Let's Make Grading Homework Smarter-Better-Faster-Stronger

I'm a new mom and a teacher, both of which are time consuming and rewarding.  Saying that, I've been trying to find ways to squeeze as much out of my workday in terms of time as I can to make it so I have more time at home focused on family.  I also want to find ways to give students better, more timely and more focused feedback.  Now herein lies a conundrum:  what can I use to do this?  Should I stick with my tried and true homework grading method or should I try a new application of edtech?  Which has the highest benefit to students and myself?

Tried and True
I can't take credit for my current system.  I totally stole parts of it from my mentor teacher when I was a student teacher, old and current teaching team mates.  Each table has a folder.  One side is for students to turn in work, the other side is for returned work.  In the folder are also their Plickers (plickers.com) which they use every day for feedback and attendance.  Right now, I do a quick skim of their homework for completion, give them the appropriate stamp and then enter it into my paper gradebook.  My paper gradebook is actually the seating chart, and I highlight any grade that isn't full credit.  That way, I enter those grades into our online system and autofill full credit for every other student.

Pros: It's fast and efficient to do marking by seating chart.  Students get feedback faster, and I have less of an issue of late work not getting marked as late.  I also have two copies of grades (hard copy and digital) in case a student has an issue and needs to check in with me.

Cons: I have to go through and transfer information from one source to another, which means mistakes happen.  Also, when a student submits late work, I have to mark it on the paper and then remember to transfer it to the digital gradebook.  Basically, there's a larger margin of error with this method.  Anything that has human input tends to have this.

A New Idea
Our school uses a multiple choice system called Gradecam.  It's great for tests and we've just started using for quizzes, and there is a rubric option which we will be using for giving students point values for their short answer questions on tests to eliminate the human adding error I usually have.  I'm pretty good, but I'm not perfect.  I've seen some interesting applications of Gradecam to do lab notebooks and homework by giving students a laminated copy of the form, and I'm curious about this.  The basic idea is you mark their score on the form with an Expo marker, scan it and give them their notebook back.

Pros: Grades get quickly entered into the digital gradebook, and you still have some separation based on like different parts of the criteria if you want if it's a rubric form.  Data is nice.  I like data.  Plus, the lab notebook part sounds awesome.

Cons: There's a lot of work to set up, and I wonder if it would be a new assignment every time and how much planning would it take.  Also, like making Plickers work, would I have to do a ton of paper set up as well?  Like the laminated ones sounded fantastic, but how much work is that for me.

Online Homework
A few other options could be based around the concept of online assignments.  One would be to buy a license through a company and have students complete all work through that.  Another would be to have them upload those assignments to Google Classroom or Turnitin.com, both which have really strong submission softwares.  It's becoming increasingly easy for kids to do work on their computers, and with an increase in touch screens on like everything (including this laptop), showing work is easier than ever. 

Pros: Less paper is always good, for me and them.  I already use Google Classroom for a ton of stuff, and Webassign has a database of problems that we could just pick through.  I also had a few students submit their homework accidentally on Google Classroom early on, so they already have a concept of how to do it.

Cons:  Programs like Webassign are costly, and I wouldn't want to make a ton more work or equity issues for students who might not have the ability to scan/photograph work and upload it.  Kids are also so used to turning in hard copies, I feel like a few weird errors would come up that I couldn't foresee.

My Conclusion as of Right Now

As it stands, I'm sticking with tried and true.  I am going to meet with some teachers that have used some of these methods to streamline work submission and get advice for next year.  I might try a few things out, like making some online Google Form quizzes and see if that would be realistic to do.  I also have made a form for students to create like "problem write ups," so that could be fun to play around with.  Basically, we have a work in progress, but I like feeling inspired by this kind of stuff.

Because I am a weirdo.

Going Back to School...Kind of

Here's the weird thing about this year: I'm currently over 39 weeks pregnant.  Now, if you are doing any sort of math around pregnancy overall, that means that I am just about at full term.  I'm actually past full term, I'm just almost at what is considered my due date.  Now, I've done something with this pregnancy that not a lot of teachers do: I worked up until the last day before my leave started.  Which means today is my last day working for a while.  This is a truly bizarre feeling for me to have such a major shift in my identity because being a teacher is so much of who I am and what I think about all the time.  Now, I'm going to have my own little offspring depending on me not to let them die and eventually I'll have to entrust another human with their education, but that's a longish way off.

