Week 2: September 13- September 17

For the second week of my internship I also focused on classroom management. This week, my host teacher and I encountered a problem with a few of our students. Mrs. Sprout had received an e-mail from a concerned parent who checked the LiveGrades (web based grading system) and saw that their child had earned a 0 in two assignments bringing the grade to a D. I searched through the papers in panic because I had been doing the bulk of the grading for the past week and I was afraid I didn't post the grades correctly or missed the paper. Unfortunately I still couldn't find the papers. Over the recent weeks we had received many papers that were turned in without names on them and no one would claim them. Mrs. Sprout gave the student the opportunity to make up the work for full credit even though he said that the 'no name' work wasn't his. Throughout the week we continued to get many papers without names in which no one would claim. We also received many complaints from students that they turned things in and did not receive grades. By Thursday I thought I was losing my mind because I knew I hadn't lost all of their papers so I decided to create a system where the students could check their 'no name' papers and we could keep track of them. On my desk there is an area with 5 stacked paper trays. I created a 'no name' folder for each class period and stuck them in the trays. If the students were not handed back a paper they thought they turned in then it would go in the 'no name' folder. The catch is they only had one week to do it. No name papers would only stay in folders for one week and then they would be thrown away. I have explained this system to each class and haven't received a paper without a name on it since. We also have found that the student whose parent had e-mailed us hasn't turned in at least 3 homework assignments bringing the lost work theory to rest. Mrs. Sprout is very pleased with the system I developed because it has kept the students from forgetting their names on papers and it helps us organize the 'no name' papers which are easy to get mixed amongst other classes.