making the grade

So, I'm a teacher. And I love my job. Mostly, anyway. The teaching part, certainly. The bureaucracy? Not so much. I love working through a lesson, and getting students to that moment of understanding, or at least practice. The grading? I can put that off entirely too long. But I'm getting better about it.

You see, my understanding of the assessment process is changing some. Evolving, really. I've learned about curriculum, and standards, and how to apply the second to the first. It really only makes sense that my brain is getting around to the assessment part of the learning process. I've begun to see assessment as a tool to guide teaching. Giving ME feedback on how my students are doing, not just me giving them feedback on how well - or poorly - they are doing. That means that timely assessment is even more important than just getting papers back to students quickly.

Which brings me to my gradebook. Well, sort of, anyway. I have my paper gradebook, as usual. This year the district has switched to an attendance program that also has a gradebook built in. Unfortunately, not all of the bugs are worked out quite yet. We had a little bit of training, and went into the gradebood program, and messed around a bit, practicing creating assignments and entering grades. The problem is, now I can't edit it. Actually - to be more accurate - I can't SAVE the changes I've made. Grrrrr frustration. All kinds of swear words. Wasted time and effort, to boot. I'm not sure if it is operator (me) error or some programming glitch that the district technology folks need to deal with.

I think that this program, once I can use it properly, it will be a handy program. We'll be able to print out reports to show kids which assignments they are missing. Parents will be able to check their child's grades as well. Nice, huh. But for right this moment, I'm not having a good time with it. *grumbles off into the distance...