Fresh Grade: for teachers

Fresh Grade is a communication platform between teacher – parent – student
  1. Lesson plans: align activities to standards, curriculum
  2. Portfolios: keep track of student learning. Online journal for self reflection, photos, audio, video. Documentation of student learning journey
  3. Announcements: upcoming events, requests, can see which parents read announcements
  4. Activities: schedules and deadlines online. 
  5. Progression Reports: communication on learning progress, engages parents (parents can comment on photos), early intervention (post in real time)
  6. Report Cards: anecdotal comments, formative, summative and interim assessment. Less pressure for teachers come report cards because assessments are done throughout

Other Pros: 

  • Instant sharing
  • Window into the classroom
  • Multimodal engagement: photos and reflection
  • Timely assessments
  • Google Translate – comments and announcements can be translated for ELL parents 

 

Fresh Grade Next (what is does that FreshGrade doesn’t)

  • Can upload multiple photos at once
  • Gradebook and portfolio look the same across all devices
  • Announcements can be customized to particular parents and include photos
  • Can tag post with cross curricular objectives
  • When you create a profile, it will take the BC curriculum based on the grade and subject you teach.

Things Parents Should Know

  • Give parents tips and tricks for using freshGrade in order to keep up engagement
  • Set strict guidelines – not meant as an instagram feed! 
  • When parents comment, it only goes to the teacher. 
  • Educate parents about saving photos posted on FreshGrade- when posted there they are private, but once saved to individuals computers, parents can’t share photos due to privacy concerns.

Considerations

  1. Make it part of your daily routine. Will save you lots of time later!
  2. At the beginning, only use for communication and announcements
  3. Focus on one subject at a time
  4. Quality over quantity
  5. Think about the group:  instead of photographing each student individually, take a group photo and tag individual students to save you time. You can put comments for individual students
  6. Use your district email in order for your questions to be addressed first