My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping) is an online program for record keeping and planning. There are numerous features included in this program that helping with both planning and record keeping. Some of the things that help with planning include automated grading, automated attendance tracking, teacher's aid, lesson plan generator, and lesson rescheduler. Record keeping is more than just keeping grades and there are a numerous things that you are prompted to include in here such as events, awards, volunteer work, reading logs, and more.
I love my paper planner but every now and then I ponder and wonder if I should have an online program so that I can easily print and give J assignments for the week. So my thought as I went into this review was wondering if it would give me a weekly report for J's assignments.
I found it easy to set up the account. Once you have your account then is the task of entering all kinds of information about the student. Most of that information is things in my head or written on a paper stuck in my planner. I know I should have more of this down on paper and not rely on my memory.
I am mainly using this for J's work. I entered his assignments for Latin, Maths, and Science. There is Create-A-Plan which splits lessons for you based on number of papers or lessons. For the classes that I was planning that didn't quite work. I divide Latin based on worksheets and just use the book. Maths we do a unique schedule -- Monday is two lessons though it is watch two lessons and problems for the 2nd of the two lessons, Tuesday and Wednesday are one lesson days, Thursday is the test and the best part of the week, no maths on Friday. I did not find an easy way to enter that pattern. There are also options of copying schedules. I just entered for the next few weeks.
Generating a report for the week was super easy. Here is what J's assignments look like for this week or at least the beginning the week.
We have hit high school level work, which means a bit more recording and keeping grades. I was impressed with all the options of things that be kept in this program. You can track hours if needed.
I discovered one feature that might just mean that my paper and pencil might not be used as much -- grading. First I entered his Algebra II grades but that was boring and I didn't even need a calculator to figure the grade. J has taken six tests and all are 100's.
Then I decided to enter the grades for his geography course this past year. When I put together the grading, I made it 20 percent based on quizzes, 30 percent based on papers, and 50 percent based on tests. I didn't really think about all the math that would be required out of me to figure the final grade when I set it up like that. Then I entered it in My School Year (Homeschool Record Keeping). I entered the three grade types, the percentage of the grade and then entered each score. The grade was calculated and all I had to do was enter the individual assignments and grades.
If you click on the "View" button, you will see all the grades that go into the grade for that. That was a great way for me to check to see that I entered the grades correctly. J has a paper to finish and once I enter that grade, I will be able to get his final grade for the course. There are numerous options for grades -- letter, number, and pass/fail. I have to say that the grading feature made it very easy.
After using this for the past few weeks, I really like it for record keeping. I love the ease of the grading, the details that I can record like his piano exam, art classes, and other things. I still like my paper planner for what we are doing each week. I don't plan the whole year before beginning. I have some ideas of what is happening but plan a week or two at a time.
You can read reviews from others to see how they used this program. That will give you even more ideas of how it can be used and the benefits from using this.
Beth
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