Writing the assignment out with the due date next makes much more sense than having to scroll all the way down to the bottom, which will save time and the hassle of scrolling through things we won't always use to find the most important thing, which is the due date..  Also, since not all assignments will go in the gradebook (not all assignments posted are necessarily graded), have that option default as UNchecked (or have the ability to change that in preferences, also to save time.