Sometimes kids just want to shuffle around and it feels like when you ask them to turn in papers quickly, they’re moving in slow motion! Here’s one way I found to fix that:

I was teaching 6th grade when I developed this idea. Each student had a number according to ABC order by last name. I timed my kids to see how fast they could turn in their papers in order and reverse order (so the order matched the order in my grade book). I would write their time record on the board and rewarded the entire class each time they broke their record. In the beginning, this meant giving lots of rewards, but by the middle to end of the year when they were really coordinated, it was really hard for them to break their record and knowing I would give them a reward was motivating. This saved me TONS of time (turning in papers and shuffling through papers and my grade book). Try it!