The big thing is I have to trust my classroom to someone else.  I got so lucky that my longterm sub is actually a skilled science teacher and has been a long term sub quite a few times at our school, but I still want to do my best to set him and my kids up with as much stuff as possible.  Here's a couple things I did so that I could give my students all the support they might need.

Resource Website

A few years ago with the help of Google Sites, I sat down and created a website where students can look for contact information, tutorial videos from Khan Academy and practice problems all organized by unit of study.  There is a ton of stuff on there, and I encourage students to explore it as much as they can because it always happens that I get panicked emails around finals week for what to study.  It's on the website, believe me.  I started expanding it to include materials I actually made and more things that are just fun, like advice from former students and fun physics videos from Youtube.  I even have posted homework solutions up there.

Tutorial Videos

One resource I made specifically for this year are problem solving videos.  Last year, I had students asking me over and over and over again to show them how to solve the same problems, and so I decided to make a few videos over the summer working through tricky problems so they could just watch them on their own time.  Using Screencastomatic and my tablet, it became so easy to record that I kind of cant stop myself from keeping it going.  I also left the videos unlisted so students need a link to see them, but some have already found them to be a useful study tool.  Plus, this way they hear my voice so they still get a chance to get to know me, even if I can't get to know them yet.

Set Up Draft Assignments in Google Classroom

I think it's fair to say many teachers have control issues.  Besides hoarding tendencies, this may be another common thread that unites most teacher personalities.  If you don't have either, good for you.  I have mad respect for you.  But that's not me.  So something I did for big projects and things I want students to do in Classroom, I created draft versions of the assignments with the point values I want for each assignment, the appropriate attachments and directions.  All my sub has to do is post it to one section and copy it across the rest of the sections and he's set up to go.

Email on My Phone

I have never been the kind of person to have work email on my phone.  I don't want to be reachable on weekends.  However, having the ability to quickly respond via my phone is going to be necessary while on leave.  While I don't want people to have access to me all the time, I don't want to feel cut off from the school community.  I did, however, create an auto-response redirecting urgent emails to my sub.

Letters of Rec Over the Summer

The biggest job I had over the summer was to write letters of rec.  Usually, during the fall I have appointments on appointments to meet with students to get the process going and my weekends are inundated with writing letter after letter to submit to colleges.  This year, I knew writing this fall would be out of the question, but submitting the letters wouldn't be.  I let students submit materials end of last school year and told them I would write 10 letters TOTAL for submission this fall.  One student did get upset with me about that timeline and cutoff, but I only made it through the first 2 weeks of school before I had to go on leave, so it was actually a realistic issue in terms of time.  I ended up writing the letters over a few days this summer, and I'll submit them as students get their requests through the system in order.

Hopefully, through all of this set up, I may stay somewhat connected to work and my students.  Next step: labor! 

I really like data

I embarked this semester on a mission.  Specifically, a mission for a further learning program through my district, but a mission nonetheless!  I was going to use data to analyze my how effective my teaching has been to help foster a growth mindset in students and make them stronger critical thinkers. 

The first step was how would I collect said data?  Good question, unembodied voice in my head.  I decided to utilize one of the tools I used on occasion last year and hadn't really fully utilized until this year: Google Forms.  I created a Form for students to fill out after every test reflecting on a few things: how they studied, what worked best for them, how prepared they felt, and later, different aspects of growth mindset based on an effective effort survey I found.  About 90% of my students (which is a pretty good percent, all things considered) filled out this test reflection after each of the five tests so far this semester.  It became part of the class culture, and I would address any concerns from them during class time and let them know how it shaped my decisions.   As I showed them I used the data, they gave me very honest answers and examples.

