Time Saver: Grade Book Tips

Paper Grade Book:

• Skip a line between names, or even two lines if a class is small.  That way you have room to add in new students alphabetically.  
• Don't set up your grade book until the second week of school.  Too many class changes happen before then and you might have to go a whole marking period with mistakes or redo it.  
• When an assignment is missing, outline the box.  This makes missing work stand out at a glance.  
• When you enter scores into the computer, highlight them in your paper book.  Then you will immediately know what needs to be entered when you open your grade book.  
• If you give homework passes, write "pass" in the spot the student chooses to use it or you might lose track if its been used or not.  
• If you want to keep track of who has handed in an assignment, but haven't yet graded it, here are two ideas.  Make a separate column for handing in the assignment.  (Sometimes I would could turning big in on time as a homework grade).  Or, put a small dot in the boxes of students who have the work.  Then go back and outline the boxes without dots.  I found this allowed me to quickly look at the grade book rather than locating and flipping through a file of work. 

Computer Grade Book:
I have only one real tip for your computer grade book, but its a big one.  It might depend on the program you use for it to work.

Creating grading codes is a great time saver for you.  It might take you a little bit of time to enter the codes, but it will save you time dealing with students and parents.

Here's the idea.  Create some codes that represent typical situations that students and parents ask (or nag) about.

For example:

NHI = not handed in

NGY = not graded yet

These two are very helpful to show parents in particular that either yes or no to if you have received certain assignments. 

When you use these codes all the time, then any zeroes in your grade book will only represent real zeroes earned on poor work or work that will no longer be accepted.  (Actually, you could come up with a code for a closed assignment, too.  I used to use ND = not done).