Google Classroom grade book

Today's post is a screenshot from one of my Google Classroom's grade books (student names removed). This year I have really focused on using this function to help students track their progress in my courses more effectively. There are a number of ways I have done this:

• Using the grade book effectively makes it easier to see if a student is not turning in work on a consistent basis. Eg. at a glance you can see that student 5 has some major concerns below. 
  
  
• Any tasks that I use to make my overall judgment for their grade at the end of the term are signposted. This way students know which tasks to invest extra effort in, rather than just getting them done.  (I have found that it is important to teach students when to focus on 'good enough' and when to focus on 'perfect'). 
  
  
• By using a consistent grade allocation for tasks related to their report, I can use the overall grade function to track the 'level' they are working at more consistently and with less bias. 
  
  
• During class time students are regularly asked to look at their overall grade, and then take action to improve them. This looks like students finishing incomplete tasks, catching up with work from when they were absent, and most frequently, going back to past work and improving the quality of work that they produced. 

The major benefits of using this system this year have meant that reports have been SUPER FAST to complete. Students are much clearer about where their report grades come from and have devoted significantly more energy to 'improve'. 

 

 ("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)."

NITS action plan

Today's photo is a screenshot from one of the documents we used in our kāhui ako this year. We encouraged all our schools to use the NITS framework that we created to help guide their inquiry practice this year.

NITS 

N - What NEED are you addressing?

I - What IMPACT are you intending to have?

T - What actions will you take in which TIMEFRAME?

S - SO WHAT? What did you learn through your action? 

Getting everyone to use the same framework means that we could more easily help the twelve schools we work with communicate with each other about where they were at in their inquiries, and as a result support each other more effectively. Each school completed an action plan like the one below. All action plans were combined into one presentation so that each school could then follow up, learn from or even collaborate with schools working on similar goals. 

PS: You can learn more about the rubric referred to in the document here. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Whakatauki cards

I am always looking for ways to bring more te reo Māori into my classes. However, doing this in a really meaningful way when my own understanding of the reo is limited can be a challenge. One resource that I created this year to help are the cards pictured in these photos. I collected a range of whakatauki from this book with their translations and a brief explanation of their meaning. I then created a number of activities to use with students. This worked even better than I expected as students really enjoyed the discussions of how these important generational lessons applied to them. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Growth mindset ludo

 

A resource I have been working on this year is 'growth mindset ludo'. As students move around the board, they land on various reflection questions about fixed and growth mindsets to help them identify the patterns in their own thinking. After all, it is reflection that helps us learn from our mistakes and improve. I'll make sure to share more about this game when it is done. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Guerrilla warfare

Wikipedia describes Guerilla warfare as "a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants ... fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military". Due to their size, they tend to avoid head-on confrontations, focusing instead on very targeted attacks including sabotage, ambushes, and hit-and-run tactics. 

I often wonder about guerilla warfare as a metaphor in education... 

When education attempts to make large-scale shifts, such as by introducing more Mātauranga Māori in the curriculum, there are those people who hide in the shadows and staunchly defend their existing territory. You might even be able to think of examples where someone deliberately sabotaged a project, or planned an ambush to derail an initiative.

Of course, we can use Guerrilla techniques for the positive too. Just think of the Guerilla Girls and how they have done this in the art world. The photo I have selected to share today reminds me of the guerilla girls a little. It is a simple action I have taken that did not require permission, lots of infrastructure or resources, and was a one-person action that impacted a larger group. What did I do? I just made a small sticker for each staff members' computer so that it is easier for staff to identify various priority learner groups when they take the roll. It is a simple action, but it really helps people know who the students in front of them are. What other small things can we do as leaders that to reduce the cognitive load for our colleagues to make it easier for them to do their jobs effectively? 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Learner agency rubric

Our community of learning has been focussing on increasing learner agency across our schools. We have developed rubrics to help us track our progress in doing so. The photo above shows a staff activity where teachers were asked to think of examples of existing practices in our school that promote learner agency. We then collected some data about where teachers felt we were on this rubric to help us set professional learning school goals for next year. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Bones

 

The misinformation around COVID and vaccination has particularly highlighted for me the importance of ensuring that science needs to be more inclusive. This year I've been trying to assess science in more ways than just writing. One of the ways that I believe science excludes students is that it relies too heavily on writing to communicate an understanding of scientific ideas. Hence, this year I designed and taught a unit called Bones. We focused on creating models and representations of bones. This illustration was produced by a year 10 student. Pretty amazing right? 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Elwyn Richardson

 

The pottery work in this photo is some of the artworks produced by the students of Elwyn Richardson. If you don't know, Elwyn was an influential educator both in New Zealand and internationally for the impact his educational philosophy had. I was lucky enough to get to see some of these artifacts in person earlier this year when I visited the University of Auckland's Epsom Campus. I include this photo here because it is a good reminder that sometimes we have to break the rules to succeed. It is when we break the rules that we are able to break free from racist institutions. It is when we break the rules that we see innovation occurring. However, knowing when to break the rules and when not to requires wisdom. So just how does one acquire wisdom?

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Power

 

Today's photo is from my PLD journal. As you can see I do like a bit of bullet journaling. The notes on this page are from a PLD session lead by Perry Rush. I was reminded again about why I think the idea of a student-centered focus in education is problematic as it still results in an imbalance of power structures. I am more interested in how I might become a genuine partner and collaborator in the learning journey of a student. My reasons for shifting to this position are long and complex. But in a nutshell, our society is full of stories that show what happens when there is an imbalance of power. I talk more about how I came to reframe how I thought about power sharing in the classroom in this post. In particular, I talk about how I am increasingly convinced that a lack of power contributes significantly to the disparities we see in the academic achievement of Māori and Pasifika students. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Every kid needs a champion

Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) uses an advisory model for pastoral care (informed by the work of  Dennis Littky and Eliot Levine). We call these pastoral groups hubs. The young people in this photo are my responsibility for their time here at HPSS. I work to help them succeed in whatever goals they set. I work hard to help them feel like they have a place here at school where they feel they belong, and where there is an adult who will always have their back while having high expectations of them. Or in the words of Rita Pierson; "every kid needs a champion". And that is exactly what I work hard to be for these students. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)."