2e: Organizing Physical Space with Student Mailboxes

     To save time in class and to get my students started right away I created a mailbox for each of my students. This is a quick way to hand back papers and a nice easy place for my students to store the headphones that they need in class everyday. 

 
 Each student has been assigned an "Alpha Number" which is a number that helps me put their papers in alphabetical order by class. So my first student in my first class has the number 1, second student alphabetically in the same class is #2, etc. So every time a student puts their name on their paper, they also write their Alpha Number. This saves a LOT of time when you need to alphabetize over 100 papers.

These are pictures of the students' mailboxes where they will get papers that I want to hand back.

This is where they turn in assignments to me

Each "basket" is for a different class

A bit of advice: If you are going to make your own mailboxes, staple them together or else you will constantly drop papers between the actual folders.

     The time invested in making these and assigning an alpha number will save you at least 5 minutes every time you have to alphabetize and record grades and at least 5 minutes of class time every time you hand back papers. 

Trust me it pays off.

Some of my readers especially those of you in other countries have asked me to put web-links where these items can be purchased so here they are. Click on the picture to go to the link. 

 This post originally featured on ballinwithballing.blogspot.com