Do you feel overwhelmed at the beginning of the day when students are entering your room? Some can’t unzip their coats. Others hand you notes from home. Homework is sprawled all over student desks and counters. The end of the day is just as crazy and the last thing you want to do is sit at your desk sorting through homework to grade. You take these piles, clip the similar papers together so they don’t get mixed up, and place them in your bag to take home. Why does this have to be so much work?
Well, it doesn’t have to anymore! I bought these hanging file folders about five years ago to organize papers in my classroom. I originally bought it to hold extra work the students could choose to work on if they finished something early. I always had a drawer storage system for students to turn in homework. It worked pretty well, actually, but I still had to sit there and clip everything together at the end of the day before putting it in my bag.
Last year, I realized I could use this to collect my students’ homework. When they enter the classroom
they sort their homework and place it neatly in the correct slot. We even worked on having the papers placed in the folders in the same position (top of the paper to the left side).
Now, at the end of the day, I unhook the organizer from the door. This folds up neatly and has an elastic string on it to hold the whole thing together. I just place this in my school bag and take it home. It’s so simple and quick and will definitely make your life much easier!
If you’re interested in trying this out with your students, I put a link below to where you can purchase this on Amazon. This organizer kept me so organized over the years and I’m sure you’ll find a million ways you could use it in your classroom!
