iGrades

iGrades is something I developed with Nicola Labas, Director of the Logan-Memorial Educational Complex, as a way for students to track their grades across all of their classes on a weekly basis. Every Thursday, students input their grade percentages from each of their six classes into their personalized iGrades spreadsheet. The iGrades spreadsheet automatically produces a graph, so students can, in a visually-rich way, monitor their grades over the course of the school year.

Too often, students are overwhelmed with juggling six classes; they struggle to keep pace. Progress reports sneak-up on them. They are confused as to how the school year is broken-up. As the saying goes, they "miss the forest for the trees." They lack a big-picture perspective. iGrades, on a weekly basis, gives them this big-picture perspective. iGrades breaks-up the school year into 38 weeks. iGrades clearly marks each of the 6-week progress report periods with a bold-line. The end of the semester is delineated with an extra-bold line. iGrades teaches them how to pace themselves and peak when it matters, a skill invaluable when in college.

In addition to monitoring their grades, students also use iGrades to monitor their weekly GPA over the course of the year. GPA and GPA calculations are mysterious to most students. iGrades' GPA application gives students an intuitive understanding of GPAs, and by doing so, empowers them.

iGrades increases student agency. They learn goal-setting. Inputting their grades into iGrades each week is self-confrontational, and consequently, students develop ownership over their academic progress, or lack thereof. When students notice mistakes or discrepancies with their grades, they self-advocate and contact their teacher. They are rewarded and empowered when they improve their grades, as they actually see their graph, real-time, move in an upward trajectory. Conversely, they clearly see the consequences of missed-assignments or poor test-scores.