Chapter 4

Of everything that was discussed in Chapter 4, what I most enjoyed reading about was electronic grading software. To especially technology-savvy teachers, electronic grading is probably old news and nothing to be excited about, but for me, I am really looking forward to using it. When I was in elementary school, all of my teachers carried around the old-fashioned grade books, which had pages that looked like graph paper and where they would record in each little box the grades of every student for the assignments that were given. Then, when progress reports were due, they would either calculate the grades themselves or use little charts such as EasyGraders. For the most part, this went smoothly, but I remember that one year, my older sister's teacher had her grade book stolen. The grades were not recorded anywhere but in that book, so the poor teacher had to scramble around and start from scratch in order to come up with grades for her students.

Now, it is so much simpler and more convenient with online grading systems. What I like best about this can be summed up in the words of the authors when they state, "Students have immediate access to their grades, and families are continually informed about a child's progress in class" (Maloy et. al, 86). Growing up and progressing through school, I was always a super competitive student and for a long time I was focused on being the best. (It was an unhealthy attitude to have, I can now realize, but it was how I felt for a long time!) Being that I was so focused on getting perfect grades, I remember that it was always agonizing when a teacher would give a test on a Friday and I would have to wait the whole weekend before finding out my grade on Monday. This was always a source of great anxiety and I could never really enjoy my weekends when this happened. Reading this section of the textbook made me wonder how different it would have been if I could have known my grade right when the teacher was finished recording it! I probably would have rested a lot easier. Anyway, as I look forward to having my own classroom, the part I like best about online grading is that it provides for more parent involvement. If a parent checks their child's grades and sees that they did poorly on a certain assessment, they'll be able to contact the teacher and discuss what went wrong and how to help their child succeed.

Technology is certainly changing every aspect of the classroom, from lesson planning to assessment and recording grades. A lot of this is making it more convenient for teachers who would otherwise be bogged down with calculating grades and trying to come up with creative lessons. We just need to be careful not to let technology take over every interaction we have with our students!