Ms. Ukyah uses TeacherMade to encourage student engagement in her classroom through online activities.

TeacherMade really helps student engagement in the classroom

As a 5th-grade teacher coming out of a pandemic, my students were used to spending so much time online. Keeping them engaged, especially in math, has been a goal of mine. With TeacherMade, I accomplished that goal, and I found that my students were engaged daily. 

Give your students instant feedback on assignments

In this day and age, our desire for instant gratification has become almost a necessity. We want our food quickly and the information we seek immediately at our fingertips! It is no surprise that students want to know instantly how they perform on an assignment. In the years using TeacherMade, I have witnessed an increase in the students' drive to have their scores available instantly. Seeing the score immediately isn't always good enough, though. Students want to know what they got wrong and what the correct response should have been. TeacherMade gives me the option to allow this on an assignment. 

TeacherMade helps encourage student collaboration

I found that this year, many of the answers have been challenged, and most of the time, my answers have been wrong. I want to say I do this on purpose and put in the wrong answers, but I truly don't! My mistakes have become beneficial to my students through. They can compare my answers to theirs and recheck their work. They collaborate with one another, reviewing their work as well. They bring incorrect answers to my attention when they find out I am wrong. Thanks to TeacherMade, I can correct them, and everyone's scores update instantly!

TeacherMade helps encourage students to engage with assignments

My number one goal for student engagement is the students' desire to complete an assignment. I want them to be motivated and excited about their work. Typically your most challenging students have one of two problems. They are either very bright, understand the lesson, and become bored, or they are the opposite. This student may not fully grasp the material or lack the confidence to try. Either way, TeacherMade does the trick to keep these students engaged. My not-so-purposeful mistakes come in handy for students that are above the rest. These students rush to finish the lesson to ensure they got their 100%, and when they don't, they are on the hunt for my mistakes. For the students that perform at a lower level, I do my best to create the assignment to look identical to their paper one so they do not get overwhelmed or confused.

TeacherMade motivates students to get good scores and prove their knowledge

With TeacherMade, I can easily change the parameters of the assignment to keep my students engaged. I assign a few lessons daily in math class, including practice and an exit ticket. The practice lesson consists of 8 to 10 questions from the lesson we learned that day. I do my best to make the practice page resemble what the work would look like if students completed it on paper. This way, students can work the problems out on paper and copy their answers. I assign practice to show the score when students submit it, as well as which answers were incorrect and the correct answers. This is what helps those higher-leveled thinkers to find and understand their mistakes. As far as the students who aren't quite understanding, I monitor those who are not making it far in their progress, as well as scores that have been submitted. With that data, I can target the issues and help keep students engaged and focused. After students submit their practice, they complete an exit ticket. The exit tickets have between 2 and 4 questions that resemble the practice. This time students cannot use their notes or get help from teachers or friends. Students are motivated to get a good score on the exit ticket to prove their understanding and not have to do homework. The feedback from TeacherMade is instant and allows me to "read the room," which ultimately helps keep students engaged. 

TeacherMade offers so much functionality to Math Teachers

My favorite TeacherMade tool when creating assignments is the Short Answer tool. I can add numbers and even give multiple forms of the answer. For example, if the answer is .5, I can add 0.5 as a correct answer. I recently discovered the Fraction and Mixed Number tools. Those have saved so much time and allowed students to put their answers as a whole. Before discovering those tools, I created my own fractions using text boxes and drawing the line between the numerator and denominator. These tools are also auto-graded, so my students can get their scores instantly without me having to grade all their papers.

TeacherMade helps encourage student collaboration and conversation about s

One question that may be considered is how can you tell when students are engaged? During my math time, I can hear conversations around the room. Students collaborate and talk about their math problems. I also listen to them sharing their scores with one another. I can see the excitement and focus as I circulate the room. Students actively interact with their computers and point to each other's screens. My favorite, though, is when students come and correct my work. "Mrs. Wilburn, can you tell me what I did wrong on #9?" My polite students ask, "Mrs. Wilburn, I got this one right, but it says I am wrong." It is so funny when I am actually right, but unfortunately, it doesn't happen very often.

TeacherMade helps keep all students engaged by providing instant feedback

Whether you have challenging students because they are bored of the topic you are teaching or they don't understand, TeacherMade gives you the tools you need to keep them engaged. Understanding students' desire for instant feedback helps me to deliver lessons I know they will want to complete. TeacherMade allows me to assign specific parameters around the feedback I want to deliver with each assignment. By using TeacherMade's many tools and features, there's no way your students will disengage during a lesson. 

TeacherMade offers instant feedback once a student finishes an assignment. This encourages collaboration and student engagement.