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jay-shi
Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 12
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 Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:40 pm Post subject: A website to write student evaluations automagically |
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Frustrated by having to work long extra hours writing up student evaluations I decided to automate things a little. I made a website that speeds up the evaluation writing process. I thought I'd share it with other ESL teachers.
The address is http://www.esltool.com
It's free to use. I hope you will find it useful. |
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moot point
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 441
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:11 am Post subject: |
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| Love the title of this post -- "automagically". Nice site, I may use it in the future. Cheers. |
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Mchristophermsw
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Posts: 228
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:36 am Post subject: |
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| Great Tool! Your the Man! |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 2129
Location: 中国
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:34 am Post subject: |
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A very useful tool; I played around with it a little.
It's magic! 
And just added to The Master Index Thailand & Russia: Category :: CLASSROOM RESOURCES ::
http://www.esltool.com/ (EslTool / a free online program for writing student evaluations / NEW) |
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JonnytheMann
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 337
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 6:03 am Post subject: |
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| Wow, man, that's awesome! I love it. |
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Celeste
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Fukuoka City, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| Fabulous. I am looking forward to using it in my next job (the one I am in now doesn't require evaluations - boy am I going to miss that!) |
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waxwing
Joined: 29 Jun 2003
Posts: 719
Location: China
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:24 am Post subject: |
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I may be wrong, but I think Larry Wall of Perl fame coined the term "automagically". In any case, I agree, it's lovely 
bless $youall |
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jay-shi
Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 4:16 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for all the positive responses! It's very encouraging.
I would also like to encourage you to send me more of your own evaluation comments so that I can add them to the lists.
Enjoy! |
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Zero Hero
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 944
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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Do your students, (or does your employer), know you are using ad hoc formulas to produce student evaluations, a common responsibility of teachers? It seems clear that you are only willing to accept the aspects of the job that you want to accept, the rest will be done 'automagically'. This is not a labour-saving device; rather, this is simply an example of shirking one's paid duties.
Will you attempt to do everything you find 'frustrating' and which may cause you "to work long extra hours" by way of following a pre-set formula? How about starting an 'Instant Lesson Plan' website? Tell you what, why not just record yourself and place a portable tape player in the classroom? After all, surely sooner or later you will become frustrated at "having" to spend "long hours" in the classroom?
Committed teachers must often spend 'long hours' on their duties, such as preparation and marking and, occasionally, student evaluations. If you can not handle this then may I suggest you seek employment in another field. At the moment your students no doubt deserve better MOD EDIT |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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"Zero Hero", have fun spending HOURS writing out your evaluations... 
Meanwhile, the rest of us who wish to use our time more efficiently will make use of this FANTASTIC tool. Kudos to the OPer |
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jay-shi
Joined: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Zero Hero wrote: |
Do your students, (or does your employer), know you are using ad hoc formulas to produce student evaluations, a common responsibility of teachers? It seems clear that you are only willing to accept the aspects of the job that you want to accept, the rest will be done 'automagically'. This is not a labour-saving device; rather, this is simply an example of shirking one's paid duties.
Will you attempt to do everything you find 'frustrating' and which may cause you "to work long extra hours" by way of following a pre-set formula? How about starting an 'Instant Lesson Plan' website? Tell you what, why not just record yourself and place a portable tape player in the classroom? After all, surely sooner or later you will become frustrated at "having" to spend "long hours" in the classroom?
Committed teachers must often spend 'long hours' on their duties, such as preparation and marking and, occasionally, student evaluations. If you can not handle this then may I suggest you seek employment in another field. At the moment your students no doubt deserve better, and the world of TEFL does not need the likes of you to further erode its already damaged reputation. Indeed, given the presence of people such as yourself in the field of TEFL, it is not hard to see why it is not exactly known for its professionalism. |
Yes my employer is fully aware of my project and supports my efforts. There is nothing "ad hoc" about it. My colleagues and I wrote all those evaluation comments, doing it by hand as you suggest we keep on doing.
I simply offer them up for other teachers, and I can't say this enough: PLEASE SEND ME MORE COMMENTS. I started this project with a collaborative spirit. The more comments I get from fellow teachers, the more insight they will get into what their peers are using to evaluate their students. One of the recurring themes I have been seeing in the feedback from my site is one from teachers who never thought of using the examples I provide to evaluate their students.
It's working smarter, not harder.
Do you use textbooks in your class? Do you write everything from scratch? There are already a myriad of lesson plan sites available, some are excellent, and some much better than what I could come up with.
Teaching is not about reinventing the wheel but using the best resources available out there and incorporating them into your best teaching effort. Whether that is using excellent textbooks, excellent lesson plans or excellent new evaluation writing methods.
The classroom and the interaction with the students is what drives me as a teacher, everything is secondary. Having a resource to create evaluations faster and more efficiently gives me more time to prepare for actual teaching time, which is a benefit to my students.
Maybe you need to get off your high horse, quit your "6.16 posts per day" habit and go prepare for your classes.
Unless you have something concrete to contribute, as I did. |
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Zero Hero
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 944
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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| jay-shi wrote: |
| Maybe you need to get off your high horse, quit your "6.16 posts per day" habit and go prepare for your classes. |
Are you suggesting that perhaps I should prepare for my September classes? I am off till then, as are all university teachers in Hong Kong and many other places around the globe.
MOD EDIT
Also, your employer's endorsing your silly little project in no way legitimises it. After all, many employers endorse taking on inexperienced and unqualified staff MOD EDIT |
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basiltherat
Joined: 04 Oct 2003
Posts: 952
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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A fox sees grapes hanging from a vine high up and out of his reach. After expending a great deal of time and effort trying to find a way to reach the grapes, his is ultimately unsuccessful. He is so bitter over his failure that he then mutters (trying to convince himself) that the grapes were most likely sour, so he never really wanted them anyway.
basil
perhaps a matter of "Damn, I wish I'd thought of that !" |
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Mchristophermsw
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Posts: 228
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:47 am Post subject: |
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Great Tool to the OP!
Ignore ZeroHero, he has the right to his opinion but like armpits, eveyone has one or two LOL! 
But seriously, thankyou, your much kinder than Bill Gates for sharing your software with us for free. And he is a zillionaire by making peoples lives simpler....If there is any logic to the 'ZEROs" perspcetive, then I guess we should still be using a type writer LOL!
Keep up the GREAT WORK! |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:21 am Post subject: Still add the "personal" touch where possible! |
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For a moment, this thread was LOCKED! 
Yes, it certainly is very good for inputting the general phrases and saves a lot of time.
In order to add something "personal" to the student's performance, of course, I would quote an example of something that stood out, and that does, of course, require some input, otherwise, if students have their evaluations printed out for them and they compare them, they will see the same kind of general phrases over and over again.
Rather like old school reports, students love to see what their teacher has written about their friends, not just about them! So, I would say still add the "personal" touch to the general statements where appropriate.
As others have said, it is a good tool and I have saved it on "Favorites" on my computer. |
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