Thinking of switching from paper-based to a digital teacher gradebook? Well, even if you’re not there yet, getting to know all the benefits you’ll reap by using an online teacher gradebook, such as the one we’ve built into DreamClass, is worth your while.
As a teacher, you may have tried to improve your grading process using other solutions; apart from the old school paper-based gradebook, of course. Excel spreadsheets is probably one of them. But, the truth is, they’re probably not that efficient, as compared to a digital teacher gradebook that is made exclusively for teachers. And that will become much clearer below.
In what follows, we’ll give you a preview of the troubles you’ll save yourself, by making the most out of the teacher gradebook functionality you’ll find in DreamClass; our Student Management System.
Why is using paper-based gradebooks no longer that efficient?
As a teacher, you probably play it safe and take comfort in using methods that proved to work; at least, in the past, with regards to teaching and/or managing your class. But even so, have you ever thought that, maybe, some of these tried and tested — and proven — methods are no longer that competent? Returning to our theme of gradebooks, here are a few things regarding paper-based gradebooks you probably need to re-examine:
Paper-based gradebooks usually come with a limited number of pages; you need to make sure you won’t run out of space, designing your own gradebooks. In the same fashion, you’ll probably have to make sure you won’t carry a heap of heavy paper-based gradebooks from home to school and back.
Buying teacher gradebooks for all of your classes may not be that costly but, even so, it’s an extra expense you need to cover. The same holds true for schools that probably need to defray that cost for all of their teachers; besides the fact that using paper gradebooks is no longer an eco-friendly choice, of course.
Do you really need paper-based gradebooks
In addition to the above, here are a few questions you should try to answer for yourself and see whether paper-based gradebooks are, indeed, useful or not:
- How much time do you spend preparing the right format of your gradebooks on paper?
- What about mistakes? Is creating your gradebooks from scratch worth the time spent on non-teaching tasks?
- What happens when you forget your paper-based gradebooks at home or at school?
- How do you share gradebooks with your school administrators? What is the exact process you follow; and how much time do you have to devote to that task?
- And finally, what about grade calculations? Do you do them by hand? Wouldn’t it be better for you to become more efficient and have them automatically done for you?
Switching to an online teacher gradebook, with DreamClass
DreamClass’ teacher gradebook functionality helps you get past all the headaches above. In particular, you can have all of your digital gradebooks — for all of your classes — gathered in one place; work on them from wherever you are, whenever you can. This way you get the following pros:
- The moment you create a teacher gradebook, students enrolled in that particular class will be automatically filled in for you.
- You don’t have to perform grade calculations by hand. The moment you add your students’ grades, student and class averages are created for you.
- You can create all of your class gradebooks in a few minutes and shape them in a way that helps serve each class’s needs.
- You can work on your editable teacher gradebook template and create columns to mark participation, homework, tests, projects, behavior or anything else you may need.
- And, you can group grade columns into groups of weighted averages and let DreamClass do the sophisticated calculations for you.
The above are only part of the gradebook functionality you’ll enjoy as a teacher with DreamClass. In a similar way, schools with multiple class levels and student groups have the choice to prepare class gradebooks in advance or delegate that task to teachers. More specifically, with DreamClass’ role management functionality, teachers are able to create and work on their own gradebooks; which will be also accessible by school administrators.
Get more than a teacher gradebook, with DreamClass
Paper-based gradebooks may not be a thing of the past; at least, not yet. Many teachers use them to track student grades. However, counting exclusively on an outdated solution may not be that efficient. With DreamClass, you can have an all-in-one solution that works both as a teacher gradebook and a student information system.
