Comments for Just a Miner Blog

Comment on Online Notetaking – Algebra by Eddie Carr

Eddie Carr — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:20:09 +0000

The students are not taking notes in that way. The examples, including any symbols difficult to type, are already on the online text. Students are literally just writing words as their “notes”. These words are comments I suggest be in their notes or comments I or another student have said that students found important enough to add to their notes. There is no reason to write exponents or radicals as their “notes”. I’ll input a screen capture into to post to illustrate.

Comment on Online Notetaking – Algebra by Steph

Steph — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:43:58 +0000

Hiya Eddie,

Great post – good to see maths moving out of jotters.
How do you get around the difficulty of writing mathematical symbols, equations and expressions online?

I have been dabbling with a VLE over the last 2 years for homework and have not yet found a good solution.

Steph.

Comment on Things to Accomplish – Reflection by Scott Meech

Scott Meech — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:30:56 +0000

1. Google Chat can be turned off for sure by the administrator of the site. This is a click of a link.

2. There is a lot of power when we reflect on why things don’t happen. Thanks …

Comment on Online Gradebook by Enrique Lopez

Enrique Lopez — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:58:48 +0000

SnapGrades is an outstanding tool for student and parents. This online, easy-to-access program tracks student performance on homework and tests. As an administrator, it has opened a new dimension in checking students’ current progress on a day to day basis. With live updates, I can check a student’s academic progress every time he or she visits my office. With this terrific program administrators and counselors can encourage students to stay current on their daily assignments.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Susan Villasenor

Susan Villasenor — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:19:32 +0000

As a counselor I have found the SnapGrades program to be an amazing tool. The program has enabled me to have up to date grade information at my fingertips when counseling with students and assisting parents. The feedback that I have received from parents is that they are no longer shocked when they receive their child’s progress report or report card, because with the SnapGrades program, they have the ability to monitor their student’s grades, test/quizzes, and assignments on a regular basis. With the SnapGrades program in place, students feel empowered, because at any given time, they can check their grades and know how they are doing in their classes. They can also see if they have any missing assignments that they need to make up. Some of the teachers that I have spoken to have mentioned that they especially like the built-in features that the SnapGrade program has to offer. One of the features is that they can set up the program to send an automatic email to parents notifying them that their child is missing assignments. They can also send parents an email to let them know of upcoming projects and exams. I would whole-heartedly recommend SnapGrades to any school who is considering implementing an online grade book program.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Jody Liss-Monteleone

Jody Liss-Monteleone — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:53:49 +0000

As a school counselor, SnapGrades has become invaluable. Parents used to have to request bi-weekly progress reports, which was a lot of paper and time. Now parents can quickly access SnapGrades for up-to-date and detailed information about their children’s progress. Our parent phone calls are down and our student grades are up! If parents do not have access to a computer, teachers or counselors can print out the grades for students to take home. In parent conferences, we can access SnapGrades and see how often the parent has logged on. If not often, we can mention it right then and there. I absolutely recommend SnapGrades to any school and I know our parents are putting pressure on the high school to get SnapGrades. The only downside I can see is that it does cost money and our Awards Night was substantially longer because more students are getting straight A’s.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:03:22 +0000

I was very hesitant about moving from IGPro to Snap Grades; as an English teacher I feared hassles about how long it took me to grade a set of essays and parent phone calls bothered about, “Why did he get a B- and not a B?” etc. Much to my surprise, I have experienced just the opposite. Parents can now hold their kids accountable for missing assignments; I can add comments next to an assignment telling both student and parent that an assignment was late or incomplete (thus explaining the low grade it received); I can post my homework (if I choose to) or upcoming projects for parents and students to see. The remarkable thing about SnapGrades is that parents’ attitudes toward my class have become very positive because finally parents feel involved in their child’s status in the class; this higher level of parent involvement is making a huge difference with many of my otherwise “disaffected” students.
I was also afraid that SnapGrades would be a “sea change” that would take a long time to grasp. Wrong! SnapGrades is much easier and more efficient than IGPro was, and required little setup (much less than IGPro). As far as SnapGrades goes, it probably made the biggest improvement in my teaching this year.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Greg Ann Calvert

Greg Ann Calvert — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:00:54 +0000

I read what you wrote and I agree with it completely. For myself, as a resource teacher, Snapgrades gives me up to date information on how my caseload students are performing academically in their general education classes. Previously this information was only obtainable by asking the teachers to printout individual student reports for me. This entailed shifting additional responsibility to them, not all of them would always have working printers, the teachers would have to look up each class and then go student by student and then they would have to let me know that the reports were ready for pick up or they would deliver them to me. I then would make copies of these printouts, as many of my students would lose the reports when I sent them home for parent review and signature. Again, more paper and more ink cartridge use. I would repeat this request every two weeks, adding consistently to the general education teacher’s workload; not a comfortable or positive situation for all involved. I also like the option of the area to put in individual comments.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:50:33 +0000

I love the online grade program. The parent phone calls regarding grades have ceased. I now receive emails that are specific to missing assignments or future tests. Parents know at any moment how well their child is doing. No more frustration from me or from parents.

Comment on Online Gradebook by Lisa VanDyke

Lisa VanDyke — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:49:30 +0000

Our team piloted Snapgrades at Rio Norte this year and we LOVE it! In addition to the comments above, it has reduced our amount of parent emails (and time spent responding) by about 90%. It’s wonderful even just for that reason.