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.
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