For some unknown reason right now I cant edit the spacing on this post. Especially with regard to the spacing between the text and photos. Because of this, the post doesn’t look as appealing as I would like it to be. Hopefully tomorrow the site will have fixed itself and I can fix the spacing issue. For now just try to enjoy the content..
This week I watched the webinar, “FreshTips and Advanced Techniques.” Specifically, this webinar shows you how to use custom assessment tools, weighted categories, custom objectives, objective management, and filtering on the app. One thing that I really like about this webinar is that it shows you each individual step through screencasting so that you can follow along yourself.
Custom Assessment Tools: Allows you to create your own assessment tools to meet the needs of your classroom. You can also weight these forms of assessment at a certain level.
Once you have created your assessment tools you can start to create activities for your students to do. When adding an activity you can include a title, the date, a description, and a category. You can then assess students activities through their gradebook or through their profile.
Custom Objectives: Allows you to add objectives to your activities. You can create custom objectives or select some from a list provided to you located under subject area. The only thing to be careful about is that once you add an objective there is no way to edit it or delete it. Another option that you have is to create objectives first and then create activities that meet those objectives (objective management).
Filtering: You can filter your gradebook and portfolios. Specifically, you can filter your gradebook by subjects, labels, and categories and your portfolios by data range, subject, category, label, private, and reports. These filters allow you to see specific information quickly, saving you time. You can access this information in the saved filters folder. This allows everything to be laid out quite nicely. Portfolio filtering is a new feature that only teachers have access too. Parents and students cannot do this yet, but in the future it may be added.
After viewing this webinar everything started to come together for me. Looking at a blank FreshGrade account and reading FreshGrades website provided me with valuable information but actually seeing how things are created deepened my understanding of all of the features that the application has. I think that it will be extremely valuable for me to watch all of the webinars. Unfortunately, there are 25 of them! So hopefully I can get through them all in the next four weeks..
These webinars are extremely valuable for first time users. In fact, if you are going to use FreshGrade I would suggest that you watch all of them before you begin adding to the application yourself! Further, if you have time to watch the webinars while they are being webcasted you can ask questions to the presenter at the end of the tutorial.
On a side note, once you’re done a webinar you get a cute certificate & lets be honest, there is something about certificates that make us feel special.
Here is a link to the “FreshTips and Advanced Techniques” webinar: https://learning.freshgrade.com/p/freshtips-and-advanced-techniques-webinar
All of the webinars are FREE so don’t be freaked out when you see the register now button.
Michelle Shields 