter. Thank goodness christmas came around; I needed a break. During the break I planned to get myself more organized by developing a better system for collecting assignments. Instead of daily assessments, my students had weekly packets to complete. How did that go? It went pretty well for the first few weeks than I ran out of copies and I quickly reverted back to the old system. I have to admit that I was kind of relieved. Doing the weekly packets required me to plan at least a week or two in advance. And at this point in the year I was starting to plan my lessons only a day or two before I actually taught it.
No matter how much or how many times Ben Guest told us to stay a few minutes after school each day and grade our students' work, I couldn't find the energy, time, or motivation to do it. And so the piles began to grow and grow and over flow. It was a vicious cycle. A week or so before grades were due I would try to grade all the piles of student work from that quarter usually only grading approximately 20-40% of student work. Not a true assessment, but an assessment nonetheless.
It was really sad that I didn't see my chaos or “organized chaos” as I call it as a failure until I was cleaning up my classroom at the end of the year. I have leaved my whole life in “organized chaos.” In college I thrived on it. It worked for me. Why would teaching be any different? But it was. It wasn't about me, but about my students. As I packed my room I filled six boxes with student work, only of which two were actually filled with graded work. Two thirds of my students' work was ungraded. I truly failed my students. I did not provide them with the feedback they deserved.
I have found that it is extremely important to give back student work as soon as possible. It keeps them engaged and informed about their grades. No surprises. It also helps with motivation. Not all students are motivated by grades, but some are and for them it is crucial that you hand back their work in a timely manner. I did not do this and I think it disappointed a lot of my students. It left them constantly worried about their grade, whether they were passing or not. It also made it extremely hard to fail someone who I never gave notice to or never gave a chance to make up assignments or come in for extra help. I really dropped the ball with my disorganization. Please DO NOT be like me.
Next year, I'm going to tackle and address my disorganized ways. I need to dismiss the idea that organization takes more time and effort. The truth is organization actually saves time and makes your life as a teacher easier, in the long run. Yes, it requires better/more planning initially, but it's worth it. I'm going to take it one step at a time. Starting with student folders. Organization Take Two.
