Working smarter, not harder should be the motto of every teacher. There are too many things on the average teacher's plate whenever I have a chance or opportunity to save some time I take it.
The first thing that has save me so much time is an called ZipGrade. When teaching history in middle school piles of lots of tests are common. Grading is my least favorite teacher task. I know how important it is and how it directs my teaching, but I still dread it.
ZipGrade is an app for your phone or tablet. It is a paid app once you reach 100 scans, but I promise it is worth every penny. In fact my school bought the app for every teacher who wanted it after I showed it to them. Using the website you can set up a bubble sheet.
Now how does this work? The bubble sheet acts like a giant QR code. On the app the teacher plugs in the correct answers and assigns point values. You can even give partial credit or have multiple answers. Then holding the device above each test you scan, it takes a picture, and it grades. Volia the tests are graded in a manner of minutes. In addition, you are given instant error analysis and can even export the grades.
I have some tips and tricks that you might have not thought about before. I even use Zip Grade for essays and short answer questions (one can not live on multiple choice alone). To do this I grade the essay and assign points. The essay corresponds with a question on the bubble sheet. I then bubble in the correct number of points (A=5 pts, B= 4 pts, and a C= 3 pts) and then scan. This way I have a copy of their final grade forever. ZipGrade will also save the tests and answer keys from year to year so you don't have to recreate them. My team would also assign the same student id number in ZipGrade to each student. We would then laminate the sheets and share them among the classes. Students answered the questions with a wet erase (think a vis-a-vis pen). When the year was over we would pass the sheets on to the 7 grade teachers. Another plus to that is we couldn't all schedule our tests on the same day.
Zipgrade saved me countless hours and I can't imagine teaching without it.
Do you use ZipGrade or something similar? Let me know in the comments below.
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