Here's the thing: the reflection is probably 10 questions long (some fill in the blank, mostly multiple choice) and I have 160 students who have taken 5 tests so far, plus a test to come and the final.  To summarize, I have a lot of data.  Plus, I have data on their test performance over all to compare it to.  That's a lot of stuff to go through, and going through question by question to graph or analyze it is tricking to say the least.  I knew I wanted to do something meaningful with this data and draw an actual conclusion (maybe write a paper, who knows?) but the task of going through frankly mountains data with limited assistance sounded like exactly zero fun. 

I decided to do some research about how to analyze my research quickly.  Turns out the explore function on Google Sheets is a godsend.  Just click it.  Believe me.  You can ask questions about your data, you can get charts about specific questions from the form, you can get counts to use in other things.  One thing I plan to do is to graph a change in what students think works best for them to learn and see how it fits Growth Mindset principles and then chart next steps, and I can absolutely do that.  The explore function is one of the most powerful data collection tools I've ever seen, and I actually plan on showing it to my students for their own data analysis. 

And yes, you read that aside right.  I'm thinking about continuing to collect and analyze data and lesson plans to maybe write an article for either NSTA or AAPT.  It's a dream more than anything, but it's nice to have a goal in mind for all of this data.

Stuff I Like

I feel like this is slowly becoming LOOK AT THIS TECHNOLOGY, LOOK AT IT.  But that's not a bad thing.  Something both teachers and students struggle with is how to be a citizen in an increasingly digital world?  Where can technology help me, and where is it a hindrance?  How much money should I invest in good apps?  These are questions that come up every day.  A big part of my preparation for school is looking at available technology and considering all of those things before I really invest both time and money (hopefully not too much) in said app.  And sometimes, that investment pays off.

Planboard

I found this app through a link on Pinterest (can't remember where, sorry, it's November.) and I thought "Oh great, another crappy planning app that says it will make me more productive.  And it will have a terrible interface and not do anything better than my DIY notebook calendar."  Boy I love eating my words.  IT IS SO MUCH BETTER.  Right now, we're in the process of changing standards from the California Science Standards to Next Generation Science Standards (or NGSS) and a big challenge is how does our current curriculum already align to those standards.  Besides a very easy to use interface, Planboard has a database of standards that is easy to navigate and sort by keywords to much unit objectives.  THIS IS AMAZING.  Also, it connects with other programs, and while it doesn't connect with Google Classroom yet, I live in hope.  It does connect to your drive so you can sort materials out by unit.  But the biggest thing is matching units to standards.  Now, I can justify what I do to the actual standards.  That is a dream come true.

EdPuzzle

I love showing videos in class, but frankly it's hard to know what students got out of them.  EdPuzzle is an in video assessment system that now connects to Google Classroom.  I haven't used it what I consider "right" yet, I just used it mostly as a video sharing system, but we'll get there.  It's, again, a time investment to learn a program, and see where it fits, but this one might be worth it once I figure it out.


Of course there are some of my old favorites like Gradecam and Plickers, and Google Classroom has rolled out some updates, but those are the newbies that I enjoy.  Is there some tech you swear by?  Let me know some suggestions in the comments!

Dealing with the World

I have never in my life thought the phrase "dumpster fire" more.  Possibly because my entire state smells like a fire. 

It's extremely hard to be anything in hard times, but I feel it might be even harder to be a teacher.  We are expected to model appropriate reactions and behavior when honestly, all I feel like doing today is curling up in a ball and crying myself to sleep.  Putting it mildly, I didn't sleep well last night.  On top of normal October stress, I have life stress and world stress and health stress.  It's a never ending stress cycle.  Which is why I'm writing this, to help me help you help me cope with life stress.

1.  It's all about attitude.
Two of my coworkers were talking about the state of the world and it was spiraling down to the point where I kept thinking "Why get out of bed in the morning?"  Another coworker brought up this optimistic view of how this time in history is meant to act like acne: show us the disease so we can deal with it.  And that attitude blew my mind, and kind of became my mantra.  It's easy to feel down, it's hard to force yourself to feel up, so I'm trying to shift my attitude as much as I can.  I do have a breaking point though.

