Teachers...how do you prevent...

Would it work to have a bin for each period? Label with period number and all papers for that period go there?

I teach 7th and 8th grade math and science. On my front table (I have a desk on the side of the room with my computer and books) that I teach from, I have wire baskets. The top basket is the "turn in" basket. NOTHING gets handed to me. EVERYTHING goes in that basket.  You have a note, put it in the basket.  You found your paper that was due earlier, put it in the basket.  You have something you had to bring back signed, put it in the basket.  Below that basket, I have the graded papers to go back baskets- one for each class (currently 3 baskets- one for 7th, one for 8th, one for my math intervention class). As I grade, I put them into the proper turn in basket. When we have spare time in class, I pass them back. When papers are turned in, the kids like to bring their own papers to the front (I used to discourage this until I discovered that a kid at the front of the row was erasing someones name on their paper and putting their name on it!) and then a binder clip gets put on it by a student who neatly stacks them all in the same direction. Each assignment gets its own clip. Some days I collect 3 sets of papers from one grade. I do not take ANYTHING home so there is never a question of me losing it. I make it VERY clear to the kids that nothing leaves the classroom. If I don't have it, they didn't turn it in. I've done this for 17 years and never lost a paper and always have a cleaned off desk. Between classes, I make sure everything is in the bin and I switch out the books I've used for the books I will be using the next period.  My binder (grade book, planner, important info papers) and my iPad are stacked next to the baskets.  On the outside of the baskets, on the other side from my binder, are the hole punch, 3 staplers, and tape dispenser.  I have my white board markers in a gladware container (it prevents the kids from grabbing a pen and doodling on my board- one of my HUGE pet peeves).  I also have a cup for binder clips, one for pencils/pens/highlighters, and a stacking storage thing with my stamps for checking HW and stamp pads are stored.  In front of the baskets, I have an index card older that holds my projector remote, my itv remote, my class cards (for randomizing questioning), and my timers.

As for extra handouts/copies/stuff that went home, it goes into my "oh shit" file crate. This is an AMAZING crate that I have. It's got hanging file folders numbered 1-31 with manilla folders for each grade level in each hanging file. I make copies of stuff in advance and file it into the folder for the class on the date it is assigned. I absolutely LOVE it! If there are extra copies of anything, they get stood up (so they are vertical in the bin and can be searched thru) in a hanging file in the front and anyone who needs a copy can go thru and find one. If there's one there they can take it. If there isn't one, they're out of luck. It's saved my butt so many times! If there is a sub, everything is already copied to go. Makes it pretty much idiot proof.

My desk looks horrible, but it is all due to stuff I've placed there in preparation of class - none of it is student work. When I take up work students place it in a certain place. I paper clip every sheet together and place it in a drawer behind my desk. Then I start lecturing as students are getting out their notebooks/working on bellwork, etc. If you don't have it when I take it up, chances are I won't take it at all.

If I do accept something that was not turned in with other students' work, usually because of an absence, I require that my students place it in a certain spot where absolutely nothing else is placed. If they place it on my desk it is likely to get mixed in with other papers and lost. I'll gather the papers after school and slip them into the appropriate paper-clipped pile.

I have never lost a single student's assignment. Never. I *have lost an entire class set of work, twice, but never a single student's. When a student claims that his zero is my fault because I must have misplaced what he turned in, I am 100% confident that is not the case. In each of those cases the student either found his/her work eventually or he/she had multiple assignments go "missing" throughout the course.

No advice on how to handle the distracted students. My students are older and I can hold them accountable for their actions a lot more than you can. Good luck.

I had a good student, really smart and responsible, claim that I lost his paper last month. He ALWAYS turns in his work. And up to that point, he had. It was classwork that I had taken up a week prior, graded but forgot to put into the computer. When I returned the papers more time had passed than normal. One of his classmates jumps to his defense and says that the boy had turned in both of theirs together but since she got hers back, I must have lost his. Nope, not buying it. The student was insistent that he submitted his work. I told him to look in his backpack. A few minutes later I ask if he had found it. No, he looked but it wasn't there. I found it hard to believe because he finishes early and wouldn't have had a reason to work on it at home, thereby leaving it on his desk there. I knew he had put it in his backpack instead of submitting it.

So I walked over to where he and his table were doing their lab. Pulled him aside and made him go through every notebook, binder, folder. Nothing. Then as I was walking away I noticed this zipper on the back of the backpack. I asked him to open that. Damn if the paper wasn't in there. Hmmmm. How 'bout that. lol

I simply did not collect most homework. I would have students take out the papers at the beginning of the. And go round and stamp the homework and a homework calendar. The calendar would be cooked it once every week or two so I can record the homework. They advantage to this is that we could go over the homework immediately and the students would keep the homework. Since homework is practice, it's not worth a whole lot of points. And that's only right because a lot of students don't do their own homework. I also would not except homework later in the class. Students would be working on the homework instead of paying attention to what was going on in class. When they finish they say oh look I found it! Papers that were collected were stapled as a bunch I went to my bag. I had a tray that I used for test to be turned in. papers did not live on my desk.