Isn’t it funny how when you’re a student teacher, they don’t really tell you how much grading and record keeping is involved in the job? Or how little time you will have to grade while in the actual classroom?

The good news is, grading doesn’t have to be stressful or time-consuming. Here are 3 tips to avoid grading stress:

1. Don’t stress yourself out trying to grade every single activity. Teachers often feel “this needs to be graded to count.” Just remember, you can assess your students without giving them a grade.
1. We suggest you try the 1 in 4 rule shared by Rebecca Alber from Edutopia. That strategy allows you to keep teaching and assessing without pulling your hair out! Basically, with this method 3 of your assignments are just for credit or no credit, and the 4th is the one that gets a grade and your feedback. For more details on the 1 in 4 rule, click here. 
2. Schedule assignments and assessments carefully. This one takes advanced planning, but will be a lifesaver when it comes time to grade! Try to think ahead to your big life events coming up during the year that will affect your schedule before you assign a big project that will need grading. The point is, you want to break things up so you can manage your time before your work stacks up.
1. Have a wedding coming up the 3rd week in April? Schedule your big project to be due in the 1st week. Do your 1st period one-on-one assessments on Tuesdays? Then schedule your 2nd period one-on-one assessment on Wednesdays.
3. Use an online grading platform. Let’s be honest, most people don’t love paperwork and we’re confident you are part of that majority. There are many programs that allow you to digitally capture your grades that will help you get rid of that paperwork. With ESGI, you can do your one-on-one assessments online, and it does the grading for you based on the grading scale you set. Plus with the new Grading Scales feature, you can have report card grades automatically calculated by subject area.

Check out the video below where Rochelle shows you how to use the new Grading Scales feature of ESGI which will save you time as you prepare grades for parent conferences:

Want to start using Grading Scales today? Click this link to try ESGI free for 60-days.

Already an ESGI subscriber? Just log into your ESGI account and click “Grade Report.” 

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