Wanna be a better teacher?

[mzteris]

There's an app for that...

Well, not really a BETTER teacher - but one more effective in tracking student progress and - therefore, over time - teaching techniques. What do you think?


KidGrid iPod app tracks local students' progress

To track how well Johnny could read last week — and the week before that — Gina Tortorice can now drag her finger across the front of an iPod Touch and watch her student's progress.

The first-grade teacher is one of 11 educators at the adjacent Black Hawk Middle and Gompers Elementary schools using KidGrid, an experimental iPod application designed by UW-Madison researchers to make documenting student progress frequent, instantaneous and high-tech.

"It's been very powerful for teachers, because they can keep track of data over time to see trends, and they can see specific growth in student learning," said Anne Schoenemann, an instructional resource teacher at Gompers. "What we really need to be doing is moving into the technology age and supporting teachers with the tools they need to collect data in an efficient manner - and paper and pencil doesn't always do it."

-MORE-

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/article_28e00062-6436-11df-9ddc-001cc4c03286.html


Cool stuff!

[JuniperLea]

1. That sounds really cool!

My daughter's 4th grade teacher LOST all of the students' grades and asked that the parents send home the last report card... I was furious! This would have saved us all a lot of heartache.

Fortunately, I saved all of my daughter's school work... because I haven't a clue what happened to the stupid report card... I know it was good... I swear I signed it and sent it back to the teacher! She had to do her work all over again.

[Hannah Bell]

2. i think it's a way to do electronically what teachers used to do manually. iow, nothing to do with

being a better teacher.

apps like this just help larger entities track more students with fewer people.