About Qalami
Hi, I'm Sophia!
I made Qalami, and I'm also the one running it. That means I write the code, fix the bugs, answer the emails and decide what gets built next. If you write to us, it's me reading it (probably with a coffee in hand).
I grew up at a teacher's dining table
My mom started out in early childhood education in the United States, moved to teaching in Kuwait in 2008, and is a vice-principal there today. For as long as I can remember, and honestly still now, our dining room table has been covered in her work: stacks of papers, pens, textbooks, her work laptop, and at least two cups of coffee. My grandfather was a teacher too, so I suppose it runs in the family. I've seen how much of a teacher's day carries on after the school day ends.
I ended up in education myself
For the past few years I've worked as an education content specialist, making learning materials for primary school students from Year 2 to Year 6. Before that I tutored maths and science online for students in grades 6 to 12. I studied game design at Uppsala University in Sweden, so I've always had one foot in programming, and Qalami is the point where those two halves of me finally met.
Why I built it
Giving good feedback on students' writing is one of the most important things a teacher does, and it's also the thing there's never enough time for. Qalami reads students' handwritten work in Arabic or English, so it's there for you whichever language you teach in, and marks it against your own rubric. Then it hands it back to you to check, change or approve. I wanted to build something that gives teachers back some of their evenings, and some of their dining tables.
قلمي
About the name
قلمي (Qalami) means "my pen". It felt right for something that's meant to sit beside a teacher's own.
What you can count on from me
The prices on the pricing page are the real prices, your students' work is handled exactly as the privacy notice says, and if something isn't right, you can write to me at [email protected] and I'll answer it myself.
Happy grading,
Sophia