Welcome Back to School (a little late): How I Am Keeping Track

Welcome Back to School Everyone!

We are still in the first nine weeks, right?

So I can still welcome you back.

Things have been a little crazy in my corner of the Deaf education world, evaluating new friends, developing a new schedule, learning a few new schools... You all know how it goes!

However, I wanted to go ahead and share my new favorite trick of the year. Let me start by telling you WHY I NEEDED to develop something new. Last year, my data collection process was a spiral bound notebook and every session got written in the notebook. One notebook for all my kids, in chronological order. It worked great for me because I didn't need to remember to grab a student's notebook before I traveled to their school, and everything was in one place. However... Every time I had the task of entering their data into the progress report or wanted to average some scores, or anything like that, I then got the fun job of flipping through and finding that one kid's sessions and writing their data on a post it note to input somewhere. Time consuming.

Over the summer, I decided to develop a Google Form that I have been using to input my session notes and any goal-related data.

Here it is! Simple and quick. I can have it pulled up on my chromebook and taking notes while we work, OR sometimes I still use my trusty spiral bound notebook (for example, if the chromebook is dead or if the task involves the student using the chromebook) but can quickly transfer the data after the session. This works wonderfully because I can choose what student I am working with, keep track of my minutes of service, have a reminder to check their FM systems and hearing aids if applicable, and write some quick notes and data. I can make a note if the student was absent or we missed the session for whatever reason. I have the names of my weekly students listed and an "other" box for any students that I don't see as often.

Then, all the data goes nicely into this spreadsheet:

MY FAVORITE PART: When the time comes and I want to create a nice summary of the student's data, I can just sort by the student's name (which I know is typed correctly because I made it a multiple choice option). All of their data will be right there together and I can do whatever I need to do.

I also created data spreadsheets to transfer the data into, but I haven't use it yet because this is nice and organized {for me}, and I'm not sure if I will. I'll keep you updated.

I hope this helps some of you keep some sanity as you teach from your trunk or your rolly cart or classroom! I have a few other fun tools and tricks I have been using this year and I can't wait to share them with you... Just have to make sure I've figured them out myself first! Happy Teaching!