Dots and Have Nots

Before this learning activity even took place, I made it my goal to try to reach one of my students as best I could from the beginning of the trimester.  For privacy's sake let's call him/her "Voltron". Now, "Voltron" was known for being a tough student to work with and I had never had the opportunity to have "Voltron" in my class, but I was ready for the challenge.  From the get-go I immediately made it a point to say, "Hi", "Hello",  "Hey, howya?" or some sort of greeting (not necessarily one that started with the letter "H" to "Voltron".  I was pleased that with a gesture so small I had already cracked the tough outer shell that "Voltron" had placed around him or herself.  "Voltron" is in a small class, so that provided me with a unique opportunity to get as much one-on-one conversation in as possible.  This also provided positive results.  "Voltron" is not a very strong math student, but I believe that he/she has shown improvement this trimester and I hope that the positive connections we have made has had a contribution to that success.

L.E.A.P.!

Cultivate Love

I believe that I show my students on a daily basis that I do love what I do by imparting as much excitement into my on persona as possible everyday.  Even if we are not doing something that particularly exciting I like to at least do something to get my kids excited for the day.

With that said, I am not perfect at doing this.  There are plenty of days where I am sure that it shows that I am not fully committed to what we are doing that day and that can very easily rub off on to my students and lead to a rough day for everyone.


Generate Energy

With my standards-based grading course it has been very important that I try to generate as much energy as possible.  In that class I am working with students that have struggled with math in the past so their own energy on the topic is pretty low.  I have worked hard this trimester to build up as much good-will with these students as I can by maintaining a positive attitude at all times, even when the going gets tough.

My goal is to keep this up for next trimester with all of my classes, even those that are filled with students that have had a different experience with math.


Inspire Audacity

I hope that I have shown my students in Algebra 2 Concepts that doing things in a different way can be helpful as I ran their course differently than anything else.  The standards-based system was radically different for them than anything else that they've had to work with in their high school career.  I pushed this idea very hard from the beginning that we were doing something different and that it was going to be something that would greatly benefit them in the end.  My hope is that they will take the success that they find in this class and us it as positive motivation for other things they are working on.


Provide Proof

I believe that I prove to my students on a regular basis that I am a fair and capable leader by sharing openly and honestly my experiences.  With my Algebra 2 Concepts students I am very open and honest with them that I am not sure how this standards-based grading program is going to work, but darn it we're going to try and see what happens.  It is a definite OS!M for me not knowing what will happen at the end of the trimester. However, the students have been recording their scores through the trimester and most have seen gains in several learning targets and are seeing the proof that what we are doing is working for them.

Beliefs About Grading: A Reflection

Examine your beliefs about grading.  State your belief, justify why you believe what you believe.  At this point, how well aligned is your grading system with your beliefs, and what are your goals to more closely align them? What specific actions do you need take in order to make this happen?

Well, at this point I don't really know what I believe when it comes to grading.  The reason for that is the ongoing work I am doing with the standards-based grading program that I have implemented in my Algebra 2 Concepts class this fall and the research for the very Masters program for which I am writing this reflection.  Previously, I might have said that grading should provide the students, parents, and anyone else interested with a concise record of a student's level of achievement in a course.  Having an A or B or whatever would be enough to tell everyone that they're a strong, mediocre, or struggling study in a particular field. Now that I have done some research into standards-based grading I like the fact that in that system a student's grade is not a boiled down single letter, but is a record of everything that the student has worked on, had success with, shown improvement on, or still needs to attend to.  I am struggling a bit with how I will turn the results of a standards-based graded class into a final grade (my school is on a traditional A - F grading system, so my standards-based class needs to be "converted" for final grades.)  The sheer amount of work that it took to get this one class into a standards-based grading system has left me with little energy to try this in my other math classes, though that my change if I believe that is is a model that is better for my students.  Any specific actions that I take will have to wait until I have reached a more firm conclusion as to whether I like using a standards-based grading system.  I will have the other half of this two-trimeter Algebra 2 Course in the spring and am planning (for now, at least) to grade that the same way I graded the first half, in a standards-based system.  Once that is done, I'll be able to make some determinations for the future.

Research Journal Entry #1

I have been pretty pleased so far with the results of implementing a standards-based grading system into my Algebra 2 Concepts class.  Here's what I've discovered so far:

Successes:

• The kids seem to have latched onto the idea well in terms of how it works and what it means for them.  They like the idea that they get the opportunity to show proficiency on a task multiple times.
• Making the master list of learning targets at the beginning of the term has given me what I believe to be more focus as I craft my lesson plans.  Ultimately I have a pretty concise list of goals that I want my students to be able to achieve by the end of the term.  Each time I plan a new lesson it is either directly related to that learning target or a task that will (hopefully) lead to success in that learning target.

Struggles:

• As the end of the term approaches (Monday! as of this writing) am an still a bit unsure as to whether the way I have decided to calculate a final grade is right/fair/correct/accurate/etc.  I have combined a few idea from my research to make my final plan, but am still a bit wary as to whether it's the "right" way to go.  Either way, it is the first time that I am teaching this course and any course using this grading system, so I'm not going to be surprised if in the end I look to change my plans.
• Finding a way to let kids know what their current "grade" was at any given time was difficult.  Kids have become accustomed to having their grades posted and available online at any time.  They like being able to look on "the portal" to know their exact grade at that exact moment.  I, on the other hand, have had a hard time finding way to do something that.  Their grade is essentially just a proficiency scale from 0-4 for each learning target.  I have created an Excel spread sheet to record all of their cumulative scores, but have not found a good way to post all of that information.  I got more complaints from kids regarding this that I did parents. Actually, I got no parent complaints throughout the trimester.  

Surprises:

• I had feared that some students would be of the mindset that they wouldn't need to try very hard the first time we quizzed a particular learning target because they would have additional opportunities to try it again.  However, I believe that my students have all put in their best effort on all opportunities to show proficiency on the learning targets.