My beloved Ipad

        I know I just posted yesterday, but when things are new and the hubby is sleeping, I get bored! Today, I decided I would share my number one secret weapon in my classroom, my Ipad! I love it and it can do so much more than I ever imagined. I had been wanting an Ipad for sometime, but there really was no rationale to spend that kind of money when I had a smartphone, laptop, and a desktop. However, when I got offered my teaching job, I felt that was a good enough reason to splurge and I don't regret it one bit! The main thing that I use the Ipad for in the classroom is as a grade book. I know there are tons more uses for it and you can check out the google document under "resources" for more information, but I am still kind of learning how to use it effectively. 

Here is a little tutorial of my grade book, how to use it, and why I LOVE it!

First, download the app "TeacherKit" and when you open it up, it should look like this:

Just keep clicking on your screen and you will come to a page that looks likes this:

Now, your screen like this will look a little bit different because you haven't added any classes. Check out that plus sign in the left hand corner and click on it. This is where you can put in whatever subject you might be taking a grade for. For me, I have a different "class" for each subject that I take a grade on for grade cards. Once you have created a class and you click on it, your screen will look like this:

Except, yours will not have students already in it. To add a student you click on that plus sign in the right hand corner. This is your main screen and if you click on a specific student you can see their grades for that class (once you have entered grades). 

To add grades, you will want to click on the middle top word that says "Gradebook" and your screen will look like this (except empty of course): 

To add an assignment, you click on that upper right hand plus sign again and your screen will look like this: 

This is where you will put in the title of the assignment you are grading and the maximum grade that the students can earn. For me, my kids can earn up to a 3 (4's are considered "extra credit") on each assignment. After you get a new assignment in, you can scroll through the kids names and assign a grade to them. The cool thing about this program is that it calculates it for you and you can customize your percents to whatever grading system you use. I use a 1-4 system. 

My grading skill is roughly: 

higher than 100% = 4

80%-100% = 3

60%-80% = 2

lower than 60% = 1

I have set my grade book up to auto distribute all the grades I enter which means that all the grades that I enter are worth the same portion of their grade. My kids love when I show them their name and they can visually see what their grade is looking like and how many assignments they are missing. Another thing that I love about this is that when it comes time to do grades at the end of the quarter, I can just go through the list. The only thing better would be if I could export them to powerschool! Right now, I can export them to my email and I do that often as a grade book back-up because technology can fail sometimes! This app has been a life saver and definitely a time saver!

I highly recommend TeacherKit. 

Have other questions? Let me know!