How to Manage 912 Middle Schoolers

I teach English to three grades of middle school, the equivalent of grades 7, 8, and 9 in America. Each grade has eight homeroom classes, and each homeroom class has thirty-eight students. So 3 grades * 8 classes * 38 students = 912 middle schoolers to keep track of in any given week.

Then it gets a little more complicated- Grades 8 and 9 are divided into 3 levels- Apple, Banana, and Cherry. Last year Grade 9 had a Durian level too, but since they fired all the extra English teachers, Durian class went away. And last year Grade 9 had a "special" class (read: torture the NSET time), but again, that class has been cancelled. So that makes 8 homeroom classes /2 homeroom classes per English class * 3 levels * 2 grades = 24 English classes.

Grade 7 used to be divided too, but again, there aren't enough teachers, so they just stay in their own classroom for English. So 24 Grade 8 and 9 English classes + 8 Grade 7 English Classes = 32 English classes.

On top of all that, the "Movie English Club" meets Monday-Wednesday during the lunch break, and super early on Friday mornings before school starts.

This repeats on a bi-weekly basis.

This sounds like a pain-in-the-butt week to manage already, but throw in the fact that the Korean teachers like to move and cancel classes with about negative five minutes notice, and you've got a schedule that will throw off even the most organized of professional organizers.

This is my solution:

It's a file folder with plastic sleeves. This is great because you can slip pages in and out easily, and keep them clean when you inevitably spill coffee all over it. And, if it's in a plastic sleeve, your co-teachers can't write all over your pages in their horrible non-color-coded-handwriting.

In the front goes a copy of my bi-weekly schedule, which I reprint every week so that I have a fresh copy to write all over when my classes get cancelled, and un-cancelled, and re-cancelled, and un-re-cancelled and re-un-re-cancelled. Then, the old schedules go in the back of the folder, to reference later when the co-teacher tries to tell you she didn't cancel class 3 times.

After that goes my yearly schedule, with a list of every single class on the left side, and all the lesson numbers going across the top. This way I can keep track of which class has already done what, so I don't end up throwing away extra copies that I need, or teaching a lesson that I've already taught. It's a little redundant, but much nicer to look at than the bi-weekly schedule.

And that's how I keep track of all 912 students in all 32 different classes!