You may find yourself in a situation where you are no longer able to keep up with your school gradebook. This could be because of the volume of students that you have, or maybe it’s just too time consuming. Whatever the case may be, below is an outline that you can use to stay organized when recording grades in your gradebook. This will allow you to choose the parts that are best for you and your situation, while also avoiding overworking yourself when recording grades in your gradebook.
Step-by-Step Process to Make Online Grading Easier
If you are overwhelmed with grading, try following the steps below to better streamline the entire process.
1. Make a list of students that need grades recorded.
This first step is very important because if you are overwhelmed with trying to record all of the grades at once, then you are not going to have a very successful outcome. So create a list and number each student according to the order that you’ll be working on them.
2. Mark each assignment after grading it
Once all of your students’ assignments and tests have been graded, you should mark them as complete on the gradebook. Do this for each assignment and test that your students have completed until all of their grades are recorded in your grade book.
3. Now go back and review each assignment for 100% accuracy
After having recorded all of the grades in your gradebook, go back and review your grading. Do this for each assignment and test to ensure that the grades recorded are accurate.
If you see that there are any grades that need to be changed, then do so. This should be pretty quick to do because you probably already know the correct answers.
4. Make sure all assignments/tests have been recorded
After having verified 100% accuracy for each assignment and test, take a look at your list of students to make sure that you have recorded all assignments. If there are any missing, then it might be time to reach out to the student’s parents because something didn’t get handed in or returned on time.
5. Record final grades for each student
Now that you have recorded all of your students’ grades, you can go ahead and record their final grades. You should also be ready to show proof of your attendance record if asked by the parents or the school administration. This proof is most likely going to be printed screen shots from your gradebook that are kept on file. This proof will allow you to show that you did not neglect your school gradebook and that you stayed organized while recording grades.
If these steps seem like too much for you to take on, then it might be time to hire someone who can help you stay organized when recording grades in the gradebook. This will allow you to work on the stuff that is most important to you, while still staying organized. Just make sure that when hiring someone, they are qualified in the work that they claim to accomplish.
Additional Tips for Online Grades Management
Working with a large amount of students can make grading quite the hassle. It’s important to prioritize your time and manage your online school gradebook correctly.
Here are some tips that will help you stay organized when recording grades in the gradebook:
- As far as their final grades go, this is something that you should keep on file, but it’s probably NOT something that you should share with the parents. So don’t bother printing or emailing these final grades to any parent or administrator, unless they tell you specifically that they need this information.
- Instead of using your online gradebook as a personal record keeper, use it to help prepare for report cards and finals.
- Be sure to practice sound organizational skills, such as being able to locate and retrieve information easily.
- Maintain a current and accurate record of student grades at all times. This is the only way that you’ll be able to keep track of your students’ progress and know when they need additional help.
Tips to Reduce or Avoid Grading Burnout
As a teacher, it is important to give yourself a break every now and again. Burnout is something that affects almost anyone who works in the teaching profession. It’s usually caused by too much stress or pressure that overtime, becomes overwhelming for an individual. With this said, here are some tips that can help teachers avoid burnout:
- Don’t forget to take time out of each day for yourself. This can be in the form of exercise, relaxing with a cup of coffee or tea, or even just a 10 minute walk around the school grounds. Just make sure that you’re able to get away from your work every once in a while and come back refreshed.
- Don’t be afraid to communicate with your colleagues. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then the chances are that your fellow teachers are probably feeling a little bit stressed as well. This can lead to a better understanding of what each person is going through and how they deal with their stress/burnout symptoms.
- Prepare for upcoming grading periods. This might seem like something that comes later on in the grading period, but preparing early will help you stay organized and more productive when crunch time does come around. Another way to prepare is by setting your online gradebook’s data export settings to email reports at the beginning of each grading period.
- Take short breaks while doing large amounts of grading. Rather than sitting down and staring at your gradebook for the duration of an hour or two, take short breaks by walking around the room and talking to students about their work. This will help you stay focused and productive when you get back to your online gradebook.
Conclusion:
It’s important that we keep our students in mind while we’re grading. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we’re doing all this work in order to help them become better students and learners.
So do your best, and try not to get overwhelmed by everything that you have going on in the grading period. Always remember your end goal: helping your students learn and grow into better students.
If you lose sight of this, then it’ll be much easier to become stressed and burnt out when dealing with all these extra projects and responsibilities. Zara Raza is the Head of Marketing at SchoolCues. SchoolCues was founded in 2010, and provides small schools with an all-in-one platform to manage all school administration activities.