Time On Task

There are many occasions when teachers communicate with students and parents. There are times when conversation might center on a student’s efforts. Dialogue would likely involve the student’s pacing, the time spent to absorb, learn, or just get through the lessons. Perhaps this friendly chat might even focus on how long it seems to be taking Johnny to finish his coursework. Does this sound familiar?

Imagine a conversation wherein Johnny (or even Johnny’s parent) says, “I had no idea I was in this course that long! Are you sure?” Johnny had said he wanted to be finished with his work in 12 weeks, and now it’s week 11. Johnny has completed 10% of his work, and he wonders where the time went and if he will finish by next week. The family has a trip planned to some vacation destination, and Johnny is way behind.

Johnny’s teacher has tried to talk to him about this whenever he/she had the good fortune to hook up with him. Whenever Johnny visited his gradebook, this is what he always saw at the top.It seems like a good idea for Johnny to know exactly how long he has been in your class while he was looking at grades in Educator or on the phone with you. The math should be quite simple for Johnny (and even Johnny’s parent) to figure out. If his goal was to be done in 12 weeks, and it’s now week 6, then Johnny should be halfway there, right? There is a chance that someone could figure that out. On those occasions when Johnny (or even Johnny’s parent) answers a teacher’s call, and the subject of progress comes up, it seemed only right that everyone could clearly see how many weeks Johnny has been working in your classroom while in his Educator gradebook:

This is just one small step for Educator, but it could be a sizable leap for communication. The WEEKS ACTIVE computation above will be added this Friday morning to the top of all students’ Grade Builder Summary (See student view > Gradebook). As a pop quiz, feel free to ask Johnny how long he has been in your classroom. Let us know what he says.