Hey folks! John here. And today I’d like to share some insider secrets from the work we do here at EMC² Learning. Each week, Michael and I set out to create colorful, engaging resources that can help teachers around the world deliver more dynamic, student-centered instruction. But when we’re not putting in the work for EMC² Learning, we are both hard at work in our very own classrooms looking for ways to take our instruction to the next level. And as a high school English teacher, I’m always on the hunt for new tools, techniques, and teaching strategies that can help me deliver FASTER FEEDBACK that’s loaded with NARRATIVE COMMENTS and plenty of opportunity for STUDENT SELF-REFLECTION.
That’s why I was absolutely blown away this week when Michael showed me the finished results of a project he’d been working on that we are proud to call the LEARNER DASHBOARD. Imagine a sprawling network of a half a dozen different Google Forms, Sheets, and class rosters all talking to one another in a single hub. We’ve estimated that designing and troubleshooting this project has probably taken upwards of 100 man hours for us to complete. But now it’s all yours for the taking — complete with a detailed walkthrough activity write-up and EIGHT STEP-BY-STEP VIDEOS that will coach you through every stage of the game.
Let’s take a peek behind the curtain to show you just how cool this thing is. Here’s the last video in the series to give you a feel for how the whole thing looks when everything comes together:
No lie: I followed Michael’s instructions to the letter and set it up myself today in just under two hours. And now I have a single Learner Dashboard for:
A ONE-STOP-SHOP FOR CONFERENCES means no more searching through dozens of submitted files, no more scouring old emails, and no more poring over lengthy rows of vast spreadsheets. With a single click, you can pull up EV.ER.Y.THING. you’ve got from each student in any of your classes! This alone makes the Learner Dashboard a game-changer for one-on-one conferences with students, counselors, and families. But it gets so, so much better from here!
SINGLE CLICK VERBATIM COMMENTS give teachers the power to add instant feedback for every assignment you’ll give for the entire year. Just fill out the dropdown fields, and you’ll compose entire paragraphs of narrative feedback in record time.
SPACE FOR UP TO 92 INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS ready to receive narrative feedback. This single form offers dozens of opportunities for highly personalized support to help students see where they’re growing and where they’re going!
UP TO 26 UNIQUE UNITS OF STUDY each of which has additional space for a teacher to provide up to four additional narrative comments for every single student with the push of a button. This helps us serve as student coaches, not just angry graders!
INDIVIDUAL SELF-REFLECTION FORMS where students can set goals for the next assignment and reflect on their progress to date. Best of all: all of these Forms automatically sync with the Learner Dashboard, so it all ends up in one place.
PERSONALIZED DASHBOARD PAGES automatically shared with every student you teach, automatically populated with their latest goals, student/teacher conference feedback, skill growth charts, and verbatim comments for every submission to date.
A MISSING WORK DISPLAY PAGE allows every student in class to see what they’ve submitted and what work is still outstanding in a single place. And it’s auto-searchable by assignment, by unit of study, or by individual student name.
In short: this resource is my new favorite thing.
In a single school year, I’ll easily spend upwards of 200 hours grading, writing narrative feedback, sending messages to individual students, and sharing that same information with their families. But now with less than two hours of initial setup, I’m on pace to save HUNDREDS of hours throughout the remainder of the school year — which gives me more time to focus on the stuff that I love about teaching: building relationships, giving feedback, and designing dynamic lesson plans that keep our students at the center of each and every day’s instruction.
We hope you’ll consider joining us as an Engagement Engineer to unlock a full year of site access. For complete details including our exclusive limited time offer for annual site membership, click here.
