OnCourse | The Blog

Last week I went to my first education conference, which was hosted by the NJ School Board Association in Atlantic City, NJ.  I didn’t quite know what to expect, but after manning the OnCourse booth for a while I started to notice a trend developing in the visits we were getting:  

“We already use OnCourse, and we love it!”

“Hey, we love you guys!”

My favorite quote came after presenting the OnCourse Lesson Planner + Website to a curious administrator.  She asked me how much the program costs, and when I told her, she went totally quiet.  Then she said, “is that in dollars?”

I nodded, and she almost wrote a check on the spot.    

What I’ve learned is that OnCourse has, by far, the most-user friendly and affordable Lesson Planner product of its kind.  I did a few live demonstrations of the Planner, and I was met by an astonishing amount of ‘oos and ahs’.  Our current customers were very excited to see the first glimpse of our new ‘Power Standards’ feature, which will be released sometime this year and gives administrators the power to ‘flag’ certain standards to help their teachers target lessons to important concepts.  

Generally I work behind-the-scenes, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how well-received this program actually is, and it was great to finally meet some of the wonderful people that I converse with over e-mail.

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To be fair, there was one person who came to me with a problem they were having, which I fixed on the spot using the demonstration computer.  This particular person didn’t know that any teacher can contact our support team directly.   Our technical support team (of which I am a member) is great, so please don’t hesitate to use us!

Thank you to everyone who stopped to say hello, or who took the time to come and watch a demonstration of our software!  The OnCourse Lesson Planner + Website is an easy way to start modernizing, and we are excited to welcome all of the new trial schools that we met at the conference!

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Welcome back to school everyone!  I felt the ‘First Day’ jitters this week;  well, actually I guess you can call them the caffeine shakes.  Everyone here has been working really hard to make sure that new schools and veterans have a smooth start to the school year.  Thanks again to the teachers and admins who have chosen OnCourse this year, and I hope that those of you who have added new OnCourse tools (like the Gradebook or Discipline Tracking) are having fun so far!

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I’ve been busy driving around New Jersey and doing training sessions for some of our new Lesson Planner + Gradebook schools – thanks Washington Township and Margate for being great hosts!

As I drove back into OnCourse HQ today, I drew a blank when I noticed that the flag was at half staff.  When I sat down at my computer,  it suddenly occurred to me what day it was when I saw those familiar digits in the corner of my screen.

When I was a kid, I always thought that days of remembrance were just a time for adults to sit around in awkward silence;  now, I recognize these days as a time to pull back from daily distractions and realign my focus on those things that are most important.  And just as important to me is resolving to do the work necessary to make positive changes.

I’m reminded of the American pride we discovered after 9/11/2001; which makes the current hyper-polarized state of the country seem bizarre in comparison.  Today seems a perfect opportunity to rediscover the grace of intelligent discourse, and to respect our brothers and sisters on the other side of an argument.  In our homes, in this country, and across the world, peace and respect require no conditions.

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Back in OnCourse HQ, I’ve noticed that our new changes have started to trickle in.  The new Calendar system (with support for recurring events, by request) has been launched, and the updates to the Lesson Planner are on the way.  Thanks to everyone who has been sending over fantastic suggestions, and when this first round of updates is finished and solid, we are going to put these all up on a whiteboard and start planning more upgrades.

I hope everyone had a great first week!

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