It’s time to cover square roots in preparation for the Pythagorean Theorem. I’ve written before about some of the struggles I have teaching the concept of a square root. I believe that if a concept cannot be briefly defined to a student, then that is a signal that the student does not have the necessary foundation and is likely to… 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 →
My last post shared students’ writing about their grades. Now, in a lighthearted Christmas break post, here are some student messages in pictures. I sometimes ask students to draw what they look like in math class. The results are sometimes rich and insightful. Obviously, some students enjoy their math class:Students often show that they understand the strengths and weaknesses of… 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 →
This year’s campus book study is Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. In a twist on our usual book studies, this year each teacher on campus has selected one of the book’s classroom strategies and filmed videotaped video recorded it in action. Watching the videos is a great way to… 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 →
This morning several students on campus participated in a panel, answering staff questions about learning styles and classroom environments. We learned a lot. At one point, students were asked about reading and writing in non-Language Arts classes. One of my students described an activity that we do, and he got all the major points. Made me feel good. Here’s the… Read more →
A friend forwarded me an email for an online holiday sale: We’ll be offering a coupon code for 10% off which will be in addition to the up to 20% you can take off your products. That’ll mean up to 28% off 1000s of products. Our promo code will be CMT12. The reason it is up to 28% off and… Read more →
I propose a simple account of how we generate intuitive opinions on complex matters. If a satisfactory answer to a hard question is not found quickly, [the intuitive capacity] will find a related question that is easier and will answer it. I call the operation of answering one question in place of another substitution. -Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow… 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 →
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