Monday, January 14, 2008

Here's what I mean about honesty

I keep an online gradebook so that students can log in and see how they're doing, what they're missing, what they can do to improve their grades. Just today I noticed this email from one of my kids:
Sorry to be bothering you again but you made a big grading error on the online grammar week 14. You put 31 points instead of 13. I just thought you should know.

Have a great weekend!
I probably would never have noticed that error, so if she hadn't said anything, she could've kept the few extra points (which are really negligible as far as her overall grade). I feel like I should reward her honesty, but I'm not sure how.

6 comments:

philidendron said...

great blog. i've been trying to figure out a way to keep my students' grades accessible throughout the quarter... what website do you use? sounds sweet.

Anonymous said...

that's always a tough one. you don't want to give them extra credit but you do want to reward them. I think just verbally thanking her and maybe even bringing it up in class are good. and yeah, what website do you use?

teacherman said...

thank you!

I use mygradebook.com, which costs something like $40 per year. At first I wanted to try one of the free online gradebooks available, but they were pretty clumsy to use. Plus, I figured if I paid for it I would actually use it. And I do. And lots of students check, and keep me on my toes, saying things like, "You remember that essay we turned in two weeks ago? I still don't see my grade. What's up with that?"

Anonymous said...

Any problems with that site? I used an on-line one a year ago, and hated it.

Russ' said...

i just discovered

http://engrade.com/

and it looks very good.

i was using it in about ten minutes after discovering it.

teacherman said...

Yeah, engrade seems OK. I think that's one of the free ones I tried last year, but for some reason I didn't keep with it. Maybe I just don't value what's free. The one I use, mygradebook, has a couple of annoying characteristics, but it sure beats the old-fashioned way of doing grades. Plus, the site never seems to crash or go slowly, and the company supposedly backs up the system so the grades can't get lost. And it's great for whenever students ask about their grades I can say, "I don't know. You tell me."