Grade books. Satchels filled with papers and tests to grade tonight. Grades to record in those grade books. Grade point averages to calculate for progress and grade reports. This is the life of a teacher outside of the school day. Add to that calling parents when homework is not turned in or a child is failing

But wait. It doesn’t have to be this way. If the school or district you work for has not implemented the technology to ease your work life, then you must do it on your own. There are so many processes you can automate – it’s time to get going because other teachers have already done it and are enjoying a life made much easier.

Grading and Grade Reporting

There are a large number of software tools and apps that teachers can download and begin to use immediately. At any given time, a student’s grade average can be calculated, and a summative report generated for the end of each grading period. Not only can you get these grade calculations, but you can print them out should any parent want to see the full report of each assignment/test and grade earned.

Some of these tools will also generate graphs and charts showing averages for an entire class. Imagine being able to see which course objectives were mastered by most and which were not. This provides valuable information as teachers plan remediation and re-teaching plans.

Plagiarism Checkers/Essay Editing/Grading

Scan or copy/paste any student written assignment and immediately get a report on its originality. No longer will you have to live with just suspicions that a student may have plagiarized. It’s now all there in “black and white.”

One of the best of these tools is Viper. Not only does it check for plagiarism but it can be programmed to edit, proofread, and grade essays. There are also many top dissertation writing services where you can find examples of good writing and share them with your students. You can return student work with all errors identified to support the grade that has been earned. Essay writing can be tough for students, and grading them can be laborious for teachers, so using them an option to use citation or thesis generator can make both your and students’ life easier

Design a Website for Student/Parent Information/Access

If your school or district has not set up a system with portals for each teacher, then you must do so on your own. You need a website that does all of the following:

  • Posts assignments and due dates, test dates and what each test will cover
  • Provides secure access for students to check their grades at any given time
  • Provides secure access for parents to check their students’ progress and grades
  • Provides for email communication between you and individual students or parents.

Once you have this set up, it is simply a matter of educating students and parents on using your website for the information they need. You cannot imagine how much time this will save you in the long run. It will certainly eliminate a lot of parent phone calls and your efforts to return those calls at a time convenient for you and those parents.

Natalie Andersen, chief editor at GetGoodGrade.com explains: “Your job will be to keep your site updated, of courses, but that is far less hassle than trying to deal with individual students and parents and answer the same questions over and over again.”

Using Technology for Remote Instructional Purposes

Remote learning is a fast-moving disruption in education today. Especially if you are a college instructor, utilizing this medium to reach students who want online educational opportunities. Developing online courses through your institution or on your own can become an additional source of income as well as meeting the needs of many non-traditional students.

Individualization of Instruction

Every classroom has students who master concepts and skills easily and quickly, students who master them in a reasonable amount of time with basic instructional delivery on your part, and those who really struggle. Trying to individualize with all of these mastery levels has always been a huge problem for teachers.

Enter computer-assisted learning. It is and will continue to be the answer to individualizing instruction to meet the needs of both students and teachers.

If you have recent texts, you have a wealth of Internet-based resources like Best Writers Canada – both for enrichment, more practice, and for remediation. You can assign students to these resources as their needs demand. And the completion of the work will be verified so that you can see the results of your students’ work.

In addition to resources that go with your text, you can make use of an amazing amount of online educational software that will reinforce the skills you are teaching and provide enrichment for students who need that.

What’s to Come

Technology will continue to impact education, even though this is an industry that seems to lag behind other sectors. But there are those who predict that even robots will have a role to play in future classrooms, along with artificial intelligence that will be able to generate learning activities based upon individual students’ performances. The ramifications for teachers are yet to be seen.