By: Christine Roy
Second Grade Teacher
DeBary Elementary School
Lake Mary, Florida
As I sit here in the middle of my living room floor with a pile of this worksheet and a stack of that project and a touch of those papers to grade, I suddenly realize that my job would be a million times harder without my best friend, also known as technology. Don't get me wrong though - there is not a computer program yet that will grade my student's papers, but they have one to do pretty much everything else I need to do! I start my day off every morning reviewing the lesson plans I wrote that are accessible on the Internet. Then my class comes in, and they begin working on their morning writing - a question on a Power Point slide. Then I have to grade papers using a rubric I made quickly last night on my computer. Finally I have all of their grades, and I enter them into my electronic grade book and print out a weekly report for their parents. Life is so easy; now all I need is a program to read primary kids' writing!
I am fortunate enough to work for a school district that believes in using technology for everything! It has been emphasized from day one to "work smarter - not harder." My school uses Active Classroom, a web-based lesson planner. I can go online, enter my name and password, and write lesson plans. The best part is I don't have to type in all of those pesky state and national standards. All I do is click on the ones that I am addressing. Then I publish my lesson plans on the Internet. All of my students' parents have the site address, and they can click on it any time they want to see what I am planning on doing in the classroom. Check to see if your school has such a program. If not, there are many similar programs available to buy personally, and the time you will save will be worth every single penny! You many not be able to upload your plans onto the Internet though, but that is not a huge loss. Check into it!
My classroom has the funniest piece of technology I have ever seen- a "TV-Ator." I plug my monitor into this and then plug that into my television, and suddenly everything on my monitor is on my television. The silly part is the fact that it is not wireless so my monitor must be right next to the television - so why even bother with the "TV-Ator"? Just plug the computer into the television! Just a little comedy for you! But children love to see the computer screen on the large television. I was able to track Hurricane Charley on the Internet and show it to the children on the television. I use Power Point every morning for the morning message instead of the out-dated chalkboard. I find the children pay more attention when it is in color and moving. It works very well. There are a million other programs that work better than your outdated chalkboard. Also, you will never get chalk dust on your black pants from the keyboard - I promise!
With the entire state of education moving towards authentic assessment, it makes our jobs of teaching and grading much more difficult - well, that is, until you find a good website with rubric templates. I was introduced to Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php) when I was student teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, and I can't believe how easy it is to use! I search the templates to find the best one for my project. Then I plug in a title and my name, and I can change the criteria for each level if I want to. Sometimes I do, and other times I don't. I print one out, photocopy it, and use it for every child. Because you did not pull the grade out of the thin air, no child or parent can ever argue over the grade. You established requirements and criteria and based their grades on that rubric. If you do nothing else, I suggest you use a search engine and find a good program you are comfortable with to make rubrics. You won't be sorry!
Now that you have written the lesson plan, created the activity, and assessed the final product, you need to record the grades. Once again, find a good electronic grade book. It will save you so much time that you might be able to have a social life your first year of teaching! Check with your school once again because they may have one already that the district mandates or that they simply prefer. I was very fortunate to walk into a school with many National Board Certified Teachers who created an Excel-based grade book for the faculty to use. Find a program that allows you to weight different activities, allows you to enter your own grading scale, and lets you publish/print individual student reports. If you don't want to buy one and you can't find a good free one off the Internet, experiment making your own on Excel. It really isn't that bad. However, may I suggest keeping a hard copy at all times if you do try to make your own? I don't know how many administrators will buy a "My computer ate the grades" excuse when you don't have your grades done on time!
Technology is so scary at first. Once you tame the beast and get a good handle on it, you will meet your social life all over again! Technology will help with planning lessons, creating activities, grading work, and keeping grades. The very best piece of advice though is to ask whenever you need something or don't know something. I mean we all went into teaching to help other people learn- not just kids! Which reminds me, do you know of any program that can read a second grader's handwriting?
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