Snapshot Notes: Enabling Teachers to Easily Track Preschooler Success

Contributors: Jacky Mooc, CJ Lin, Gavin Parpart, Jade Watkins

Problem and Solution Overview:

Given the current state of increased strain and limitations on teachers and students, we chose to research and address issues facing preschool teachers. Our reasoning for focusing on preschool teachers is that, of all educators, preschool teachers are the most likely to still be interacting with their students in person. The age range for a preschool teacher can be anywhere from 18 months to 6 years, during which most children need physical interaction with their teachers and environment in order to learn effectively. The preschool teachers we studied have older groups, typically around the age of 4, but this reasoning still applies to that entire age group.

Most of the preschool teachers we spoke to emphasized that time constraints greatly impacted their days. Each teacher was affected differently depending on their company and classroom structure, and most teachers are currently teaching fewer students due to the pandemic. Despite smaller classroom sizes, however, the time needed to successfully run a class has not decreased. Increased cleaning requirements, technology limitations, and a sudden loss of direct communication with parents, guardians and administrative staff have increased the burden on teachers and eats into what spare time they might have otherwise had.

Design Research Goals, Stakeholders, and Participants:

We reached out to friends and local communities to find preschool teachers willing to do 1-on-1 guided story interviews. In our interviews we gave participants the freedom to talk about their typical day and any struggles they encounter, encouraging them to be detailed about their daily activities.

Four preschool teachers in the Seattle area were willing to participate in our research. Three of the participants are recent graduates and first-time preschool teachers, while one of them has over 3 years of experience. Classroom sizes were highly variable in our small sample, ranging from 3 students per teacher (with a total of 6 students) to roughly 8 students per teacher (and a total of 23 students). On a typical day, children are dropped off by their parents around 8am and pickup around 5pm.

Design Research Results and Themes:

Note taking was one of the key activities impacted by time limitations. Throughout the day, teachers often have to keep track of things they’ve noticed about each student, including developmental milestone markers, learning achievements, and behavioral or bodily incidents. Teachers have managed this in the past in varying ways; those we spoke to mentioned trying to maintain organized notebooks, utilizing Tadpoles, a childcare attendance software solution with limited note-taking capabilities, or just trying to remember the event so that they can write it down at the end of the day. The lack of consistency and simplicity in keeping these notes was a frustration point for our research subjects since tracking these events is so important to supporting each child’s development. All of the teachers we spoke to found it difficult to maintain student engagement and take notes simultaneously in a preschool environment.

Another significant impact of the pandemic has been communication. Since limiting the spread of Covid requires decreased contact between individuals, some teachers have lost the ability to communicate with parents entirely or have encountered severe limitations to contacting parents or administrative staff. Since communication happens much less frequently now (if at all) the importance of keeping good notes on what happens during a child’s day has increased. Being able to quickly reflect on a child’s growth or behavior over a week, especially if that child needs extra support for any reason, and communicate it virtually with parents and/or staff is a critical part of student success.

Proposed Design:

Our research indicated that time was the most important resource pre-school teachers have and existing methods of gathering notes to be communicated are time consuming. The solution we propose is then a mobile app which allows for notes to be rapidly taken in the moment and then fully completed at a later time. In the flow of our app, teachers first select the photo of the student(s), then select a category for the event on the next page.

Figure 1, left: Initial notes screen with student photos. Figure 2, right: Broad category selection screen

For many events, this is sufficient information for the moment, but additionally photos, text or audio messages can be added to provide additional detail for some categories. Later in the day the teacher can go through all the notes of the day and add any additional detail when needed. The notes can then be shared with administrators and approved parents or guardians, keeping them informed of the child’s development.

Figure 3: Option to add extra information to a note now or simply save the broad category quick note and fill in details later

By streamlining the process of note taking, we hope to make it easier for preschool teachers to track and communicate important events to parents and administrators without having to remember them or take time away from teaching.