Class Grade Book

As a kindergarten teacher for nine years, I never needed a grade book.

At least not the kind of grade book that teachers of older grades needed.

In kindergarten, my assessments were usually checklists based on standards or skills.

So when I found out I was moving to first grade, I knew I would need a grade book.

I also knew that I wanted a cute/functional one.

My county does use an online program to record and average grades, but we're required to keep a hard copy; just in case.

I wasn't crazy about my options for a commercially printed grade book.

So I decided to make my own.

Here is the cover of my new grade book.

I purposely used a graphic that looked like me!

(Please ignore the fact that I made grade book into one word, fixing it has just not been a priority at the moment.)

When I started thinking about what I would want in a record book, I realized I liked the idea of using a binder best.

I like that a binder gave me the option to include extras in my grade book.

So here is a glimpse into my newest project.

Nothing drives me nuts more than having to keep getting up to get a pen or collecting supplies.

So I thought about what I would need when doing grades and included them in my binder.

The clear pouch came from Staples.

I love that it is page size.

Here's what's included in my plastic pouch:

Mr. Sketch smelly stix to grade papers (grades are always better when they smell nice)
a grade slide card thing (I don't know the actual name)
two pens for recording grades
whiteout (not pictured, I didn't realize I needed to include a dry whiteout until last week)

I love that everything I need is right inside my binder. So I can just grab it and get down to business.

Labels make everything better.

Don't you think?

I made divider pages for all of my subject areas, plus attendance; and then made little tabs so that I could find each subject quickly.

The actual tabs were made with Post-it Tabs.

Click here to see the ones I used.

And then I used my electronic label maker to print the titles of each tab.

Click here to see my label maker. It's awesome!

Here's a little walk through of my grade book pages.

I purposely took these pictures before I really started taking a lot of grades.

Since taking these pictures, we've been in school for 24 days and have already sent home our 4.5 week progress reports. So there are plenty of grades in my grade book now.