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Make suggestions, report errors > Thought on strange worksheets - idea - question
Thought on strange worksheets - idea - question
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Mietz
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Thought on strange worksheets - idea - question
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Hello Victor, hello everybody,
I come across really strange worksheets from time to time, that contain only strange letters in the descriptions and in the preview. Often they don�t get downloads and should disappear (if I�ve got that right) after a month, but I saw one a while ago which was dated January 2008.
Also sometimes there are worksheets, that are only in languages that I don�t know. I don�t mean worksheets, that have the occasional translation (I�ve done that myself, but marked them for others to see). I mean the ones, that are just completely or almost completely not in English.
I wonder, if these worksheets are actually using up server capacity, but I certainly think, that they are wasting time, as they make the time to scroll through all the worksheets or search for worksheets even longer.
My suggestion to you and the question to Victor would be:
Is it maybe possible to put a link / button or something like that on the page where we download the worksheets that we can use to register a worksheet as "not useful"? I think, that each member should only be able to do that once to a worksheet and that there should be at least 10 (or more) members to do that, before it goes, so that it wouldn�t be possible for just one person to just throw out somebody elses work.
Without wanting to make myself a judge here (generally I am really grateful for all the wonderful and useful contributions and inspirations I gain from this great site) I think if this were possible, we could maybe help Victor to keep the site tidy?
What do you think?
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24 Sep 2008
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sylvievidal2002
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Hi Mietz,
Don�t tell me about strange or useless worksheets, I am a new member and I am amazed by the worksheets which are not worksheets to me. I mean a song with one and only one fill in the gaps exercise or a worksheet with one big smiley face where younger ones have to write words after coloring is not a good work to me, and funny enough these worksheets seem to please lots of teachers considering the amount of points the senders get. To my mind the number of points should be given according to the numbers of pages and the grade they are meant to. it takes a lot more to prepare a worksheet on �2001,a space odyssey� than it does on �How are you today�.
Sylvie |
24 Sep 2008
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s.lefevre
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There is a possibility to say why a worksheet should be deleted. It comes after the space for comments.
I agree that there are lots of worksheets that are not useful to many teachers, but lets be fair, if some people like them, why should people who made them not get the points. It�s very subjectif to say that one kind takes more time to make than the other. Some people need " How are you" worksheets and not " 2001 space odyssey". |
24 Sep 2008
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marta73
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HI Sylvievidal and Mietz
Well, I really think that things should remain the same at that respect. We cannot judge so easily the amount of time and effort employed to make a new worksheet. Anyway, despite the effort and the topic, what really matters is usefulness, and that�s completely subjective. What is useful for me may not be useful at all for you but I think that getting points according to the number of people to download a wksheet is fair enough.
However, sometimes, there are wksheets which are not uploaded correctly or whatever. In that case, select the worksheet, scroll down and under the commentaries you have some options you can report about, for example :"this file is empty or corrupted". This way, V�ctor will get the information and delete it as soon as he can. |
24 Sep 2008
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Mietz
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Hello back,
I have never registered the link under the commentary thing.  That is, what I mean.
I never meant to mark worksheets "not useful", that have smileys or whatever. I really mean the ones, that have like four letters in them and nothing else. I do of course know, that usefulness is subjective.
Thanks for making me aware of that link beneath the commentaries. I�ll use that, when I deem it necessary...
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24 Sep 2008
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readingaol
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Sylvie, you are being unfair. We cannot compare a worksheet made for an elementary school child and one made for an adult/teen. It�s different. Simple worksheets are also hard to make, because we have to use our imagination. I work both with children and teens and I upload worsheets for different levels. Colouring is a great activity fot small children. Sometimes I run out of ideias and I come here to look for something new. |
24 Sep 2008
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PurpleFlower
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Hi guys,
It wouldn�t be fair to judge worksheets according to their usefulness or how hard it is to make them (or even think about them!) You do use a lot of imagination to create elementary ws. But I think that the rule about deleting ws with zero downloads after a month is not working because, as Mietz mentions, I too see many ws with 0 that are more than a month old. Those are just wasting space in the server (I think). Let�s all help to improve this site! |
24 Sep 2008
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victor
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Hi,
At the beginning, all new contributions had to be approved by 5 different users. It seemed a fair system but there were lots of wonderful worksheets that were rejected. I could never understand it.
I think that the number of downloads is the best way to determine if a worksheet is useful or not. I know there are lots of useless documents, but they are at the end of the list, because nobody downloads them.
I will delete worksheets with 0 downloads after 1 month, but I still have to develop an automatic system for that. |
24 Sep 2008
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Vickiii
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Hi Sylvie,
I think it is important to remember that every teacher has individual needs. Although, in a lot of ways I agree with you - a pretty picture with no accompanying activities is a lot easier than a comprehension activity and yet I am still trying to create a printable to beat one of my first uploaded which contained a simple game with a fantastic Simpsons Picture. It was the fastest printable I have ever made, with less effort and thought than I have put into any of my other creations.
Ironically it is also the printable that I have personally used the most with my classes (because my students love it and it is extremely useful!) and therefore I can understand why it was more popular than my other feeble attempts at being creative.
In conclusion (can you tell i have been teaching persuasive arguments and comparisons lately?), I think Victor has created the ideal system, where points are appointed based on the popularity of the printable rather than the time and effort you put into them. Just because I spent hours over my latest unit doesn�t mean anyone else will like it! Although I am really hoping my students love it tomorrow! |
24 Sep 2008
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Vickiii
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ps - when do you get time to teach and have a life outside of this website Victor? You must be incredibly hardworking! |
25 Sep 2008
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goodnesses
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Hi Sylvie
I think you�re a little bit hasty.
I agree with you there are ton�s of useless WS consuming a big amout of the servers space but only if your talking about those WS that are completely empty, WS containing a word, a line, and sometimes strange set of letters, or WS completely in another language than English that have no relation with teaching English (I have even seen one or two explaining how to win in the loto and mentioned them of course)
However, and here I join Vickii in his thought, I don�t think a worksheet with a song or a picture can be considered as useless. If it does suite your nedds maybe someelse wuld find a life saving one.
To come back to the WS that are really useless there is already an option at the bottomof the downloading page where you can report this.
But I suppose that many people are so greedy that they hurry to download and don�t even pay attention to the comments about stolen and really useless WS and to the different options already provided by Victor to clean the site from such stuff.
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25 Sep 2008
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