I never would have thought I would be tracking data digitally, I am really not that savvy when it comes to tech, however, when someone pointed out how easy it was, I had to try it.

You guys, its sooo much easier than my typical paper and pencil tracking system.  I had data sheets EVERYWHERE!!  Then to be able to have to sift through it all to track growth was a task that I often put off until progress reporting and I am not sure how accurate that even was.  I had a lot of kids with a lot of data to track.  Taking all that data and doing nothing with it was pointless, so I needed to find a better system, a NEW way that I could analyze it and use that data to drive my instruction.

Heading into the new school year, I wanted to streamline this process for myself and everyone else who needed to record data on my kids.  In walked Google forms.

I know, I know, different can be scary.  But you guys, it is so easy! Think about how impressive you'll look to your administrators or parents!   I promise after you read through this, I will have convinced you to come to the dark side!

So first thing is first, grab an IEP and sit down and start with me.   I like to keep all the goals on one form, but some people like to add different forms for different goals.

Follow these steps to creating a brand new google form:

Open a brand new google form and title it with your student name, you can also add the school year to the title.    Make sure to click the untitled spot in the upper left so that the name of the title is copied up there.

Step two: PASSWORD PROTECTION

To password protect this form, type “PASSWORD” in the untitled question field.   Then click the 3 dots.

Click both the description and response validation.   In the description write “enter the password to continue” .  In the validation boxes, select from the drop-down menu “regular expression”.  Then select “matches” and enter your password of your choosing in the pattern field.  In the section “custom error text”  just type “incorrect password, this will pop up if someone types in the wrong password.

Then add a page break, this is the most important step.  Click on the 2 bars which will create a new section of the form.  This will allow anyone taking data to have to use the password first and then go to the google form.  If you choose not to use the password, move onto the next step.
ALSO, make sure that you toggle the “Required” button so that the password is required at all times.

Step three: Setting up the first goal
Go ahead and rewrite the title in the new section. (This happens when you use the page break) Write the goal (using plain English or straight from the IEP) but make sure that everyone who is taking data will know what is expected of them and materials that they need to use to track this data.  You can add a description to the new section as well.  I like to write what goals will be found on this form.

Then, click the plus button on the right hand side, which will give you a new “question”.  This is where you will type in your first IEP goal.  Depending on what your goal is asking you to do, is what type of response you will choose.   You can play around with the different types of responses that you could use that would better suit your IEP goals.

If you have one goal for one form, make sure you toggle the “required” button so that the person taking the data actually takes the data.  However, if you are going to put multiple goals on one data form, do not toggle this button, as the student might not be assessed on all the goals at the same time.

Add in as many goals as you would like using the plus button.

Step 4: adding in a notes section
I don't usually put this in my own google forms, but you can also add a notes section at the bottom of the form so that people can input anything that was out of the ordinary, such as, child was distracted, or maybe they fell asleep.  You may want that noted on the form.   I don't like to get so specific, because time is so limited, but it could be something that you add.  Also, make sure that on this field that you make it so that it is not required, because there may not be notes that need to be taken every time that you take data.