A Conversation on Modern Measures of Learning: Recent Episodes
Keith Westman
A podcast dedicated to the ongoing paradigm shift in instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Listen in as we sit down with educators to understand their process, lessons learned, and how to use failure as the seed to growth and success.
I had the pleasure of talking with Matt Townsley and Nathan Wear about their new book, Making Grades Matter. During this episode, they provide an overview and discuss how the strategies and lessons they've learned can help secondary educators in a PLC get started implementing standards-based grading.
Making Grades Matter: Standards-Based Grading in a Secondary PLC at Work®
By: Matt Townsley, Nathan L. Wear
Rely on this practical guide to help your PLC implement a standards-based grading system at the secondary education level. Further your professional growth as an educator and discover motivational strategies for students to help them increase achievement.
Find your copy here: https://www.solutiontree.com/products/making-grades-matter.html
Connect with Matt and Nathan:
Matt Townsley @mctownsley
Matt's Blog
Nathan Wear @Nathan_Wear
Nathan's Website
The Twitter account about their book - Making Grades Matter: SBG in a Secondary PLC @GradesMatterSBG
Are the teacher-student relationships in your classroom and your school yielding two years growth in one year of time?
Educator and author, Greg Wolcott and I sit down to discuss his new book, Significant 72, and why creating a psychologically safe yet intellectually stimulating classroom environment is the only way students can be successful in school and life. It starts with relationship building.
Bio
Greg is an author, presenter, consultant, adjunct and he currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in a suburb of Chicago. As an educator in the Chicagoland area for over 20 years, Greg is passionate about developing opportunities for all students to succeed as well as finding ways for all teachers and staff members to utilize their strengths to maximize the learning of each and every child whom they interact with on a daily basis.
What is Significant 72?
The Book
The article we discussed: Only a fraction of students consistently get grade-appropriate assignments
You MUST follow Greg on Twitter! @GregJWolcott
Whether your new to standards-based learning or looking to refine your game, Merri Beth and Josh cover everything in this episode from educator mindset to community buy-in, retakes, and homework.
Idea, people, and resources mentioned in this episode:
- Lee Ann Jung - @leeannjung
- Lisa Westman - @lisa_westman
- https://otus.com/ - Otus is designed for K-12 school systems who are transitioning from traditional grading to standards-based grading. We are unique in that we ensure that parents and families also have the tools necessary to understand this shift in grading.
Join our Facebook group! The purpose of this group is to connect educators who share a focus on the ongoing paradigm shift in instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Join us to collaborate with prominent educators and walk away with strategies to support your teaching and learning initiatives. bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity
Follow us on Twitter! We share resources and spark conversations about healthy instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Ask your questions using the hashtag #ModernMeasures or follow @Modern_Measures.
Jon Bartelt is the Superintendent at Bloomingdale School District 13, serving over 1,300 K-8 students and their families in northeast DuPage County in Illinois.
On this episode we discuss the implementation of Bloomingdale's standards-based learning initiative (SBL). Topics include homework vs. practice, getting staff and community buy-in for SBL, and strategies for shifting assessment and grading practices.
Connect with Jon on Twitter: @jonbartelt
Rushton is the founder and executive director of Next Vista for Learning, which houses a free library of videos by and for teachers and students at NextVista.org. His graduate research at Stanford University included using speech recognition technology with beginning students of Japanese in computer-based role-playing scenarios for developing language skills. In the 1990s his work with teenagers at a high school in California led him to begin using internet and video technologies to make learning more active, helping him reach students who had struggled under more traditional approaches.
Rushton is the author of Making Your School Something Special from EdTechTeam Press, as well as Making Your Teaching Something Special, released in the summer of 2017.
I learned a lot from Ruston about the value of an authentic audience and he shares practical idea you could implement in your classroom as early as tomorrow! Connect with him...
Twitter @rushtonh
Next Vista for Learning - Next Vista for Learning is focused on helping teachers and students share insights creatively using technology. Digital media apps and software and other modern tools for exploration and collaboration can help teachers see new possibilities for their students and themselves.
Website Inspiring Improvement: Because no educator and no school is so amazing that there is no room for getting better
Email rh@nextvista.org
Scott's bio
Latest Book: Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning
We also discussed: Different Schools for a Different World
Resources for the "4 Shifts Protocol"
Scott's website
SHOW NOTES
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Access to ideas for incorporating critical creativity in your classroom (link)
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Critical Creativity Facebook Group (link)
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Connect with educators on Twitter interested in #criticalcreativity and #rigorouswhimsy
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Pick up a copy of "Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom"
Includes foreword by Howard Rheingold, a Creativity Credo and tips for "Crushing it with Creativity"...
How might we choreograph a short story, remix a political party, sketchnote an equation, costume a scientific phenomenon, or hashtag a nutrition plan? Veteran classroom educators, Amy Burvall and Dan Ryder, believe intentional acts of creative expression enables deeper learning, turning the creative spirit into a force for authentic understanding.
SHOW NOTES
Join the conversation by posting questions for our guests on Twitter using #ModernMeasures
Join our community page on Facebook http://bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity
Books Katie Mentions:
- Becoming - Michelle Obama (link)
- Dare to Lead - Brene Brown (link)
- Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration - Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace (link)
- What Schools Could Be - Ted Dintersmith (link)
Other Mentions
- Buck Institute for Education (PBL Works) link
Connect with Katie!
- Twitter: @katiemartinedu (link)
- Blog: https://katielmartin.com/
- Book: Learner Inspired Innovation on Amazon
- TedX: Teachers Create what they Experience | TEDx El Cajon Salon (link)
Thanks for listening!
SHOW NOTES
Join the conversation by posting questions for our guests on Twitter using #ModernMeasures
Join our community page on Facebook http://bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity
Books Rik Mentions
- Make It Stick - Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel (link)
- Daring Greatly - Brene Brown (link)
- Dare to Lead - Brene Brown (link)
SBLchat (link)
- 8pm on the 1st and 3rd Wed of each month
- Standards-based learning chat with co-moderators @garnet_hillman, @KatieBudrow, and @RoweRikW
- If you are new to #SBLchat and you join the chat because you listened to the podcast, please let us know on Twitter!
3:00 Rik discusses the benefits of making yourself vulnerable as an educator
12:30 #COLchat (link)
- Monday 9-10 p.m. EST
- Building a Culture of Learning with Co-Moderators: @MicheleCorbat,
@RodneyHetherton, @aj_hartley1 * Website
20:15 and 23:30 Rik Rowe on standards-based learning. What piqued your interest to learn more about the approach? Why SBL over conventional practices?
25:52 Why averages can be a misrepresentation of student learning and students need more than one attempt to demonstrate evidence of learning
38:00 A case for retakes on summative assessments