One thing that my school introduced this year was the use of a program called Aware. This is an online file cabinet where I can add notes on classroom behavior, test scores, look up previous tests scores (TAKS), or enter information about tutorials. All of the administrators are able to log on and view any information anyone has entered on a particular student or group of students.
We have an online grade book that we use as well. I appreciate the ease of calculating grades, entering assignments, and the ability the parents have to access the grades online. This saves a lot of time that could be spent emailing or phoning parents regarding grades. I can email specific parents in blind copy emails all at the same time. For example, I will send an email to all parents on the day a project is assigned that includes due dates for specific parts of the project. This eliminates the "I didn't know there was a project due" syndrome. Another frequent use of the email function is notifying parents that their student may have performed unsatisfactorily on a test. I can write one email that is sent to all of those parents which saves me a lot of time.
One drawback of the online grade book is that parents often do not read the key at the bottom of the pager which tells them what specific markers are. For example, if a box is blank, it means the assignment has been assigned, but not graded. Many parents think this means that the assignment wasn't turned in even though the key clearly says that a missing assignment is marked with an "m."
One other drawback is that there is no place to write original comments. There is a list of standard comments, but often I want to say more to my parents and the grade book has no option for that.
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