Happy New Year to everyone.
On January 4th many of us from Unit #1 were able to go to Reed-Custer to hear writer/speaker Alfie Kohn. Mr. Kohn has written many books including The Homework Myth, Punished by Rewards and Beyond Discipline. Mr. Kohn certainly challenges most of the widely held beliefs about education in regards to grades, standardized testing, and homework. In reality the classroom of today doesn't look much different than a classroom that my parents attended, or my grandparents attended (the calendar is certainly still the same--August through May). We employ many of the same practices that we as educators learned while we were students. Mr. Kohn challenged us to look at those practices especially in the areas of grades and homework. He cited a lot of research to stop the practice of homework, especially in our youngest students. What would parents think of a school district that the "default" was no homework instead of scheduled homework every night? What would parents think of a school district that stopped giving grades, but truly discussed with them what their children knew and did not know? It's certainly an interesting scenario to contemplate. I certainly welcome your comments on the subject.
For the first time we gave an online assessment to some of our 6th grade social studies classes. It was the same test that has always been given but we gave these students an opportunity to take the assessment on the computer instead of with a pencil and paper. It was fun to see how excited, yes "excited" the students were about taking the test. We hope to expand the online testing to other areas and other grade levels this semester. It will save time for the teacher in running copies of tests and we'll "save trees" by not using so much paper. The feedback is immediate and both the students and teacher can appreciate that.
In my continuous effort to be "part of the solution" and not "part of the problem," my thanks this posting go out to Celeste and Karen. My mom was in the hospital during the holidays and had major surgery. Celeste and Karen made meals for my family during this very stressful time. It's nice when we are reminded that people can be so very generous and caring. I certainly appreciate these two amazing women, and "thanks" seem inadequate.
Thanks for reading
Tammy