SBG, why not SBL?

When I am going to do something new or write something I want to be proud of, I spend an exorbitant amount of time researching it. My wife used to make fun of me for the hours I spent researching and outlining my grad papers. In my defense, when I started writing them, it typically only took an hour or two. As I prepare to get myself ready to use standards based grading, I have been reading a lot of great blogs. Like Think Thank Thunk and Action-Reaction. Three things have come up in my mind that I wanted to list:

1. These guys have been doing this since 2010. Why did I sit around for so long? Why am I one of the first teachers at my school to do this?

2. Thank goodness these guys did it before me and are now providing such a great resource.

3. The reason I am changing is because I want to switch from a grading focus to a learning focus. Why is it called Standards Based GRADING instead of Standards Based LEARNING?

Standard-Based Grading...seductive and frightening

After three years of hearing about SBG, reading about it, and researching it, I think I may have possibly made a decision. Boy, I sound pretty sure of myself. The fact is that I have always been uncomfortable about the traditional grading system. I was a victim of it when I went to school. I learned how to play the game, but did not always want to follow the rules. I demonstrated learning in the tests, but failed to produce completed work all the time. In college, I crammed for tests and then promptly forgot the material. This was sufficient until my Junior year of engineering when I was supposed to apply all of the lessons I "learned" the first two years. Man, I really played the game alright.

I have continued to perpetuate the traditional grading system as a teacher. Complete your homework before class so we can have a discussion about it. Take a test to show me you were paying attention and practices the problems we did in class. The homework is not busy work and it will help them understand. In order to get them to do it, it must be worth some points, yada yada yada.

I started hearing about standard based grading (aka objective based or proficiency based) 2-3 years ago and it has been calling my name ever since. It seems like a perfect match with the Modeling Instruction of Physics that I use in my classroom. It finally is a way of assessing students for what are supposed to learn in class instead of just getting points. I am so tired of the following things happening:

- I am so tired of kids asking me for a way to raise their grade with extra credit
- Feeling guilty about the student who has a 79.2% and a 92% average on tests.
- Feeling annoyed at the kid who has an 82% in the class and a 64% average on tests.
- Checking homework for completion because I do not have time to actually grade it all.
- Knowing students just copy their friends papers before class.

As I said, I have had SBG calling my name and stuck in my head for years, but I am scared. I am not scared of the student/Parent/staff reactions. I am already teaching in a fairly non-traditional, constructivist way. So, I have experience dealing with complaints and challenges to my teaching style. I am most frightened about the logistics of it. How do I find the time to determine the standards I want to use, to review and update my materials, to create many many versions of assessments for all the re-tests? How do I keep track of all of the information with 150 students and 40 standards (6000 items)? I know there are that many in a traditional system, but in most cases it is entered once and forgotten. In SBG every one of those 6000 is in flux all semester long.

Time is a precious commodity. I am in charge of a robotics team, a Cub Scout pack, sing in two choir, and have a family with two elementary boys and a full-time working spouse. When the heck am I going to be able to do it all???

It is time to find out. I am jumping in with both feet this year and looking towards working my tail off to figure it out. I hope the larger the risk, the greater the reward is going to come true.

Teacher Endurance

After 10 years I should know what to expect. What amazes me is that I always forget. I am tired. It is unreal how much teaching endurance I have lost over the summer. One complaint you will hear form teachers is that their voice goes south on them. Luckily, I do not talk enough to my students to make that happen. I try to let them do most of the teaching, or they are busy with an activity. I forget how much energy it takes to manage five different sets of 30 students for an hour each while still making it exciting, fun, entertaining, and even academic. I actually fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 pm when my normal bed time is 11:00 pm. I was shocked when I woke up to say the least.

I think I need to do a study next year on the endurance training that teachers put themselves through in the first two weeks. I wonder if I can become a consultant or something. I can develop a training plan much like runner have for a marathon. The goal is to avoid the need to go to sleep 2-3 hours early for those first few weeks. Hmmm, interesting...anyone ready to give me a grant? :)

Survival Mode

Over the past week I have been a part of some wonderful presentations and discussions about the use of technology in the classroom, been asked to consider producing an online course using the Blackboard program, and brought up to speed with how I should help students read in my physics classroom.

Why do I get all this great stuff at the same point that I am in survival mode?  I want to digest, research, and integrate the cool stuff I just heard about, but students return in seven days.  The only thing on my mind right now is the first day followed by the first 2-4 weeks.

I understand that the timing of this is dictated by our contract if we want to be paid for it.  Maybe by next semester or next summer I will have the time to fully integrate criterion-based grading or establish rubrics for reading for understanding or put all of my physics online.  I don't want to sound like a whiner.  In all actuality, I am going to attempt to do these things during the year.  It just makes me sad that I will not be able to dedicate the time necessary to bring it to the level that I want.

Suggestion:  Have an optional (non-paid) session during the summer.  This would allow more teachers the time to think about, research, and build into their curriculum in a purposeful way.  Or even create a 1-2 week summer course that is dedicated to integrating these new ideas into the classroom.  I just remembered why it is a leap of faith to put an idea out there.  I might just leap right into being responsible for it.

social media revolution