2.  Give yourself a break. 
I don't mean like a rest.  I spent part of this morning crying just because I couldn't deal.  And then I felt better.  Sometimes, I just need to let it out.  A lot.  And by myself. 

3.  Keep doing things you love.
Yesterday, I sat on my couch in a ball for about ten minutes.  While letting it out can often make me feel better, I think doing something else that I really enjoy might be an even better use of my time than wallowing in self pity.  This is hard to do, as it is very easy for me to wallow.  I'm an excellent wallower.  Honestly, writing this has been a form of doing something I like to get over feeling the blues.

Anyway, just jotting down some feelings.  Thanks for listening.

Year 4-HOW DID THIS HAPPEN

Why hello there world.  It's been a while.  School year has started, I'm teaching a single prep this year, which is a big change, and it's my fourth year teaching.

Fourth year.  Let that sink in.  Because it's still weird to me and it's week 5 at school.

Statistically speaking, the fourth year is about when teachers start to leave the profession due to burn out.  And I have seen this happen.  A good friend of mine gave me a ton of equipment because they are no longer going to be in the classroom, which I found somewhat heartbreaking.  The person is one of the best teachers I knew from my early camp days, but this does happen for many reasons.

Which brings me to why I'm writing this.  How did I get here?  How did I become one of the ones who sticks with it?  I think it's luck as much as skill.  I went into teaching with no illusions on what a teacher's life looks like.  My dad was a teacher, my mother-in-law is a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher's aide, my great-grandmother was a teacher.  It's genetic and in my family.  I also have had a lot of support through various programs I've found, like SFTR and the Exploratorium Teacher Institute.

I kind of hope to act as a beacon for some of my friends who are just starting their teaching journey.  A realistic beacon.  Teaching doesn't get easier, you just learn more and get better.  Ask for help, be authentic and listen.

I don't quite feel like this is year four because I did switch schools.  But it is better than my first year.  I have great coworkers who love and support me and genuinely want me to be successful, and I want the exact same thing for them.  One of them has seen me at some low points this year, which speaks more to how much I trust her than anything else.

In teaching, to stay you need love and support.  If you don't have it where you are, try and find it as soon as you can.  The world needs good teachers, even if it doesn't act like it.

Shaking Hands with Google Tools in the Classroom

Google has become a ubiquitous part of life.  Even this blog is hosted by Blogger, which is also a part of Google.  Now the thing is, using Google can be a huge boon in terms of teacher organization.  It can help make it easier for students to contact you and for you to allot time throughout the day.   Here a few functions and how I've used them in my classroom in case you were interested.

Google Classroom

Let's start with the basic that most teachers have access to.  Thanks to recent updates through School Loop, another common grade system, it's way easier to connect between Google Classroom and School Loop.  For individual assignments, School Loop will actually update as you grade through Classroom. 

I have mostly used Google Classroom as a method to collect larger project write ups for the group and send out different materials for that project, but in the future, I think I'll have it more used for homework submission.  Initially, I would assign things on Classroom and then collect all of the word via Doctopus and attach Goobrics that way.  The plus side of this is you can compile the rubric scores in a spreadsheet which updates automatically as you fill in the rubric.  The interface is a little clunky, depending on how you format your rubric in Goobric, but it's still pretty easy to use.

As I started having more individual work, Classroom now allows you to send a copy of the file to each student.  Initially, students had to learn how to make a copy for themselves using the Google Doc, but now you can make a copy for each student, which allows easier use of online worksheets where students can fill in their work.  It also is much easier to post things from Drive to Classroom than onto School Loop.  Also, now I can post grades on Classroom faster and it's easier to keep track of things that I have graded.   This year, I mostly used the cross posting thing between Google Classroom and School Loop, but didn't necessarily have them submit everything on Classroom, which explains why it looks like a lot of students didn't finish things below.  It organizes by due date, class and things you've already done.  The done below is for how many students have finished that assignment.  They can even click "done" if they don't submit something, and many will in order to keep organized.  There's also a calendar reminder setting that I have yet to use, but may next year. 

My hope for the future is that eventually Classroom will allow for assigned groups.  As it is right now, students can tell me their groups or put their name on the document, but to have a space for groups to submit together and get the same grade would be perfect. 

