Databases
I use databases on a regular basis. In Royal Oak Schools, we use MiStar, which is a database program that houses each student's attendance, demographic information, report card information. I can log on from any computer and run a report that easily shows students' pertinent information, as well as any records that I have kept for that student including report card information from previous marking periods, which also includes any notes I have left regarding that student. While this is a wildly convenient system that allows me to easily track each student, it has not quite caught up to the district. We are in our first year of standards based grading, which is a very different system than years past. As a result, MiStar's grade book feature, which formerly would link grade book grades to standards on report cards and had an auto-calculate feature, is currently disabled. Therefore, I have to keep a separate database through Google Sheets for my grades, and link the grades manually as opposed to being able to flip easily from grades to report card marks.
Being elementary students, in my Spanish class, we do not get much of a chance to use databases. Most of my classes (25 minutes) are a whirlwind, with classes filing in, reviewing the last class period lesson, teaching a new skill or set of vocabulary, and lining up for pickup. This kind of somewhat rushed environment does not lend itself well to setting up a database, though with some help from classroom teachers, I think it may be possible! I would love to see each student keeping track of their Spanish assignments in an online, digital setting (perhaps Google Sheets). This would work hand in hand with my idea for having electronic worksheets sent to parents' or students' email addresses. In the spreadsheet database, students can keep track of their grades, annotated with notes on what their strengths and weaknesses were on a particular assignment or assessment, what they struggled with, and what they need help with. Students at one of the schools I work at already keep performance binders, but having these online would create an easily accessible line of communication with parents for an invaluable at home connection.
Being elementary students, in my Spanish class, we do not get much of a chance to use databases. Most of my classes (25 minutes) are a whirlwind, with classes filing in, reviewing the last class period lesson, teaching a new skill or set of vocabulary, and lining up for pickup. This kind of somewhat rushed environment does not lend itself well to setting up a database, though with some help from classroom teachers, I think it may be possible! I would love to see each student keeping track of their Spanish assignments in an online, digital setting (perhaps Google Sheets). This would work hand in hand with my idea for having electronic worksheets sent to parents' or students' email addresses. In the spreadsheet database, students can keep track of their grades, annotated with notes on what their strengths and weaknesses were on a particular assignment or assessment, what they struggled with, and what they need help with. Students at one of the schools I work at already keep performance binders, but having these online would create an easily accessible line of communication with parents for an invaluable at home connection.
Seeing all these posts about different databases has caused me to realize that I use a database a lot more than I actually thought! Being a teacher at a National Heritage Academy most of our computer systems we use are on a database. No matter if we are taking attendance, grading, looking at curriculum, and also even seeing our common assessment results it is all some type of database.
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