September 10th, 2014

Guest Blog by Melissa Seideman: GRADECAM – “It will change the way you monitor student assessments.”

Our guest blogger is Melissa Seideman , a history teacher at Haldane High School in the historic village of Cold Spring in Putnam County, New York.  Melissa was gracious enough to ask  to share her experiences with GradeCam and specifics of how she uses it in her classroom.  Thank you Melissa!

 (If you would like to share information with other users about your GradeCam experience and how you utilize the technology in your classroom, school, or district, we would love to hear from you!)

Grading is one of my least favorite tasks as a teacher. If done correctly, it can take hours to grade, generate an item analysis, reflect on the assessment, and, if needed, re-teach the material. But for me, giving assessments this past year was a breeze because of GradeCam. This new form of grading will REVOLUTIONIZE the classroom and help teachers focus more time on their students and less time on grading!

GradeCam is a WONDERFUL program that saves valuable time for teachers while also saving other district resources.  Students use specially designed GradeCam forms that can be printed from any copy machine. No more ordering expensive Scantron forms! When grading, all you have to do is display student answer sheets in front of a webcam or document camera. The data is automatically graded and can easily be imported into your grade book.  No more waiting in long lines at the Scantron machine while hearing those painful beeps as your students get answers wrong.

GradeCam was developed by teachers to minimize grading time, easily manage student performance/assessments, offer students instant feedback, and correlate questions with state/national standards. Students and teachers can get instant reports to monitor student progress such as item or class analysis. It is affordable, easy-to-use, and after it corrects every assignment, the results are put into your grade book. GradeCam blows the old-school Scantron out of the water!

Ways you can use GradeCam in the classroom:

  • This past spring I had my students scan their own tests. They enjoyed the instant feedback during the same class period! I had them go back and look at their incorrect answers. One of my students said, “GradeCam makes grading much easier for the teacher and we get our results quickly.” Another student said, “I liked it because it showed you what you got right away, so I know how my grade will be affected as soon as I’m done with the test.”
  • You can easily transfer scores from GradeCam to your electronic grade book.
  • You can even generate standards-based reports in order to monitor student progress.
  • You can share assessments with other teachers/administrators and generate item-analysis results by question, student, or class.
  • You can use GradeCam with essays, classroom assignments, homework, behavior analysis, etc. Just attach a GradeCam form to any assignment and then enjoy free time without the stress of grading.

Check it out today! It will change the way you monitor student assessments.