About a month or so ago, I ran across this video on Flubaroo, bookmarked it, and then went about my merry way. Fast forward to winter break - you know that special time of year where teachers all around the world put up our feet, drink hot toddies and laugh at all the poor chumps who actually have to work for a living - or, in my case, a fleeting 2 weeks when I try to catch up on several month's worth of work during my "time off," while also entertaining family, eating way too much and trying not to go into debt. One of my projects this year was to create some quick, basic level assessments for my school's Battle of the Books team, which led me back to Flubaroo: a slick little app that, when combined with a google form, actually GRADES, teacher made assessments. You heard me right, it grades your assessments. So... here's the lowdown:
The Good:
It does the grading for you!
It generates reports that flag the questions that were most often missed.
It will email grades directly to students (or parents!?)
It's free!
The Not So Good:
It's pretty much limited to multiple choice assessments - unless, of course, you're a math teacher and your "short answers" would be exact numbers that the script could recognize.
It may be a little complicated to set up for technophobic teachers.
Possible Uses:
As I said, I'm using it for some quick, basic level assessments for our Battle of the Books team, but it could also be used as...
Quick, "ticket out the door" assessments.
In small group instruction, students could take quick quiz before moving onto the next station.
Any assessment in which you just need to know that students have a basic understanding of key concepts.
I gotta tell you, I love it! And since this is the time of year when we're all resolving to do things faster, better and more efficiently, Flubaroo may be able to help.
So, as I always try to do when introducing my staff to a new web tool, I've added it to our tech wiki and created a step by step tutorial for my teachers to follow. Then, I'll do a 5 minute intro at a staff meeting in January and follow it up with more training as requested and needed.
As always, please feel free to use, share and change anything I've created to suit your own needs. Oh, and Happy New Year! Though it's kind of a footnote to this post, it's no small thing to say that 2011 has been one of the best years of my professional life. Thanks to each and every one of you for encouraging and inspiring me in this year - here's to an even bigger and better 2012!
