We spoke with Amanda, a middle school geography teacher who uses TeacherMade to create online assignments for students. TeacherMade is an online worksheet creator that converts your existing PDFs into digital assignments.

What productivity tool do you recommend to teachers?

TeacherMade is one of my favorite programs to use each day in my class. I am so thankful for this program. It has made my day flow much smoother and made the day less dreadful for teachers everywhere. I can use TeacherMade in many different aspects of the classroom. 

How do you use your existing PDFs for online assignments?

My school purchased a curriculum after six years of not having a new one. So we are expected to use the curriculum, which is really hard when you have distance learning and virtual kiddos. The curriculum is not user-friendly for these programs. So I use TeacherMade to help with this issue. I take the lesson outlines and reviews (that are PDFs) and put them into TeacherMade, making them interactive and more interesting to the students. The students can use the actual textbook to complete the outline as we read so they apply what we are reading. They can then go back and ensure the assignment is completed correctly. They are then able to complete the review questions independently. 

How do you assign online worksheets to students?

I assign all of my TeacherMade assignments through Google Classroom, the LMS system my school has chosen to use. I can assign the work directly from TeacherMade to Google Classroom. The students can work on it at that moment or when I schedule it to be released to them. I can see in real-time if the students are grasping the concept or if I need to work with them in a small group to help them with the concept. I can use the assignments in multiple ways for each assignment. I love this about TeacherMade. 

How do you make online assessments for students?

I use TeacherMade for assessments as well. Our curriculum has pre-made assessments, but I don’t always like the way they ask questions to see if the concept is understood. Sometimes I create my own assessments to ensure the students are gathering the needed information. I can also upload maps for the students to complete to show they are learning the area we are discussing. I can make boring old maps interesting and interactive in different ways. 

What are auto-grade tools that you use online?

TeacherMade having auto-grading is an additional feature that makes it commendable to teachers. We are always looking for ways to help us make life a little easier (since the lawmakers and people not in the classroom keep adding more to our load). The auto-grade feature is amazing when I make a mistake as a teacher on the answer key and can go back and correct it. The grades are automatically corrected from the program. I don’t have to go back individually and regrade each assignment. My students have instant grades if I choose to give those to them, or I can wait and release them all at one time. 

How do you leave feedback on online worksheets?

I can leave feedback if I feel the students need to hear from me before I see them in class. I have used the comment section when I want a student to go back and redo part or all of the assignment. This way, I don’t have to have conversations with them that might embarrass them. No matter how private a conversation is with one student, the others always find out or figure out they messed up. This feature lets me let the student know they need additional time on the assignment without any other students knowing. This has helped some of my relationships with students because I never have to point them out, or they don’t have to stay after class to have these difficult conversations.