In most job interviews, I believe the interviewers have the one question. They will ask lots of things, look at resumes and transcripts, but there is one question that he or she really cares about, that makes the difference in his or her final decision. The question may be different for each person on an interview panel, but I believe it’s there. When I… Read more →
Our campus teachers have been following the model of Professional Learning Communities: We focus on Learning, Collaboration, and Results. This year, many of us realized our weakest link was our Power Standards, our curriculum. As the year has rolled on, I continue to see how shoring up our Power Standards has paid dividends I never anticipated. Power Standards: The Solution… Read more →
I asked students to write about their grades, and their responses reflect student thinking about grades, school, and learning. Students have a hard time getting used to my policy on grading and reteaching. When I announced it at the beginning of school, one student was vocally opposed to students who pass a test using up tutoring resources to improve a… Read more →
Here’s the grading system my students expected at the beginning of the year:As Rick DuFour points out, a big part of this process was “immature people making immature decisions.” Think for a second about what a grade means in this system. Think about terms like “grade inflation” and “standards” in the context of this system. I began the school year… Read more →
If we define “formative assessments” as those that impact instruction, I am hard-pressed to decide what is not a formative assessment! This year, my PLC teachers have developed a targeted, proactive system of reteach and retest. Students cannot retest if they have not had a new learning experience, and a student cannot keep a grade lower than an 80. While… Read more →