MY Access!

Upon logging into MY Access! the first thing that really struck me was all of the different resources that were available to students. Included in the website was everything from essay writing to math and also multilingual learning. As I looked deeper into the website I was able to examine the different sections more thoroughly. The instructional writing solutions for grades 4-12 helps to improve student scores on high stakes testing. This is important because any advantage that students can get with regard to high stakes testing is a good thing within the classroom. If students can get a better handle on high stakes testing, it leaves more time for teachers to engage students in learning that is not taught in direct relation to the material in high stakes tests. This may encourage teachers to teach outside for the structure that high stakes tests create and can be a very good thing for both students and teachers.

I felt that the automated essay scoring was also a great feature on the website because it allows students to get direct and prompt feedback regarding their writing. I can remember as a student it was slightly discouraging to receive feedback on your writing days and even weeks after it had been handed in. Usually this was no fault of the teachers, as they had many papers to grade. The MY Access! program makes things easy for the teachers while at the same time giving students prompt feedback.

In general, the MY Access! program is something that would be extremely beneficial to be utilized in the classroom. It is a great tool for teachers and is a great thing for teachers to use in their classrooms. I look forward to utilizing the program when I have a classroom of my own.