Let Them Teach

Yesterday on my way home from school, I listened to a TED podcast from Sal Khan: Let's Teach for Mastery, Not Test Scores . Its a great way to spend 11 minutes, and I don't know about you but I love the cadence of his voice. Very Barack Obama-esque. Politics aside, I love hearing that man speak. I was pumped after listening to this. It validated my recent cannonballs into flexible seating, and rubric based grading, and it lit my fire to the personalized learning schedule my team is currently launching. I will share those resources, and also give some perspective of how we got to this point in our classrooms. Its a step farther out on a continuum, not a switch that is flipped.  I have been feeling more and more disillusioned by our grading system in my district. When a parent looks at an 89% in math on a report card, what does that tell them? What does it communicate? I have asked about whether our district would consider standards based grading for a couple ye...

Two weeks into this #IMMOOC challenge I prescribed myself, and not only am I surviving, I am fully engaged and ideas are pouring out of my ears. I can hardly contain my excitement, but I think my principal will help me with that, as I am sure she is really over my emails. :) I have rarely read a book DURING the school year. I found my spreadsheet soulmate in @alicekeeler. This is going on my must read list of books for sure. Validation. It is a bridge builder. It lowers the affective filter. It primes your heart and brain to take in new information and make the connection to ways you can use that information.  I have had countless conversations with my colleagues at various levels about our grading system. What does an 86 in math mean? I stopped taking points off for no name. That doesn't have anything to do with how well a student understands rounding. I've stopped averaging first and second attempts. The goal is mastery, right? Don't we have the whole year to...

 Innovation. What a word, right? It has this heavy aura that can make some feel immediately inept.  "No, not me. I'm not an innovator. I can barely figure out my email." The funny thing is, this is not a new way of teaching or living. Innovation is a life force. Its been around since the dawn of time. And we all do it.  Innovation is the answer to a dead end, whether organically derived or forced down by a mandate or policy change. Do you still post your attendance on a slip of paper for the office staff or aides to come around and collect each day? Probably not.  Do your classroom worksheet copies still look like this? Doubt it. When you think you cannot be an innovative person, realize you already are. Everyone is innovating, but we are doing it differently. Here's a lesson I learned from one comedic innovator, Molly Shannon. There are two ways to get into a pool. One toe at a time, testing the water as you go, or jumping in. Tho...