Introducing Equitable Grading to Families
“What do you mean you don’t grade homework?” Have you heard this question before? What about, “How is my kid going to be prepared for college if they can turn in late work?” Many parents don’t understand standards based grading. Some even petition against it, begging schools, “Do not take away the reward for rigor, […]
Leading with Heart: Starr Sackstein of Mastery Portfolio On The Power of Authentic Women’s Leadership
An Interview With Pirie Jones Grossman This interview was originally published in Authority Magazine and can be found here: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/leading-with-heart-starr-sackstein-of-mastery-portfolio-on-the-power-of-authentic-womens-474db6c97ed9 More authentic relationships — By getting to know my team well, I’m able to show my care and compassion in ways that help my team develop and grow. Additionally, these relationships have bloomed beyond the work […]
“Can I have more practice?
This year, more than ever, my students are saying things like, “I’m not quite ready for the conference yet. I want to watch this video again”, “Are there any more practice problems?”, “Can you check this for me before I do more, to make sure I’m on the right track?”, “Can I explain this to […]
Tracking Progress and Metacognition
This week, we’re sharing one teacher’s journey to find tracking systems that work for her high school math class. When technology and the internet make raw information so readily accessible, we as teachers need to shift our focus from teaching content to teaching student how to learn. One of the important aspects in becoming an […]
Student Self Assessment Practices That Work
Understanding how we learn best is one of the keys to growth as human beings. This essential metacognitive skill is not innate and must be modeled and taught in school starting as early as possible. The way it looks for different age groups will be different, obviously as younger students are not always cognitively ready […]
Cory Steiner paints a “Portrait of a Learner”
Dr. Cory Steiner is currently the Superintendent of the Northern Cass School District for the past 9 years. He has been an administrator for 17 years. In his current role, he has worked with a dedicated and passionate group of educators to shift their entire system to personalized competency-based learning. He has served on the […]
Making Learning Intentional with Tyler Rablin
Tyler Rablin is a high school language arts teacher and instructional coach for Sunnyside School District in Sunnyside, WA. On the side, he is the owner of Tyler Rablin Consulting, partners with the consulting group Shifting Schools, is a contributing writer for Edutopia, and has been a featured speaker at conferences around the Pacific Northwest […]
Charles Williams Helps Us Remember Why We Do the Work We Do
“Ask yourself, ‘Am I just here to spray and pray? Or am I here to ensure that my students become the learners they are meant to be?’” Our conversation with Charles Williams was inspiring. Charles acknowledges how scary it is to operate within a learner-centered space, where teacher don’t know where they might end up. […]
Designing a Survey to Better Connect With Students
As the beginning of the year approaches, you may be thinking about your “Get to Know You” Survey. Here are some tips that I curated with help from the GSA at my school. This was originally posted on Edutopia in 2021. What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite song? We’ve all asked generic questions of this […]
Angela Stockman Documents Learning
Angela Stockman is an Instructional Designer and Adjunct Faculty at Daemen University. She also serves as the Professional Learning Facilitator in Buffalo, NY. This is her 30th year in the field of education, and she has taught in every level, K-16. In this episode Angela reminds us how important it is to make thinking visible, document learning, […]
