I have struggled with file organization lately. By lately I mean forever. In the olden days (9-ish years ago), I struggled with paper storage. Sure I had filing cabinets and book shelves, but it never seemed to be enough. Then I got my first USB flash drive: tests, quizzes, worksheets and files all in my pocket, what more could anyone want? Oh, what a time to be alive! But, I am data hungry. It wasn't too long before I needed more, an 8 MB flash drive (remember those) became a 16 MB, became a 32MB, became a 256 MB, and so on until now; whereas, I have a 16 GB flash drive that meets my needs. That is all well and good and I ditched my filing cabinets.
My flash drives lasted until the drive (no pun intended) to go paperless. I love the idea of a paperless classroom because I hate the clutter, but the real question that no one could answer is/was where do I store student work? We had a public folder (L Drive) system that worked great for Word documents, but not so much with Google Docs. Of course, I could just have students share their Docs with me and I did. What I ended up with was a clogged inbox and a clunky Gmail folder set-up that was a hassle to manage.
During a recent dotstorming session, a colleague of mine, Andrew Arnold, shared a pretty nifty file organization system for Google Drive. Although not a sexy tool or tip I started experimenting with this file organization format and my students and I have come to like it.
Before this system, I organized students shared work in my inbox. This worked fine for years, but let's be honest, no one wants more emails. I did have a system in place whereas I would move student work from my inbox to a student work folder, but a couple of problems arose: 1. sometimes I would place emails in the student work folder that belonged elsewhere, 2. work was jumbled in a bulk folder with no regard to student or period, and 3. sometimes I did not receive work because students shared it with the wrong person or forgot to share their work.
With the new system, I do not get hundreds of emails on due dates and student work is broken down by period or mod. When I am ready to grade assignments all I do is go into my Google Drive open up the correct period and student folder and voila it is all there. Of course, nothing is perfect. We are in week two of the transition from sharing to "foldering" (I made that word up) and some students still misplace or share work that should be "foldered" (I made this one up too). Everything is a process and students need to be trained on the new process, but I am confident that once they have a little experience with our new method that grading will run a little smoother.
If you are interested in using this method for your own Google Drive Please visit the instructions HERE.
