Teacher's Toolbox 4.0

Rating:
Summary: Teacher's Toolbox 4.0
Review: Do not waste your money. The program is not user friendly and does not offer anything I can't find on any other program.

Rating:
Summary: If you want MORE...make it yourself!
Review: For me, this was a comprehensive and easy to use program. In my former school system, we had to use paper gradebooks. Fortunately, the school where i was stationed allowed teachers to use software packages like this one to input and print grade reports.

Teacher's Toolbox was used EXPRESSLY for calculating grades. It proved efficient and easily accessible throughout our school building. I would recommend this program to anyone who is techno-illiterate or just needing something to use instead of paper, pencil and calculator. If you need lesson plan writing and test-making software, use what is already available on the market. Don't expect Teacher's toolbox to do everything you might want.

So, if you need grade calculations, and nothing extravagant for gradebook and progress report production, Teacher's Toolbox is your tool to use.

Rating:
Summary: New Teacher
Review: I have been a teacher for only 1 year and I really needed something that would help me to organize my students grades, make class lists and design my classroom. It was very helpful in my first year of teaching. The only thing that it didn't have was ideas for actually teaching different skills. But well worth it for the other programs.

Rating:
Summary: Problems with Teacher's Toolbox 4.0
Review: I have had Teacher's Toolbox 4.0 for a month now and it has greatly increased my organization and my efficiency in calculating (and apportioning) grades. However, I have several complaints: 1. On the "Lesson Planner" page, only three preps allowed. For many teachers, this just isn't realistic. Toolbox cannot be configured to accommodate more preps. 2. If the user decides to divide the marking period into sub-folders (quizzes, tests, homework), then it becomes impossible to view the assignments chronologically. The user can view all the grades by selecting the "Whole Semester" view, but then they must be sorted according to which sub-folder in which they are stored. 3. The print setup page is defaulted to print "portrait". The user can change this to print "landscape" (which must be done if there are more than ten or so assignments in a marking period), but this choice cannot be saved. Every time the user wishes to print a page, he or she must reconfigure the print setup. 4. In programs such as Word or Excel, several documents can be opened at once. The user can toggle between these documents by using "Window" at the top of the screen. In Toolbox, however, can only handle one. Before the user can open the grades for another class, the user must either save a class and then close it, or open multiple versions of Toolbox. If multiple documents could be opened with one program, then a comparison between classes could be done. 5. Once the user has opened a class, Toolbox is configured to open to the "whole year" view instead of the current marking period. Toolbox cannot be configured to open directly to the current grading period. To view the current marking period, the teacher must click on "Reveal tree", which shows a left-hand window similar to Windows Explorer, then select the branch of the tree he or she wishes to see, then toggle "reveal tree" off in order to use the whole screen. A "Next folder up" icon would be quite helpful, or a navigating through a window such as with the "open" or "save" dialogue boxes in Microsoft Word. 6. On the "Grades" page, there are thirteen options that can be selected to define each assignment. These options, displayed in a box at the top of each column, cannot be customized - all thirteen options must show, which takes up about half the vertical space on the computer screen. It would be nice to be able to display only what is needed and leave more space for the grades themselves, thus avoiding scrolling up and down to see the students' grades. 7. Toolbox is very gray. Color-coding would be nice on many of the functions. On the "Events" page, for example, lines designating the folders look identical to line designating individual assignments. On the "Grades" page, when a grade becomes "locked", the description box at the top could be color-coded. On the "Grades" page again, there could be an option to give different each student's line a separate tint, avoiding the possibility of entering grades onto the wrong line. (Another way to solve this problem would be to highlight the student's name as the user scrolls up and down a grade column. This is a standard in Excel). Given the above, I highly recommend teachers to find some software with which to do their grades (if you don't, you're living in the 1980's). You may however, wish to examine the competition.

