For assignment one I have selected to talk about FreshGrade. I have used FreshGrade for many years in my own classroom and have taught many new teachers at workshops on how to use this program. I am very passionate about this tool because it has changed the way reporting is happening in classrooms. As a tool with your phone you can simply click the picture or video and upload to the app. This will share instantly what students are learning in the classrooms with parents or guardians. Parents and guardians can now see what is happening in the classroom without waiting for the regular reporting periods, three times a year. FreshGrade allows students to take ownership of their learning and open the door of communication with parents at the dinner table. Instead of parents getting “I can’t remember, or nothing” as a response to “what did you learn today?” Its a powerful tool that can be utilized with the app and easily accessed on any mobile device and iPad. For my project I have selected to talk about FreshGrade and the app for your phone. I am excited to announce that next year, I will be moving onto “FreshGrade Next.” Which will be an updated version of FreshGrade. I
I have created a presentation on Prezi. To view click the link using your mobile device. You may wish to download to your phone “Prezi Viewer.” Thanks and I hope you enjoy my presentation.
click here for: https://prezi.com/view/nkTb03lPLNbZ6UUWrVrc/
I was hoping someone would do Freshgrade as it’s something I’m super interested in – and my namesake came through!
I heard about Freshgrade for the first time toward the end of PDP and I’ve not tried it out yet in my own practice. I found this resource really helpful to see how it can be employed in the classroom and I appreciated the video showing a teacher using it in real time to upload a student’s work.
I’d add in a friendly critique that I found the slides in the otherwise awesome presentation to be a little wordy – especially on a handheld device. But good content is good content, so I wasn’t bothered by it.
And I always like the way Prezi presentations end up looking.
Great resource and thanks for sharing!
Thanks Tyler, I highly recommend using FreshGrade in the classroom. However, it is time consuming in the beginning. You always have to be coaching and teaching your students what to upload and when especially in the beginning. Primary is a different story. The teacher needs to be doing it as they dont have the skills yet. If you have a big buddy class that works wonders and you can get their big buddies to help upload.
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for sharing your project on Fresh Grade. I am wondering, how did you use the app using Remote learning, were you able to continue to the student portfolio, did you find a new use for it?
Yeah and to go off this did you do Freshgrade AND whatever online platform Surrey obliged you to use? We had to use MS Teams in Burnaby, but I can’t recall if that was province wide or not.
For remote learning, I posted a video to our class website on how to upload as a reminder. Then expected the students to upload the work they were working on so I could see it and assess it. It worked great and the parents were really into it. They could capture the learning on their phones and post it to me on their child’s account.
Hi Kat, thanks for checking this out. As far as I know right now FreshGrade does not have anything for class management. The new FreshGrade NEXT which I will be testing in the fall could? I know with Covid I had the kids be responsible for uploading their tasks to FreshGrade so I could see who was doing what. This allowed me to see who might not be taking part as they would never post anything. Im not familiar with Class Dojo, but I like the idea of them losing points for not participating. I will check that out.
Thanks,
Tyler
Hi Tyler,
I really enjoyed your analysis on the Fresh Grade app. It has always been an app that has intrigued me and we have one teacher at my school that uses it, but I have not yet explored it.
Does Fresh Grade offer opportunities to help teachers with class management at all? Before COVID, I have been using Class Dojo which seems like a similar app to Fresh Grade in terms of shared student learning and parent connections. It also has a class management component which allows students to gain points for things they do and lose points for misbehaviour or missed assignments (you get to set these to what you like).
I know that when I first started using the Class Dojo app, I was happy to be able to connect with the parents more directly and it allowed my students to be more accountable for their work. What I did also notice was that door to being available was more widely open. I learned to set healthy boundaries for myself, students and their parents. I am wondering if you find that these apps influence YOUR well being as a teacher, to be available and to respond to all the notifications and alerts immediately?
Thanks for your wonderful Prezi presentation!
Kat
Hi Kat, thanks for checking my A1 out and sorry for not seeing this sooner. I do have to say that being single and not having much of a social life does help if you are using one of these programs that allows students/families to contact you 24/7. I had some discussions with teachers who are married or have children that FG takes a lot of your time. However, this can be managed at school. If you have a prep for example, you can use that time to do some FG. My first year using this, I was uploading everything and going crazy using my time to do FG, I even used up all my data at home uploading. I have changed since then, I don’t take FG home, I have turned the notifications off on my phone allowing me to not respond right away when I am not at school. It has been easier. I have not heard of Class Dojo, I will check it out, thanks!