Feedback in the fewest steps.....

My last post discussed how nice it is to keep things paperless. The next question is how do you get feedback to students and stay paperless, but still making it meaningful? My teaching partner, Jennie Magiera and I have been working this out. The first idea was to create a Dropbox file for each student and place their work and any feedback on a spreadsheet that was a running document. After thinking about this it seemed we had the students in too many programs and we wanted to streamline the work for them and for the teachers. Jennie suggested we use Edmodo to send direct messages to students and attach any PDF files they submitted. The Edmodo allows it to be password protected and private for the students. The nice thing as the teacher is I can create a template for each assignment and then attach student work with my feedback in the template. I could easily click between open windows and cut and paste both the template, scores from a google form, and a PDF document the students' annotated. Benefits The process is still paperless. The feedback remains private to the student and parents can access the Edmodo site as well. Edmodo, Dropbox and Google Forms can all be accessed from home, which makes this task mobile. Another bonus is the organization of the student work. I always cringe when handing back work with feedback to students or really any sheet and hope it gets put in the right folder, but this is already placed in the "spot" for students. Here are some samples:

Assessment with Noterize

My students took a final assessment for Earth processes this week and I had the short answer/diagramming portion uploaded to Dropbox which my students then downloaded to Noterize. The process of having the students sign in to Dropbox, locate the file, then work and return it to the class folder was difficult, but it was also the first time they used the Dropbox tool. Overall, it went well with no major problems. Some work samples are below. I think the flexibility for the students to use "hand writing" or text as well as the use of color and pen size. Next time, I would do allow more space under each question for students to show their work. Also, the students were not very familiar with the noterize app and some were a little clumsy producing work that on paper would have been clearer.

Screenchomp examples about 9/11 murals

Students in September spent time learning about the events of 9/11 and then how it was being remember ten years later. Their task after learning about the events and the memorials was to create their own memorial with symbols of both remembrance and America to honor the event and people who lost their lives on that day and the years following. Here is some of the work.

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/JzUTH9Xu7LR

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/euFZtmSxpB

http://www.screenchomp.com/t/foxX0D3ep