Monday, August 8, 2011

BP2_TrackClass

     In my search for a useful Web 2.0 tool, I discovered an amazing tool called TrackClass student organization made simple.  TrackClass is a program that can help you get your school work organized. A big piece in the program I teach is organization so this program could really work wonders for a lot of my students. So often middle schoolers have no clue how to keep an agenda, store notes in a meaningful order, keep track of due dates etc. With TrackClass they would get everything from due date reminders for assignments, tests and quizzes, to even keeping track of your grades on each assignment.  This is something so valuable for a young student, to know and be able to keep track at any given time of your total points in a class and know where you are standing is powerful information and a good habit for them to start. I really love that it keeps it all organized on a dashboard that looks much like the FSO dashboard. When you log in it has everything right there for you so you can get a good perspective of everything contained within. The calendar organizes it all by day, week, and month and will even give you a custom reminder that you have an exam in 15 minutes, or whatever time period you set your reminders too. Another great aspect of this program is the note taking tab. I often tell my students it is important to re write or even better to type their notes when they get home, while it is still fresh in their heads. This is another form of studying AND will help the notes be neater and more organized. The notes tab in TrackClass allows you to type notes, title & date them, and then it stores it. They would never lose their notes again AND they would be nice and neatly written for later studying purposes. Lastly, cell phone aps exist for this program as well making it extremely versatile being that users could access it from anywhere as long as they had their phones! What more could you ask for?!? The program is extremely easy to use, very self explanatory, so it would be great for new computer users and old alike. I could really see my students getting into being able to organize their school lives using this and it becoming a part of their daily regimen. 

Sign In Page for TrackClass



TrackClass allowed me to create notes complete with a title





Then when you click on the notes tab you are able to see all the notes that you created in order by date.


It also allows you to store digital resources on file for later use in notes, papers, etc.

The exam tab allows you to input your exam name, date, points possible, points earned, and reminder time...



The calendar tab takes all you have store with either a date or time and puts in in a day, week, and month format
When you log in you are taken directly to your dashboard that has everything created and organized so that you can have a good perspective on all you've created


2 comments:

  1. Hi Kimberly,

    You have found the miracle tool of the world when you found the web 2.0 program, TrackClass. Your middle school students will become very organized when learning to manage their agendas, prioritizations, and due dates for their action items. This is the one element that every professional seeks in their employees. These skills must have been vaporized when the birth of couch potatoe’izm started. I hear employers mention the need for organization and timeliness more than the attributes of strong knowledge and content skills. Wow, educators please take notes here about the need for professionalism skills and development of the ‘whole’ student.

    Kim, great job with this discovery. I definitely plan on checking it out. More importantly, I’m going to have Obama call you next week. Have your discovery ready!

    - Hunter

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  2. Kim,
    It would be great if students would get this type of organization skills earlier in their lives. If students could learn to organize, plan and prioritize early in life, school wouldn't be such a chore.

    My first year college students don't have that skill, so this would be very helpful for them as well. I think I will introduce it to all my students. I may make it mandatory. I have my students do a process book and maybe this will become a part of it. I've worked with students on practicing writing in a calendar on when things are due, when and how long to work on things, etc., but this would be so much more detailed and better for them.

    Great Find!
    Dorreen

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