Have you heard of WEO?

I'm always looking for ways to encourage my students to keep working on their skills between our lessons. I don't believe in the old memorization routines, however, I am a firm believer in practice makes improvement! Trying to find a way to keep connected with my students outside of class, and yet accountable was a challenge! A few months ago I stumbled onto a fairly new site (through my Facebook feed) called WEO.

It looks and feels a little bit like Pinterest, in fact the company boasts that it is a Pinterest for teachers. I kind of laughed at that because we already all use Pinterest don't we? After a little digging I figured out what they meant. It isn't an idea/product pinning system, it's a lesson/assessment pinning system. Pretty cool right?

When I create a lesson for my students, the system automatically tracks their progress, tells me when they've worked on it, and even auto grades their responses if I set up the answers for it. It's saving me a ton of paper! Instead of giving worksheets or handouts for my students to practice over breaks and weekends, I now tell them to log onto WEO and see what's new!

It's free and easy to set up an account, I just signed up using my Google id. It's also super easy for students to sign up and join a class. I have 2 running right now, a GED prep and an Algebra basics. As a teacher I am given a code for each class that I can give to my students, and then they enter the code to join the class (a bit like Edmodo works).

I recently had the opportunity to ask Josh, one of the administrators of the site, a few questions I thought other teachers/tutors might have about using the site.

1. Can students access the assignments on any internet device? If not, what are the specific restrictions?

Students can use Weo on any device with an updated browser, although it works best with chrome and we wouldn't recommend using it on a phone. 

2. Is WEO a viable source for online tutoring partnerships? Meaning, can I assign lessons to an online student I work with in a different country?

Weo is definitely a viable tool for tutoring remotely. In fact, we have companies that use Weo for remote training. As long as your students have an internet connected computer and an updated browser they are good to go.

3. If I find a great assignment from another teacher and want to assign it to my class, will it still auto grade or will I have to edit it? Can I edit it?

All assignments in our system will auto grade regardless of whether it's yours or someone else's. If you want to make changes to someone else's assignment, you can pin it to one of your boards and then edit it. The edit option can be found in the top right corner once you've opened up the pinned activity.

4. Can I use the site as both a teacher and student? I am a math teacher, but might one day take French lessons, can I join a class as a student with my teacher account?

We will definitely be adding the ability to be both a teacher and a student sometime soon. However, right now you'd have to create a separate student account  to join someone's class.

Thank you for that brief interview Josh! 

Here's a link to my profile if you want to check it out. 

Oh, one more thing I want to share with you about this new platform, they are paying teachers for creating lessons right now. I was a bit leary of this at first, since I already have a store on Teachers Pay Teachers. But it's nice to get a little paypal bonus for something that is benefitting my students anyway! Here's the page that describes the curriculum development program. They explain how to get started, how to qualify for payments, and the pay scale for lessons. 

After you check it out, come back here and let me know what you think!