Gradebook? What gradebook?!

I can remember when I was in elementary, middle, and high school and seeing my teachers' gradebooks. I always wondered how teachers could use them...the spaces were so tiny! Teachers would also take a long time calculating and figuring out averages. As a student I hated it, and I'm sure teacher's weren't too thrilled about it either.

My seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. V., however, decided to try something different. She created a "gradebook" on her computer using MS Excel. Not only did she save grades in there, but she also used it to keep track of other things, such as textbook numbers.

Mrs. V. was on to something... something big. In the school where I am student teaching, all grades are saved on computer. The program is very user-friendly, and I was able to pick up on it in just a day. Assignments are easily added into the system, along with max possible points, and score weight. Meaning that it averages out grades automatically! The program even shows the class average which is very helpful in finding out which students need help.