Don't Just Grade - Grade Happy

Happy Grader is a semi-automated, computer-based grading program for teachers.  Designed by Jeff Simon (Math Dept Chair, Sage Creek High School), it provides an electronic means of assigning full- and partial-credit scores for any type of test question, even open-ended.

• Developed to:
  1. Save teachers time
  2. Increase consistency in grading 
  3. Facilitate the transition to the Smarter Balanced computer-based testing system.  

• Students take traditional pencil-and-paper assessments, but submit their responses to the teacher via a Google Form. The teacher then downloads the Google spreadsheet to Excel

• Initially, Happy Grader runs in “Rubric Building Mode” to assist the teacher in assigning full- and partial-credit scores for students’ responses to each question. Happy Grader stores the teacher’s grading patterns in a scoring guide, along with any standards-based comments that the teacher chooses to provide. These scoring guides can later be shared between colleagues and applied to future similar assessments.

• Happy Grader then runs in “Student Grading Mode” to guide the teacher in scoring additional student responses that had not been previously identified in the scoring guide. The program also facilitates the scoring of rubric-based constructed response items that students may have been prompted to type.

• Once grading is complete, Happy Grader reports summary statistics, prints mini grade reports by student, and generates standards-based feedback sheets for each assessment.

Happy Grader is available at no charge to active Carlsbad Unified School District employees at www.happygrader.com/carlsbadusd.html.  Be sure to download the free Demo Version first and read the system requirements and FAQs. Please note that Happy Grader is configured only for PCs at this time.  Other interested teachers can purchase it for $10 by contacting Jeff Simon directly at jeff@happygrader.com.

Don't Let Apps Get in the Way

When people find out I’m a technology TOSA, one of the first questions I am asked is if I know any good apps for the iPad.  Well, I know a lot of good apps - after all, there are close to 800,000 iOS apps and more than 40,000 that Apple has added specifically to their education store.

Too often, we “discover” a great app and work to find a way to incorporate it into our classrooms. A good teacher can find an educational purpose for almost anything.  However, if we have to work to fit it in, we have to ask ourselves if it really belongs there in the first place.

So, I always respond by asking, “For what?”  After all, it’s not really about the app - it’s about the learning, right? Why should we treat apps any differently than we treat other educational resources?  In my opinion, we shouldn’t. So, these questions should be asked:

What do I want my students to learn? (standards? character traits? social responsibility?)

How do I want I students to learn it? (learning modalities? learning styles? Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?)
How will my students demonstrate their learning? (essays? group projects? formal assessments?)

So, “begin with the end in mind.”  Then look for the resources that will support your goals. 

Now, to answer the question about apps – some places I recommend:

Apple Education Store: http://www.apple.com/education/apps/

Escondido’s iRead (K-6):
https://sites.google.com/a/eusd.org/eusd-iread/ipod-apps

Tech Tidbits Symbaloo:
http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/techtidbitsapps

If you see an app that has been suggested by multiple sources, it’s probably a good one.

Get Googley with Google Forms

By far, my favorite Google App is Google Forms. This program is so absolutely versatile. Most of you have used Google Forms to submit survey answers and didn’t even realize it.

Some great uses for Google Forms:

• Collect unique info about students at the start of the school year.  It can be completed by parents and step parents (or anyone else who provides care for the child) and it can be resubmitted if information changes.  Great tool for learning about your students.
• Special Ed teachers can gather information from teachers (and/or parents) to prepare for IEPs or SSTs. 
• Administrators can conduct their classroom walk-throughs and take quick notes 
• PTAs can use it to find volunteers for their big events 
• Knowledge Brokers (see Tech Tidbits 6.5) can submit resources anytime to the teacher 
• Elementary sites can submit hot/cold  lunch counts to the cafeteria 
• Create self-grading quizzes in conjunction with a plug-in called Flubaroo (easier than it sounds, I promise) 
• SPED instructional assistants can track student behavior for the SPED teacher
• Turn independent reading logs into a paper free resource by posting 
• the responses online (talk to me about this one if you’re interested) 
• Collect lab data so students have more than one data set with which to work and analyze 
• Students can submit information prior to parent/teacher conferences 
• Report (anonymously, if desired) incidents of bullying 
• Collect questions from students before class meets to better prepare for the next lesson 
• Students can submit suggested test questions 
• Submit book suggestions to library staff 
• Students can provide feedback to the teacher on how they learn best based on a learning style inventory or multiple intelligences assessment 
• Submit lab write-ups 
• Complete Group/Peer/Self evaluations after a large project 
• Exit surveys for teachers/staff on what may need repairing before the next school year starts 
• Students can conduct their own surveys to gather data for an experiment or a problem-based learning activity

Search YouTube for instructional videos – they’re short and to the point. You can pause the video as you follow the steps.

Developing Knowledge Brokers

I just read an article by Larry Rosen in Educational Research called Teaching the iGeneration.  The focal question is how can schools respond to the growing use of technology by our youth to make education relevant.

In Tech Tidbits 6-2, I wrote about teaching and thinking with technology.  Rosen’s article brought me right back there with ideas of how we can do that –by identifing knowledge brokers.

A knowledge broker is “someone who helps you identify online resources.” There is so much online available for free that a teacher, especially one who isn’t very comfortable with technology, can feel completely overwhelmed when s/he does a Google search for a topic and receives millions of hits (i.e., “revolutionary war primary sources” = 5,290,000 hits or “multiplication facts remediation” = 2,370,000 hits).  Who has time for all of this?

So, I have some suggestions for helping you navigate the sea of free online resources:

• Split the work among the team. Teams can consist of any person, located at any site across the district, who teaches the same topic.  Fortunately very few of our courses/subjects are taught by only one person in the district. Once excellent resources are identified, they can be shared across the district. I would be more than happy to help you with that.

• Get students involved.  Give them a head’s up that a certain topic is coming up and ask them to do some research into online resources that both covers the curriculum and interests them.  Of course, the teacher has the final say in the validity of the sites, but at least it will pare down the bulk.

• Get older students involved. Many CHS students love the web and need community service hours. Combine the two and everyone comes out a winner.

• Get parents involved.  There are many parents who would love to volunteer in their child’s classroom, but simply can’t get to the school.  Asking them to become a knowledge broker will give them the opportunity to be involved without requiring them to be at school.  They can research at home and share their finds via LoopMail.

• Share what you discover. Not every resource has to be geared towards a specific curricular area.  Many are productivity tools that help with organization.  Take a few minutes at grade level, subject area, or school wide staff meetings to share a favorite online tool of yours.  Don’t forget a follow up email with a link to the resource to assist your fellow staff members in locating it online.  Include me, too, please.