I was browsing technology blogs today and on the technology tidbits blog I came across an awesome, free tool for teachers called School Circuit. This website allows you to post assignments, grades, comments, discussions, and upcoming events for you, your student, and your student's parents to see. I'll go over the basics of everything now:
You, as the teacher, create the classes that you have and everything is organized by class. Within that class, you are able to add all of your students' names and ID, if applicable. Being able to list all of your students' names allows you to do two primary things:
1) Take attendance- Not only are you able to take attendance for your own records, but parents are able to log onto the website and see if their child was present, absent, and even tardy. They can also see if their child was excused when he or she should have been.
2) Post grades- You can post the grades of each student on particular assignments. This way, a student will not be able to hide his or her bad grade from parents. Chances are, if you are fast enough at posting it and the parent is diligently checking it, the parent may know before the student even comes home.
You are also able to post assignments for your students. These assignments can range from homework and projects to quizzes and even tests. You can include the assignment details, that way a student may refer to it to clarify a question he or she may have. It also includes a dropbox for students to submit their assignment online. This could be extremely useful if a student is out of class on an assignment due date. It also allows you to annotate if the assignment was turned in on time, late, or not turned it. If you teach the same subject multiple times a day, you can choose which classes to post the assignment to. That way, you don't do the same thing over again.
The last thing that I'll talk about is the calendar. The teacher can post upcoming events such as exams, papers, and field trips. On the class's main page, it will appear when the event is upcoming. It is a great way to remind students as well as parents of what events are coming up.
I think this tool is extremely handy in keeping things organized for teachers and also for holding students accountable to parents. It is impossible for a student to hide things from their parents when their parents are getting information directly from the teacher. It also keeps the teacher accountable because everything that is posted is being scrutinized by concerned parents. I would recommend this to any teacher.
