Keeping track of my Assessment

Today i was able to participate in our boards networking PD. During this PD session I was asked about how I recorded my assessment and keep track of my student learning.  I shared these ideas but when I was asked if I had this recorded down I said no.

So the topic of this blog is: keeping track of student learning.

I have used a number of techniques over my teaching career but some of the best have been during this year.  As technology improves so does recording of assessment.  Here are some of my assessment tools: 

Evernote:

At the start of the year I began using Evernote. Evernote is a great app that allows you to keep track of pretty much anything.  Now there are many out there who have used Evernote more then I have (in fact follow: @thenerdyteacher http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/) but to make the most of this app this is want I have done.

I have different notebooks for each child.  I also have different notebooks for math, language and my reading groups.  After each lesson I record a reflection of how the lesson went.  This may include things that surprise me, problems, next steps or just some pictures of the lesson.  I also record individual comments for my students that I am observing that day or for the particular lesson.  Along with these notes I also scan students assessment of learning or work samples to the kids notebooks for easier connection and recall.

By having all of these observational notes it allows me to refer back to problems and give better feedback to my students.  It also makes report cards a lot easier.  Now there is one down side, it takes time but this is far out waded by the fact that reports are easier to write.

Twitter and storify:

Now you may think that this is a little weird, twitter is assessment but it does help.  Since January I have been challenging myself to make my classroom more transparent and twitter has allowed me to do this, well in combination with storify. As my students are working I have been taking pictures and sending out tweets.  At the end of the day I use the storify app to organize my tweets in chronological order.  This in a way creates a small microblog of the day.  Now here is were the real assessment is.  With a snap shot of the day, I am able to reflect a lot more easier. In addition, it allows my students parents to see what their children are doing and help at home.

Wiki sites:

Now I used this a lot more last year but have used it this year.  Wiki sites are a great tool to store pics and videos of the classroom.  It is a secure site, so each person has a log in and password.  In addition, students can comment on work and look at previous questions.  I have slowy been converting to edmodo, which is the same site but with more cabilities. More work is needed for this.

Thes are some of the tools that in use pin creating assessment for my students learning.  There all great opportunities for reflection and a great start for flipping your classroom.  How do you keep track of your assessemnt? Would love to here your ideas.