How I organize the one million papers that cross my desk each day

These carts are my best (inanimate) friends. They're available for a reasonable price of around $34 each at Amazon, but I got mine at Sam's Club for $25 each. My desk is never buried under papers because every scrap of paper has a home in one of these carts. Below is a color-coded chart to explain how exactly how I use these bad boys.

Cart 1
8th Grade-Handouts  
8th Grade-Graded Work to be Returned to Students  
7th Grade-Handouts  
7th Grade-Graded Work to be Returned to Students  
6th Grade-Handouts  
6th Grade-Graded Work to be Returned to Students  
Master Notebooks (by this, I mean my copies of Interactive Notebooks)
8th Grade-Extra Work (in case I am out unexpectedly)
7th Grade-Extra Work  
6th Grade-Extra Work

Cart 2  
Attendance Slips  
Nurse Referral Slips
Discipline Forms Detention (I have detention duty, so the clipboard students use to sign in is here) Sub (useful info for subs) 
Sub (more stuff for subs)  
Visual Aids (Root Word of the Week, Famous Scientist Quotes, etc. that I use for Bellwork)
Receipts (for all the various fundraisers)
Misc. (anything that doesn't already have a home)  
Announcement Sheets*

You may notice a category that is missing. Where do I keep papers that haven't yet been graded? I do one of two things: A. I grade them right away and put them in the correct drawer. B. I paperclip them together, stick them inside my gradebook, grade them at my earliest opportunity, and then put then in the correct drawer. I rarely keep them more than 24 hours. I make sure to grade them promptly and return them to students the next school day. One caveat: if many students are absent on test day, I wait until every student has made up the test to avoid students who have already received their graded test passing it along to "assist" the absentees. I keep my copy basket on top. As I come across things I need to copy, I just drop them into the basket.

*What are announcements sheets, you ask? They're only the greatest idea ever. I wish every school I've ever worked at had done these. Instead of interrupting class time to rattle off announcements no one listens to over the intercom, my school prints up the announcements (along with the list of absent students, students' birthdays that day, etc.), and an office helper delivers them. They stick mine to my doorframe with a magnet, so class is never disrupted. Brilliant!

About me

My teaching experience

My name is Ms. K. I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in a small, rural school in Mississippi. I have been working in schools in some capacity or another since 2010. I spent four years working in kindergarten, as an assistant to begin with, and then as a teacher. I then transferred to a second grade position and spent another three years there. While I did enjoy teaching kindergarten and second grade, I had always wanted to teach older students, and science is my passion. I incorporated a lot of science into our literary units in the primary grades, but deep down I knew I would be happier if my sole focus could be science. In 2017, opportunity knocked, and I moved up to middle school.

Why I want to blog

With every position I've had, I've tried my best to improve each year. I feel like I have grown as an educator each year. Second grade was different from teaching kindergarten, but there were still many similarities. Middle school has been a completely new animal. I feel like I need a more intentional means of reflection in order to master this new job and do my best for my students. Reflection is always a part of teaching, but we often do it almost unconsciously. I want a platform to meaningfully reflect in a direct, intentional way. I thought perhaps a blog would be a way to do this. Another benefit of blogging is the ability to share my ideas with others and learn from them. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to teach one, too. The world of education has always been dynamic, but it is changing now more rapidly than ever. I don't want to sit on my laurels; I want to grow.

About the outside-of-school Ms. K

Our students seem to think we teachers live at school (they're always so surprised when they see us at Walmart, aren't they?), but of course every teacher also wears many other hats. When I'm not planning lab activities and picking up pencils off my classroom floor, you can probably find me reading a book/listening to an audiobook (or podcast). I love food, working outside, DIY, and loving on my spoiled dog, Rico.

Look at that sweet baby.