Hi Michele, Congratulations on your success as an instructor. Sounds like your teaching career is off to a good start. You are doing a lot of very positive things to enable you to grow in both content and expertise. Have specific dates and a format for accepting homework. Look at the homework to make sure you are having them do activities that are relevant and have application and then develop a rubric for grading it. The rubric will enable to to zero in on the key areas that you are wanting the students to develop skills in. This should speed up your evaluation process as well as show the students exactly where they need to expand their skills. Gary