Edsby for the time oppressed teacher
Updated December 16, 2015
Edsby for the time oppressed teacher
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Edsby
Edsby is being used by all the teachers in the school and across the school district.
Edsby allows for current, on-going communication with students and parents on class work and student progress via a Lesson Planner, and a Grade Book assessments and marks program. Edsby provides a panorama profile of all of the students in one's class with parent or guardian contact names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the students. It also shows which other classes students are enrolled in and the teachers can share observations on their students or keep them "private" to themselves. The seating plan is extremely helpful as it provides a photo of each student and can easily be edited to change the seating arrangements. It has an attendance page which is easy to use and has a space where one can mark reasons for absences.
Edsby is particularly helpful for Progress Report, Mid-Term Report, and Final Report time. Instead of flipping through paper records of student progress, one can simply flip from screen to screen in Edsby to find all the information needed to write comments on students' progress and their Learning Skills and Study Habits. It saves a great deal of time. One can copy and paste from observations or directly from the assessment comment line or individual assessment.
Edsby allows for current, on-going communication with students and parents on class work and student progress via a Lesson Planner, and a Grade Book assessments and marks program. Edsby provides a panorama profile of all of the students in one's class with parent or guardian contact names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the students. It also shows which other classes students are enrolled in and the teachers can share observations on their students or keep them "private" to themselves. The seating plan is extremely helpful as it provides a photo of each student and can easily be edited to change the seating arrangements. It has an attendance page which is easy to use and has a space where one can mark reasons for absences.
Edsby is particularly helpful for Progress Report, Mid-Term Report, and Final Report time. Instead of flipping through paper records of student progress, one can simply flip from screen to screen in Edsby to find all the information needed to write comments on students' progress and their Learning Skills and Study Habits. It saves a great deal of time. One can copy and paste from observations or directly from the assessment comment line or individual assessment.
- It has a home page viewable by students in which there is a Journal space. Teachers can post reminders for example for homework or upcoming events.
- EDSBY has a place where one can create Folders or Unit Assessments which students can access and if need be print themselves a copy of the assessment. These folders can be used for different unit work or for something that is used throughout the semester. For instance, information on The Writing Process is in a folder, as are major assessments.
- It's easy to set up the Grade Book because of the automatic choices that are offered for semester work and culminating work. Weights can be edited and categories of assessment can be changed quickly, if needed.
- If you have a problem, you can ask for help from someone in the school or in the system who knows about the program, or you can send a message to EDSBY, and they are very quick in replying with a fix.
- Better customer service, in the sense that students know clearly what they need to do, and when they need to do it.
- Better customer service, in that it is easier for teachers to contact parents, with the lap top in front of them and all the relevant data on student progress or lack thereof in front of them.
- Better customer service, in that students can email the teacher directly through EDSBY to ask a question or see clarification, or make a request.
EDSBY was piloted at the school last semester, and I found it made my job easier, which is a boon since time is fleeting and I could get more done with less effort with Edsby. After the pilot the entire school district was signed up to use Edsby. I like it very much. I did use a blog on First Class which was extremely difficult to learn, and a blog on WordPress which was easier to learn how to use but not interactive like Edsby is. To my mind, Edsby is far superior to the former.
Using Edsby
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- The planner with lesson, journal, and assessment buttons.
- Grade book
- Email contacts, phone contacts
- This is where I'd like to amend a statement previously made by me. If I use control +, I can increase the font size of the Lesson plan so students sitting further back in the class can see the plan projected on the Smart Board, without having to go to a Smart Note file.