Collecting Data

What data management system is available at your school? What type(s) of data does the system include? What other types of data would you like to collect about your students? How will you organize and store the data? How can access to and collection of student data help you make decisions about what you teach?

Aeries - Aeries is one of the primary data collection systems at SBHS.  Aeries is the school's system for recording student discipline reports, personal/family information, attendance, and previous grade reports.  My cooperating teacher and I use Aeries every day to record attendance/tardies, and occasionally use it to record discipline interventions.  As far as I know, Aeries is used District-wide, however, it will soon be switching over to a program called "Illuminate," that I haven't heard much about yet. Below is a picture of the login screen for Aeries. 

EDU2.0 - EDU2.0 is the system Santa Barbara High, and all of SBUSD use for recording grades, posting class assignments and calendars, etc.  My CT and I use EDU daily for grade/score inputs for our classes, and for posting certain assignments.  However, in exploring EDU2.0's website, (and from prior experience at my last placement) I've learned that EDU2.0 can be used for much more including: classes, content authoring and navigation, assessment, quizzes and question banks, gradebook, collaboration, curricula and proficiencies, certfiication, district/other campuses, multimedia, groups, resources library, administration, customization, integrations, activity feeds, dashboards, API, porrtal, rubrics, SCORM, class catalog, SIS integration, analytics and reporting, calendaring, internationalization, messaging, E-commerce, web conferencing, mobile, portfolios, social networking, monitoring, trash can, attendance, policies, account types, and help center.  Below is a virtual tour of EDU2.0. 

With all that is available through EDU2.0, a new system to SBUSD, I think that I could take advantage of a lot of the different features.  My previous CT and I used the rubric feature, and I'd love to explore that more.  Also, the resources library could be really beneficial to my teaching and my students learning.  As far as data collection and compilation of my students' information, I'd love to explore the dashboard feature further. 

Having access to this amount of data per student can be overwhelming, yet if used correctly, could be used to my advantage.  For example, I think that the records of discipline history, etc. can cause teachers to make assumptions about their students prior to meeting them, which could really detriment their experience with that student.  However at the same time, I think that prior knowledge of discipline history could be used to make sure that the first interaction with said student is a positive one - start the year off on the right note.  As far as academic history and grade reports, this data could be used both positively and negatively as well.  Knowing where students stand as far as prior academic history could be used to the same advantages and disadvantages that discipline history could be.  This collection of data needs to be used for the students advantage and advancement, not for ease of the teacher. 

Awesome Apps!

List 3-5 apps (with a short summary) that you would be interested in using either during student teaching or during your first year of teaching. Explain why you selected these apps. How will these apps enhance and facilitate learning? 

Virtual Heart (By: Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago)

Virtual Heart is an application that I would definitely use in my high school biology classroom, during our human anatomy unit, specifically the cardiovascular system.  This application would give students a great visual 3D representation of the heart that they could use to get a better understanding of the anatomy. The app has great reviews, and I love the feature that you can turn the labels on/off so that the students can use this app as a study tool. 


Gene Screen (By: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) 

Gene Screen is an application in which students explore and develop their understanding of simple genetic inheritance.  This app seems very applicable to the introduction to genetics unit, for basic dominant/recessive traits, and could be used as a good introductory exposure to then develop genetic theories.  I would like to use this application in a lab setting, like I proposed in my Tech Integration Plan. 


Solve the Outbreak (By: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

"Get clues, analyze data, solve the case, and save lives!" is the introductory sentence in the description of this app - if that doesn't real you in, I don't know what would! This app seems like a really fun experience for my students, in which we could analyze diseases and their effects on populations.  I think it would be really engaging and fun for the students, and applicable to the real world.



Quick Graph: Your Scientific Graphing Calculator (By: Columbiamug)

Quick Graph looks like a great tool that my students could use for lab reports - in their data analysis sections.  Getting students familiar with this technology could help them get engaged in the often disengaging part of science - doing the math! The app has GREAT reviews, and I think I could definitely use it in my classroom.