doceri.comIn Part 2 of our three-part feature on the Doceri teachers at East Bronx Academy, we look at how – in addition to the freedom to move around the classroom – Carrie McCormack is saving time and increasing engagement with her students by using live video grading.
Carrie McCormack – Language Arts
Carrie teaches 11th and 12th grade English, including AP English. She has been teaching for 20 years and is starting her eighth year at East Bronx Academy.
Carrie has experienced two big changes as a result of using Doceri. First, like fellow EBA teacher Erick Odom, she’s free to move around the classroom so she’s able to interact with and help more students one-on-one during class time.
“When a student in the back row asks if I can go over something from earlier in the lesson,” she explained, “I don’t have walk back up to the front of the room to access the projector. I can do it right from my iPad while I’m still engaged with that student. “
Because her students know they have better access to her – and she to them – it keeps everyone on their toes.
“I can snap a quick photo of a student’s work to provide an example for the class,” Carrie says. “Knowing that I can be right by their side at any time with the iPad keeps them more focused.”
Tremendous Time Savings when Grading Essays
In addition to more efficiency and better engagement in the classroom, Carrie has discovered that recording Doceri screencasts to grade her students’ essays not only saves time, but also affords the ability to give better feedback.
High school English Composition requires a lot of writing – especially the advanced placement sections. When Carrie began using Doceri for grading, she found she was able to get through more than 100 essays in less than a week. Before using Doceri, it would take at least two weeks to grade the essays in writing.
“Grading essays by recording my comments with Doceri takes me less than a half the time as it has in the past, when I wrote out all the comments,” Carrie says. “It’s also more personal. I can explain more, and provide the inflection in my comments and corrections to encourage students and explain how to improve their writing.”
Doceri at East Bronx Academy
In October of 2013, EBA teachers Erick Odom (social studies), Carrie McCormack (language arts) and Kevin McCormack (music) discovered Doceri through the New York Schools Gap App Challenge.
East Bronx Academy is a grade 6-12 public school in the poorest Congressional District in the United States. Over the years, various grants and gifts have equipped the school with technology including a wireless Internet infrastructure upgrade last year.
Read Part 1 of this Teacher Feature Series, on social studies teacher Erick Odom
Read Part 3 of this Teacher Feature Series, on music teacher Kevin McCormack
