Chris Gunner, Tassomai’s Customer Success Manager and a former English teacher talks about how spending a couple of minutes each week on Tassomai can unlock hours over the school year...

”When I was teaching, the one thing I wished I had more of - aside from a moment’s peace - was time.  Whether it was marking sets of books, planning (then later reviewing) lessons or chasing students for missing work, it seemed as though there were never enough hours in the day to get everything done.  This is a scenario most will feel familiar with - there is a good reason why teacher workload is usually in the top three of teachers’ concerns.

Hindered by the hurdles of homework

Undoubtedly, one of the areas that consumed my time the most as an English teacher was the marking, especially homework tasks.  Teachers are forever chasing the holy grail of a homework that is engaging, differentiated to support each student and, above all, has impact.  So, for me to achieve this, I would need to spend time constructing the task, ensuring it had different levels to support and engage all learners and further their learning.  For all of my 8 classes.  Weekly.  And then, once it was done, the task needed marking.

Clearly this would prove unsustainable on top of lesson planning, Parents’ Evenings and so forth, so sometimes homework quality might take a dip.  No teacher wants to provide their students with work that isn’t high quality, but the reality can often be that something has to give.

Turning the tables with Tassomai!

With Tassomai, that doesn’t have to be the case. The system’s adaptive algorithm gets to work as soon as students begin quizzing, identifying each learner’s individual strengths and weaknesses and prioritising the areas they’re less confident in.  That’s the differentiation aspect sorted.  The quizzes are all low-stakes and multiple-choice, with points being earned for correct answers, and bonus points for hitting target scores.  With all of this being done on either a desktop or our mobile app, the engaging aspect is covered too.  And with a dashboard that allows teachers to control the content and see the results of their classes’ Tassomai quizzing, the impact aspect of the perfect homework is achieved every time.  Oh, and the icing on the cake?  The system does all of the marking for you.

Now I realise that Tassomai isn’t able to do it all.  Sometimes, there are going to be 32 essays to mark and give feedback on. But as a differentiated, self-setting and self-marking system, Tassomai ensures that all of the knowledge your students need for those essays is constantly revisited and reassessed.  And with the ability to choose what content the algorithm can show your students, you know that the work they’re doing on the platform is always appropriate and meaningful.

Don’t just take our word for it…

We’re proud to be an evidence-led platform, and we also know that the most powerful advocate of edtech are other teachers - that’s why we’re thrilled that over 80% of those who’ve left us a review on EdTech Impact agree that Tassomai significantly reduces teacher workload.  Indeed, in our most recent* review, one teacher claimed that using Tassomai “feeds back information to help with lesson planning and specific pupil intervention, cutting out hours of trawling through data manually”.

Ultimately, teaching is always going to be an incredibly busy profession, and teachers’ time will always be at a premium.  But by using Tassomai, you’ll have a system that’s setting meaningful, engaging and personalised learning, every single day.  You might even have time to sit and have a cup of tea at break time.  Maybe.”

*information correct at time of writing (August 2024).

Want to learn more about using Tassomai in your school? Click here to read information for teachers and to book a demo.