Hey There! @Druinok suggested I blog about how my colleague and I use a stamp sheet in class for student accountability and paper management. So here ya go:

I used to collect homework with an assignment sheet. 10 went on the student paper and 10 went on the assignment sheet. The stamp sheet score went on a paper grading roster and when I had time, the whole hot mess went into an online grading program. I was going mad! Can you imagine, when you didn't get homework graded and you had a kid's assignment sheet? OY!

Then I had the most amazing and talented beginning teacher ever! Ms. Danielle whipped me into shape in no time at all. (She is a Millennial, so no Twitter handle and I don't Instagram...so...) Heh, I was supposed to be her support provider. I taught her how to "sandwich--" a nice thing said, the real heart of the matter, and then another nice thing, she just made be better. Period. I digress...

Through trial and error, we came up with the all and one--EVERYTHING notebook. Syllabus, Notes, Stamp Sheet, Classwork, Homework, Toolkits, and Team Tests. You never run out of room, you never run out of graph paper (ha! it is graph paper), you never lose anything because it is SECURED into one handy-dandy spiral notebook.

The Notebook:
Through our district, I can get them for $2.00 each!!!
I ask Students for $2 donation, they know that is a good deal. They can even bring $.10 per month. Yes, I do end up eating about $5--

Page 1:
The Fun Title Page. This student loves her notebook.










Page 2: 
First Stamp Sheet for Assignments and Classwork per Unit. I only stamp for CLASSWORK. One stamp is that you are starting, working with your team, two means it all classwork is complete for the day. I stamp sometimes in the middle of class, sometimes at the end, sometimes at the beginning of next day. I only collect notebooks ONCE per unit and add up stamps. Takes less than 1 minute per. I can go through during Individual Test. If it is a team test day, I can also get through the entire class. Gives me a chance to check in with teams, check on students etc...
 


* Extra note about stamp sheet: You will notice sometimes it works great, sometimes I have to make adjustments due to inspirational moments, shortened days, reteaching, field trips, you know, life.



Next Pages:
Warm ups, Stand and Talks, Classwork (notes), Assignments (homework), rinse, repeat.

 







An example of the class pages we build for our CPM curriculum:




Well, you can see students do their own thing...sometimes I do too:



Assignment (homework grades): 
Students do their work in their notebooks. They come in, they get a key, they have red pens, they make homework corrections (and find my mistakes). I make it clear EVERYDAY, that my solutions are only a suggestion of how to complete the problem, there could be and should be more ways to do the problems. They can ask me if there solution is a valid one independently. They have rubric for assignment grades something like this: All red pen bc you didn't do it and are copying answers for later--3, some done, rest in red pen or no red pen because you didn't grade it--4, all done, all correct or all done and all correct--6. You can see this student makes all kinds of good notes.

Fun Stuff: Students get very creative about folding and securing the pages. They accordion them, they fortune fold them, they cut them out to make them fit better.

Not So Good Stuff: Some students get very behind in gluing things in. These are the students who stuff everything in their backpacks and ask for a new handout every day and usually have three or four of the same thing in their bags. They also are the kind of kid who has done their homework but can't find it. At least the Everything notebook helps in that case. Once or twice at the beginning, I will sit with these students and we will sort and glue. (I go through a lot of glue sticks!) (oh, and I love double stick tape.)

Sometimes absences can be troublesome, but I have all the handouts by day in milk carton and hanging files for them.

What do you do like about your notebook system?

I think that is everything about the Everything Notebook.We will be presenting at CPM National in San Francisco, come say Hi!