Checking in...

Hi all.....just wanted to pop in and give an update on how things are going so far this year.   It's been quite an adventure and the picture above may be a bit misleading.  I'm not exactly overwhelmed with paperwork as it may look like.  Allow me to elaborate...

Making the switch to Standards Based Grading has been a stretching experience for me.  Previous installers of SBG have forewarned that the start-up is quite taxing.  They were not kidding.  SBG has definitely kept me on my toes, challenging my thinking, and helping me to pinpoint exactly what I need to look for from students.   The biggest portion of my time is spent on developing and preparing the assessments themselves as I did not have any to begin the school year.  I am making them along the way.  While I think I did a fair job, I definitely will go back through them all next summer and revise them.  For those who are planning on installing it, definitely make quite a few assessments ready to begin the year with - this is not something you want to install mid-year unless you are quite ambitious and have LOTS of free time.

Nearing the end of the 1st quarter mark, SBG has been keeping me accountable and more importantly, the students.   I have seen students get frustrated at the scores they earn (and I am frustrated myself too since I felt I did a good job helping students learn the content, but not so).  However, students and I have been having conversations about the skills they need to work on.  It's definitely good to see students saying something like "I don't understand the significance of pH for cells" or "I'm not able to count significant digits in multiplication/division operations."  In the past, students would have said "I don't understand."   It's quite the difference to see they can recognize their own weaknesses.   The students and I can clearly see what they can/cannot do and why they earned the score they did.

Some general observations:

• Grading has taken MUCH less time. The assessments are very specific and it is clearly evident if the students can or can not do the skill required of them.  There is no room for subjectivity.  I have been able to grade all of my students assessments the same day they take them and return it to them the next day.  This has allowed me to focus more time on preparing quality lessons (or as I stated earlier, developing assessments themselves).
• Despite the huge start-up investments for SBG, I continue to press on because I can see the value in it.  I have started things in the past and not finished them (academically or nonacademically), so this is saying something.
• Seeing the scores has separated the quality workers from the quantity workers.  I can clearly see who's motivated and who's not.  Which leads me to my next point....

Some students do not like the scores they are receiving.  We review what they do not understand and they want to do better.  So I explain they can make appointments with me after school for extra instruction/support (I have set up a big calendar on my wall for them to make appointments).   At the beginning of the year, I did not have high expectations as the student population at my school generally do not care about grades (just make sure they are good enough to play sports).  However, to date, I have had 4 students make appointments to come after school (and 3 showed up...the 4th forgot and claims she will make another appointment).  For the students that did show up, they all were able to improve their skills.   2 of them took a reassessment a couple days later and improved their scores.  The third tells me he wants to soon.  He even shocked me - he went online and made some flashcards at studystack.com to help him review key vocabulary for this particular skill.

It is so good to see these students want to do better.  To date, these students are the ones with the better overall scores and understanding.  I can only hope and pray that these students doing better will rub off on other students.  It all comes down to that intrinsic motivation of wanting to do well because they want it for themselves, not because they want to do it for me.

One last thing -- I'm learning about SBG at the same time I'm making the adjustment to a 7 period schedule.  Currently, I'm only teaching 5 and all different subject areas (and two entirely new for me) so trying to plan for each of these classes has my head spinning.  I often find myself having to slow down to make sure I've got material and plans for EACH class.  It is really trying balancing all these adjustments I have to make.  Feelings of unpreparedness, inadequacy, "is this working/is this not working?" constantly bombard me.   As I said, my experience this year thus far has been a stretching one.  But I take solace in the fact that I will become a better teacher because of this and the students I teach will be better learners.

I hope to find time to make another post soon about how my students are faring without homework.

Hope you are all well.   Drop me a line and let me know how you're all faring.  Now, back to my "paper pile".....