These are satisfying times to assess the way I do. We’ve got Dead Week starting Tuesday, finals the week after that, and then grades are locked. Students are panicked, but the way I assess, they can focus that panic.
“How do I get my grade up?” they ask.
Most of the time they bring their Concept Checklist [pdf | cwk] along. If it’s filled completely, I know they’ve bought into the system.
“Teachers donโt need to be evaluated on what they can do, given unlimited prep time and warned well in advance, they need to be evaluated on what they actually do, every day.”
You won’t find many teachers earnestly blogging hosannahs about the evaluation process but Mr. AB doles out a great solution — amenable to both sides of the administrative divide — along with the requisite criticism. [via Jacobs]
Bad Habits. Apparently a winter break’s worth of late bedtimes and late waking isn’t that easy to shake. I set five alarms over the last two days and didn’t wake to any of them. I’ve never been late to a class, not even in the last two days, but 30 minutes to grab breakfast, make worksheets, and set up shop is far too rushed for my liking. I don’t know how some of y’all veterans manage it.
Veering Off Content. My algebra class and I played review basketball yesterday in order to shake off the I-Totally-Forgot-This. The rules are pretty much what you’d expect: answer a math question correctly, shoot a plastic ball into a trash can for points, maybe prizes. Just a little circus with their bread.
In the spirit and namesake of an awesome Fortune Magazine feature story, I’m starting a series of posts that’ll run indefinitely. These are the tools that make my teaching easier, more effective, and more fun.
“Test data is the educator’s report card, and we need to be held accountable to it, if only as a small attempt to rectify the imbalance between how poor teaching affects life outcomes of the teacher, versus how it affects life outcomes of the student.”
Dude is so on the money.