Rating:
Summary: Problems with Teacher's Toolbox 4.0
Review: I have had Teacher's Toolbox 4.0 for a month now and it has greatly increased my organization and my efficiency in calculating (and apportioning) grades. However, I have several complaints: 1. On the "Lesson Planner" page, only three preps allowed. For many teachers, this just isn't realistic. Toolbox cannot be configured to accommodate more preps. 2. If the user decides to divide the marking period into sub-folders (quizzes, tests, homework), then it becomes impossible to view the assignments chronologically. The user can view all the grades by selecting the "Whole Semester" view, but then they must be sorted according to which sub-folder in which they are stored. 3. The print setup page is defaulted to print "portrait". The user can change this to print "landscape" (which must be done if there are more than ten or so assignments in a marking period), but this choice cannot be saved. Every time the user wishes to print a page, he or she must reconfigure the print setup. 4. In programs such as Word or Excel, several documents can be opened at once. The user can toggle between these documents by using "Window" at the top of the screen. In Toolbox, however, can only handle one. Before the user can open the grades for another class, the user must either save a class and then close it, or open multiple versions of Toolbox. If multiple documents could be opened with one program, then a comparison between classes could be done. 5. Once the user has opened a class, Toolbox is configured to open to the "whole year" view instead of the current marking period. Toolbox cannot be configured to open directly to the current grading period. To view the current marking period, the teacher must click on "Reveal tree", which shows a left-hand window similar to Windows Explorer, then select the branch of the tree he or she wishes to see, then toggle "reveal tree" off in order to use the whole screen. A "Next folder up" icon would be quite helpful, or a navigating through a window such as with the "open" or "save" dialogue boxes in Microsoft Word. 6. On the "Grades" page, there are thirteen options that can be selected to define each assignment. These options, displayed in a box at the top of each column, cannot be customized - all thirteen options must show, which takes up about half the vertical space on the computer screen. It would be nice to be able to display only what is needed and leave more space for the grades themselves, thus avoiding scrolling up and down to see the students' grades. 7. Toolbox is very gray. Color-coding would be nice on many of the functions. On the "Events" page, for example, lines designating the folders look identical to line designating individual assignments. On the "Grades" page, when a grade becomes "locked", the description box at the top could be color-coded. On the "Grades" page again, there could be an option to give different each student's line a separate tint, avoiding the possibility of entering grades onto the wrong line. (Another way to solve this problem would be to highlight the student's name as the user scrolls up and down a grade column. This is a standard in Excel). Given the above, I highly recommend teachers to find some software with which to do their grades (if you don't, you're living in the 1980's). You may however, wish to examine the competition.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding product
Review: I have taught over 10 years and used this product in its different forms for 8 years. An outstanding way to keep track of grades...allows you to put different values on tests, quizzes and daily grades. Would like it to be a little more user friendly for setup of new school years

Rating:
Summary: AbleSoft Teacher's Toolbox review... for what it's worth
Review: I installed the AbleSoft Teacher's Toolbox and while familiarizing myself with the menus and instructions, a colleague stopped me to recommend a different program he'd "test driven" already and liked.

Fine, I had no stake in the AbleSoft "Teacher's Toolbox" program yet, so I decided to remove the program from my computer before getting too deeply into it and to have a look at my cohort's suggested program first.

Well, damn! These AbleSoft people are clever devils... or maybe they're sinister bastards, who knows? Hard to guess about these things these days.

Turns out that there's no UNINSTALL file in their program. You're stuck with removing the damn thing bit by bit, byte by byte, file by file... and still there are hidden and residual traces of the program that won't go away. That's pretty irritating.

In short, I don't like people who write and market incomplete, inefficient, ineffective or "system capture" programs. These are either "bad boys" or fools. So even if this AbleSoft program has some useful functions, I wouldn't reward these scoundrels by buying their products. That's my opinion. You're free to form your own, of course. Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: AbleSoft Teacher's Toolbox review... for what it's worth
Review: I installed the AbleSoft Teacher's Toolbox and while familiarizing myself with the menus and instructions, a colleague stopped me to recommend a different program he'd "test driven" already and liked.

Fine, I had no stake in the AbleSoft "Teacher's Toolbox" program yet, so I decided to remove the program from my computer before getting too deeply into it and to have a look at my cohort's suggested program first.

Well, damn! These AbleSoft people are clever devils... or maybe they're sinister bastards, who knows? Hard to guess about these things these days.

Turns out that there's no UNINSTALL file in their program. You're stuck with removing the damn thing bit by bit, byte by byte, file by file... and still there are hidden and residual traces of the program that won't go away. That's pretty irritating.

In short, I don't like people who write and market incomplete, inefficient, ineffective or "system capture" programs. These are either "bad boys" or fools. So even if this AbleSoft program has some useful functions, I wouldn't reward these scoundrels by buying their products. That's my opinion. You're free to form your own, of course. Good luck.