ASPEN...take 3

ASPEN is becoming the bane of most people's existence, but I really don't mind it! Today during our department meeting, I showed the staff how to complete report cards with ASPEN. It is SO much better than last year because we are using the ASPEN gradebook. All this means, is that teachers have to simply import their gradebook grades into the report cards and post them! The same can be said for attendance. I cannot believe that we are going to be doing report cards in 3 weeks! YIKES!

The issues that we had today were not really with what to do. I think that people seem to have a pretty strong grasp on that. There was tons of complaining because of the attendance issues and how it takes 6 steps to change a student's absence from the default unexcused to excused. ASPEN will automatically update the absences for the report card, but you have to go back and change every unexcused absence to an excused one if you want it to be accurate. The parents are going to have a field day with this one! I do not mind doing this part simply because it helps me hold the students accountable with whether or not they are permitted to make up their work. My department is not so happy with all of the extra steps...I just think it becomes routine and a good habit after a while.

I'm hoping that after a full year of ASPEN that teachers will be more used to it and that everyone will stop freaking out so much. I really feel that if teachers spent as much time working on ASPEN as they do complaining about it, that all of their work would be done!!! Overall, today went well, but I am getting really sick of the complaining.

The last ASPEN session will be on course recommendations. I am very excited to do these online this year because it means that the students will not be able to forge our signatures! I do not know what it looks like yet, but hopefully, it will be fairly easy. I am going to play with this feature when we come back from vacation. After that, the teachers will have everything that they need for ASPEN for this school year. Next year could bring a new round of PD sessions if they open online submission of assignments as well as student accounts. So far, I have resolved any issues that existed between the old grade program and the new one by using Moodle with my students!