This week I chose to investiage a tool called Engrade, which is an online gradebook and organization tool that has a myriad of uses that could be very useful particularly for educators. Engarde is currently the number one online gradebook and has more than 2.4 million members, including 270,000 registered teachers. The site is extremely user friendly, has an excellent and very informative tutorial that walks you through how to navigate and use the site, and is also 100% free to registered users. I signed up for a teacher account and was able to peruse the tool and create my own "mock" classroom, in order to see how the tool worked exactly. I created a U.S. history course classroom, added some students, created an attendance book, a custom grading policy, and even my own online quiz.
With this tool, teachers are able to record grades and attendance, schedule and post assignments, build classroom materials such as lessons, quizzes, and flash cards, create, share, and assign wikis or lessons, and even print out grade reports for students. Another great aspect of this tool is that it allows you post classroom information online and to communicate with students and parents directly. This could alleviate the problem of students missing assignments and other work due to illness or other reasons. With assignments, homework, and even quizzes being posted online, the students are able to access these things right from their home computers. With all of these tools available on one site, teachers could be much more organized and efficient, and could then spend more time developing interesting lessons and expanding their students' educational horizons.
This sounds like a great tool. It leaves no room for "I forgot to bring ____!" I also think that it is great to use to communicate with parents because a lot of times students are not reliable transferring important information home. I'm guessing that if students visit the site, they will only be able to see their individual grade? As long as that is possible, I think that this tool encompasses a lot of tools and should be used in every classroom.
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