TM4T Using Your System 3.2.9 - Admin Work: Student Records

InThis is where our understanding of the principles of data is valuable.

Depending on who and where we teach, we are going to store and process a lot of information about our students: their learning styles, special educational needs, if and when they skip a homework, get a detention, earn a merit, miss a lesson, what marks they get each test, what grade they are working at and so on.

There are two basic rules here:

1. Do not duplicate systems which your school provide. If there is a database for Mock GCSE results, store your information there (make sure you know how to extract a copy, though)

2. Keep your own records as simple as possible. In practice, you will rarely need to access a lot of this information more than once.

My own preferred system involved a set of cardboard folders (the kind with a flap to close it so paper doesn't fall out). One per class, coloured for easy identification.

In this folder, I would store any printouts of information (for example, the Mock GCSE results mentioned above). I would also put in this folder a printed seating plan for each lesson, annotated as necessary.

Now, I don't intend to share all my codes ('cos they're SECRET) but you can probably work out that Elena and Tyler were absent, than Daniel and Charles got merits, and that Vic got a detention; you may be able to figure out that some students performed better than expected (+) while others did less well (downward arrow). You would, though, have to be very sharp to spot which students had special education needs, and how severe their learning difficulties are, and which students are gifted and talented - but that information is also discreetly coded on the seating plan (click the image to enlarge it)

The folder also probably contains marks for informal assessments.

However, notice that this seating plan is designed to be shown on the screen as well as printed, it is a student's view of the class. This is obviously a more efficient way of communicating marks and merits than reading them out...