Group items tagged

Guideline 1:! Relate grades to the achievement of the district's course/grade level standards. Guideline 2:! Use agreed-on performance standards as the reference points when determining grades. Guideline 3:! Separate achievement from all other dispositions and behaviors. Guideline 4:! Sample student performance. ! Don't score everything & don't include all scores in grades. Guideline 5:! Grade in pencil and maintain records so they can be easily updated. Guideline 6:! To determine grades at the end of the grading period, use professional judgment when considering the body of evidence. Grading must involve more than just crunching numbers. Guideline 7:! Use quality assessments and properly record evidence of achievement. Guideline 8:! Involve students in the assessment and grading processes throughout the learning cycle. No zeros for missing or incomplete work At Middle school: "Student work in the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion will be recorded as Missing (M) in the grade book if a student does not turn in an assignment. Middle school students will have until the end of the quarter to complete these practice activities or the Missing (M) will remain. The Missing (M) will factor into the overall average as a zero. However, leaving the Missing (M) in the grade book will communicate that the work has not been turned in. And, because the Lesson Practice & Progress Checks portion of the grade book is weighted just 20% of the overall grade, the Missing (M) for the practice work will not have significant impact on the student's grade." At High School: "A score of zero will not be entered in the grade book. Instead, M or I will be entered to indicate that work is not yet complete. In grades 9-12, students will have five days beyond the assignment due date to complete Lesson Practice and Progress Checks, unless there are extenuating circumstances. An M (Missing) will be entered in the grade book until the work is turned in or until the end of the nine-w

"Zeros are seldom an accurate description of a student's achievement and skew average grades dramatically. Instead of prompting greater effort, zeros and the low grades they yield more often cause students to withdraw from learning. One alternative to zeros is to assign an "I" or "Incomplete" grade with explicit requirements for completing the work." .... "If the grade is to represent how well students have learned, mastered established learning standars, or achieved specified learning goals, then the practice of assigning zeros clearly misses the mark." **"Teachers must consider what message they want to communicate through grading, who the primary audience for the message is, and what the intended goal of the communication is." ...

Fab read. I've only highlighted a few paragraphs... then it goes into concrete ways to improve tech integration using the example of the iPad. ---- "n: Just bringing new technology in your classroom and working it into day-to-day routines isn't enough. The iPads arrived two days before my students, and I quickly made plans to integrate them into our curriculum. Despite my high hopes, the next two months were less than successful. A casual observer would have witnessed a sea of students glued to glistening tablets, but the effects were superficial. The iPads were not helping my students make substantial progress toward self-efficacy, academic achievement, or social-emotional growth. Around the end of September, I took a step back-it was time to evaluate and reflect on what was happening. I asked myself: "What have we been doing so far with this technology?" Students used math apps instead of math card games. They'd made slideshow presentations for isolated units. They'd done some research on the Internet. In short, things were going ... OK. Nothing to write home about. Not what I would consider "worthy" of a $20,000 grant. Clearly it was time for a change. The problem, I began to realize, was my own understanding of how the iPads should be utilized in the classroom. I had seen them as a supplement to my pre-existing curriculum, trying to fit them into the structure of what I'd always done. This was the wrong approach: To truly change how my classroom worked, I needed a technology-based redefinition of my practice."

Fab read. I've only highlighted a few paragraphs... then it goes into concrete ways to improve tech integration using the example of the iPad.

Arizona's New Statewide Achievement Test

Being a visual learner, this was perfect. I was imagining my year's experience as I listened to your presentation. Yep, so many of us were all locked up at the beginning of the year and have since allowed ourselves to be unlocked to what technology has to offer. I know I'm somewhat unlocked. My lock is still rusty and the inside mechanisms don't move smoothly, but then there's next year for that! Thank you.

Loved the video. It does a great job of showing the journey and how the excitement spreads when collaboration is involved. I'm wondering how we can "free" those still locked in the dungeon.

Superb summary of your/our experiences for this year.

Discovery Education provides engaging digital resources to schools and homes with the goal of making educators more effective, increasing student achievement, and connecting classrooms and families to a world of learning. Tons of Web 2.0 tools to utilize in your classrooms.

CIESE sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We focus on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Below is a catalog of projects that are currently being or have been sponsored by CIESE . The mission of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) is to help teachers use the Internet, math software, CD-ROMs, computer-based laboratory systems (CBLS), and other tools to create dynamic, inquiry-oriented classrooms that promote achievement of content standards in science and math. To this end, they offer a number of interdisciplinary projects grouped into four categories: collaborative projects, partner projects, real-time data projects, and projects using primary sources and archived collections.

"Google Forms are amazing tools, allowing you to do some really advanced tricks with forms as the front-end and spreadsheets at the heart. Once you get started you'll be amazed at just how much you can achieve with this basic premise. Today we'll look at how to create a self-grading quiz using Google Forms. From there, you'll no doubt find a lot more ways to use forms and spreadsheets"

One group's presentation describing the journey from technology supporters to teachers who use technology to improve student achievement.

Ahhh..but the band is the perfect example of differentiation: different instruments and each group of instruments is tiered by ability (1st clarinet, 2nd clarinet and 3rd clarinet, for instance).

Nice job Jason and team!!

Technology is in the forefront of everything we do as collaborators in the classroom. Teachers incorporating the use of technology while lesson planning increases engagement and rigor. Lessons are enhanced and students are focused. Many of the projects we were involved in incorporated technology and we collaborated with others at the school site and across the district. Valuable relationships were formed among the students and the teachers. Teachers not involved with the collaboration process also benefited from this through observing what was taking place in our classrooms. These teachers then requested to be involved in the program. Relationships were built, the use of technology was increased, and a 21st Century classroom was created.

Those students are going to be coming up to the junior and senior high so prepared. Thank you! Knowing that they are coming up to the higher grades with the ability to work with technology and work with each other at the same time is reassuring. Excellent work, guys!

I love how your video focuses on how becoming a 21st C classroom is a process that we (teachers & students) are somewhere along the spectrum.