Your phone buzzes with a reminder saying, “Calculus test review tomorrow from 4-6 pm.” Then, later that day, your mom yells at you that you have eight missing assignments and a brand new one due tomorrow. If they aren’t all turned by the end of the week, you’re grounded. There’s only one problem with that, you don’t have any idea what specific assignments you’re missing.
Calculus AB teacher Thomas Kennedy is going to attempt to solve this situation by creating a new app that makes it easier for students who want to get more productive with their grades.
“I want to let students know right away whether or not they have recorded homework,” Kennedy said. “It would just be nice to have some sort of tool for people to see exactly what they are missing, and they could click on the missing assignment to show it and the solutions for it.”
The app will allow for quicker grading by transferring homework into an excel document, and then uploading it directly to Skyward. If parents also decided to download the app, they will be able to see updates once they are made, and can monitor their student’s progress.
“I want to be better at parent-teacher communication because I am a three out of ten in that category,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has never made an app before, but has been involved in previous programming projects. He plans to begin teaching himself over the summer how to code an app through trial and error and various online tutorials. The end goal is to make the app available next year.
“I’m going to make it specifically for my class, and work out all the problems with it,” Kennedy said. “I’m going to have around 180 beta testers next year. However, I would share it if other teachers wanted it.”