Student Pocket Mailboxes

My school (intermediate 4-6) is going with a full departmentalization format next year.  I will be teaching 5th grade science and ELA.  Actually, all of the teachers will be responsible for the ELA instruction for their homeroom students.

We have been brainstorming ways to be organized and keep all of the students accountable for the required assignments.

The idea behind the pocket mailboxes is that students "take" and "hand-in" work into their individual folders.  The folders are stapled (or mounted in some way) to the cabinet doors.  The classrooms all have cabinets with cork door overlays.  

Students hand in finished work to the pockets which makes it easily visible which students have not completed the assignment.  Also, teachers can put missed assignments (from absences,  band lessons, etc.) in the pockets.

We are going to try this out next year and tweak as needed.  I'm going to need a lot of suggestions from veteran "departmentalized" teachers.  I will be searching blogs, Pinterest, twitter, etc. to find awesome ideas.  There never seems to be lack of good tips of the trade out there!

A pencil above the pockets reminds students  about putting names on papers.

I put the pockets up in my classroom in May of this year to test it out.  So far so good.  I'm hopeful for next year.