I Do Not Have Turn-in Bins

Something odd happened right at the end of the last school year: A student got up, walked over to the windowsill and dropped a piece of paper into my ”Unclaimed Work” bin.

When I asked him what he was doing, he said “turning in some late homework.” Mind you, there is a label on the bin that says “Unclaimed Work,” and this student had been in my class for about 170 days - he should have known my routines by this point in the year. I guess he never noticed I do not have turn-in bins for homework. 

He probably did not fully understand what ”Unclaimed Work” means either. That bin is for work that I have corrected but can not return to the owner because he or she failed to write their name on the paper. In the 2016-2017 school year, I said “Put your name on your paper” 12,189 times - I counted.

Every time I returned work, in every class, I had a student walk around showing the nameless papers to the other students trying to find the perpetrators of these anonymous assignments. Anything that doesn’t get claimed and resubmitted to me, goes in the ”Unclaimed Work” bin.

I know some teachers do use turn-in bins for homework and assignments, but I do not. 

I collect your work, or have students collect it, clip it all together, and put in my uncorrected work bin for that particular class. I do this because it helps me stay organized.  

If you have late work, hand it to me I’ll put it in the right place. 

Of course, if you don’t usually write your name on your work anyway, you might as well skip the whole collection, grading, returning process and drop it directly into the unclaimed work bin for me. 

That would save me some time.