Presenting today was Jess S, Mitra, and Sam who gave us an enlightening look at Fresh Grade. My main takeaways were:

Fresh Grade is a communication platform intended to make visible learning that can’t be communicated through scan-tron sheets or other means, and to give parents a window into the classroom. The program connect students, teachers, and parents, and can be used to create lesson plans, reports, etc.

Lesson plans – you save time with easy to use tools

Activities -you can  track progress and post different assignments

Progression reports – great for early intervention, engaging parents, communicating student learning progression, etc.

Reporting – standard-based, score-based, and anecdotal grade books, custom access scales, etc.

Fresh Grade vs Fresh Grade Next

Fresh Grade  – can only upload one photo at a time, grade book and portfolio look different, etc

Fresh Grade Next  – upload multiple photos at once, grade book and portfolio look the same, etc

About Fresh Grade, families say: amazing communication tool, though some do prefer traditional paper reporting (some folks aren’t tech savvy). To ponder: will the pressure students feel to look up and smile during photo documentation change learning in some way? (i.e. pausing during learning process to get your photo taken)

Pros – convenient (don’t need a desk), instant sharing, window into class, more timely assessments and reports (not huge build up to report card season for teachers), environmentally friendly (and hard to lose for students), multi-modal engagement for students, progress, google translate (for ELL students, so families and students can understand  announcements/happenings related to their class).

Cons – privacy (can’t protect against 3rd party apps such as Google Translate), inconsistent use (takes time to learn, and some folks aren’t taking the time to learn), parent expectations (i.e. to post a lot – but, set guidelines and stress quality over quantity), limited engagement (i.e. for young students who can read/write yet), intimidating, glitches.

Tips/Tricks – when first starting, just use for communications and announcements; focus on one subject; learn together with another teacher (to save time); educate parents; use iPad supplied by school (better than using your phone); photograph groups and tag students (1 post for 5 students, instead of 5 for 5); PicCollage for multiple photos; meaningful posts; less is more; share as highlight (parents get email notification of post), use Quick Note (make your own list of notes to select in future); email Fresh Grade with school email (get quicker service).

 

Great job, y’all!

 

See below for a video tutorial on Fresh Grade: