This week our assignment was to check out the site Engrade. It is a free site available for teachers to keep track of their student's grades and attendance. It also allows for a teacher to plan with a great and easy to use calendar. Parents can also use this site to keep track of their child's progress, and to see what assignments are in the future.
I think this is an awesome tool. I made up a small make believe class, created a couple of graded assignments, attendance issues, and upcoming events. Engrade is awesome! I really do love the layout, the tools, the accessibility for the parents, and the organization. So often parents go by completely unaware of how their child is performing in class until it is too late. If their child's teacher included this link in a welcoming newsletter, the parent might be more inclined to keep track of their child's current grades. With parents working more and more, and the world going digital - parents could be checking their child's progress on the blackberry while sitting in traffic on their way home at night.
I could really picture myself using this website on a daily basis as a teacher. I could access it from any computer, laptop, personal, school, etc. and constantly be updating the information. It wouldn't take any longer to enter grades or attendance on the computer v.s. the old paper method. Not only is it easy to access, it saves on clutter! Sooo many teachers have way too much clutter in their classroom. Grades are difficult to find when needed, assignments gets misplaces - things are messy and disorganized. Engrade allows the teacher to stay organized and cuts down on messy paper trails. I also love the fact that you can merge your information into excel for nice spreadsheets - what an impressive report to give to your principal or parents! :)
I have to say I really love this site. The only thing that I would like changed about it is the home page layout. A more visually pleasing welcome page might be nice for the parents to see when they access your Engrade. Other than that, I think it's a really great tool and hope that I have the opportunity to use it someday soon!
Hey Jess,
ReplyDeleteI was also very impressed with Engrade! I have seen some other programs that some teachers use for grading and attendance in some of the schools that I have subbed in, however I had never seen a program that did both and was absolutely free! It is very important to keep in contact with parents and let them know how their child is progressing throughout the year. I liked your idea of adding the link to a welcome newsletter at the beginning of the year. I would also share this program with parents during open house. One other thing I liked about the program is that it gave every student a number to log in with. This is a useful tool because many teachers assign numbers to their students anyway as a way to organize their class. This program would allow them to use the same number so that they would have an easier time logging in when they need to! -Kayleigh
Engrade really is a great tool. The best part is that it's free! It's a great way to keep students and parents informed of what is happening in terms of assignments, grades, attendance, etc. All of these things are topics parents want to know about. It's nice that there is a site that allows for there to be a record kept that is viewable by all.
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