Google Sites

This is a recent development.  The new settings for Google Sites are super intuitive and easy to use.  We used it this year to make a webquest for students to study for the final instead of a basic final exam study guide.  It walked them through different simulations and tutorial websites and it is one of the easiest web page designers I have ever used.  The best part is how easy it is to put Drive files into a website.  I think in the future, I will play around with the ability of Youtube embedding and have them get the documents from Classroom but access the sites from Google Sites as a way to curate an experience.  Something I want to focus on next year is having students use videos or readings as a source for evidence in writing.  Using Google Sites would be a perfect way to organize them in one place for students to access from home.

Another thing I'm using Sites for is the ability to put all my study resources and class info in one pretty place.  I had calendar events for meetings and a form for letters of recommendation, but students could never find these links.  Also, students would often ask me if I had any good website resources for studying for tests.  I decided to create a resource website that was easy to go through and find information.  It also has pages with easy ways to contact me and create appointments on my calendar and access the folders I created to share with the class that allow students to find lecture notes if they missed a day.  Truly, this is one of the most beautiful things I have ever made.  I just hope it works. 

Google Drive

I've mentioned Drive in both of the previous things and I haven't talked about what Drive is or how I use it.  Basically, we use drive as a cloud storage system for all of the curriculum and as a way to share curriculum between all teachers.  One previous issue I've had doing this is others changing formatting or content in my work, but no more!  Now, you can share so people can see your work (or you can only see other people's work) and only the author of the file can edit it.  Another good thing about this is you can download the material to your desktop so you don't have to download things every day or rely on what can be very spotty school internet.  If you do this for long enough, however, you can really fill up a hard drive.  Most schools have opted for (at this time, it may change in the future) unlimited storage capacity in the Drive.  What this means is you can put ANYTHING on there, and there will always be space and it does not cost you money.  HOWEVER, this stuff will be deleted the second you leave your current position if you don't back it up to your personal Google Drive.  How do I know?  Because that happened to me and I didn't get a chance to back it up, so that information is gone to where ever Google trash goes to die.  Now, that I can't fix but I can control how much gets synced (or downloaded) to my hard drive. 

1. 
   

Click on the little drive icon and then select "preferences" from the "…"

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Put a check mark on the files you want downloaded.  Google will keep the unchecked stuff in the cloud, and everything else will be deleted from your computer.  I did this recently to delete everything from this school year from the computer and keep only the coming school year.  Really useful.

Google Docs/Sheets/Forms

I am a physicist, therefore I LOVE SPREADSHEETS.  There's also a lot of cool options, like calendars, to-do lists and other templates that are fun to play with.  I recommend just playing with them on your own.

So the thing that I will use more this coming year are forms.  There are some crazy easy to use new features to make it more like a quiz or just compile data.  The big way I'm going to use them this coming year is as questionnaires for various data that I really need to collect, like your basic beginning of the year stuff, submitting videos or other websites to add to the resource site and to collect information for letters of recommendation.  As a high school teacher, most of my fall weekends are taken up by writing letter upon letter of recommendation, and they can start to sound the exactly the same.  By collecting really in depth data from the students, you can write an even stronger letter.  Also, this will put all of the letter of recommendation information in one place.  Which is insanely useful.  I just started using forms, so hopefully I'll utilize them more this year.

Google Calendar

Make appointment slots.  Seriously, do it.  Why?  Because then if a student shows up at your door, you can tell them it's not a good time and to make an appointment.  It's also a fast way to tell students you are busy at a certain time and not to stop by.  It sends them reminders so they aren't late and they can tell you what they need in that appointment.  It's amazing.  Just make sure they can find the link.  Also, tell them they have to make the appointment a day before.  They'll do this thing where they'll make an appointment the day of.  It's very frustrating, but stand your ground.  It also gives students equal air time in 15 minute increments.  It's awesome. 

In Conclusion

Google is an incredibly powerful tool of organization, and I've only scratched the surface of what apps exist.  I went for the basic Google Apps for Education.  If you have any other cool tricks, let me know.  I always want to try more stuff out.