During our all school collaboration last month, we discussed as a staff what we felt was the best system for entering grades into the grade book. This discussion has continued on since then and will be discussed even more so during the next leadership and department chair meetings. Before these discussions take place, I would encourage you to talk to your department chair about what you feel should be or not be included in the grade book. As you are thinking about this topic and discussing it with colleagues, remember to think about what you want the grade to represent to the student and parent(s). I would also encourage you to keep an open mind when a decision has been made on how the grade book will look moving forward. As we witnessed in the video of the girl on ski jump, trying something new can be stressful and extremely tense. However, we need to constantly be reevaluating practices so that we are doing what is best for our students.
As you begin thinking and discussing about grades, I want to share a story. Last Friday, I took a call from a parent who was checking their son’s grades to see if he could spend the night with a friend that weekend. Her concern was that she was not able to determine how her son earned the grade he had with all of the different grades in the grade book. I pulled up her student and looked at three classes she was most worried about. Each of these three classes all had assignment and assessments recently entered and were up to date. The parent’s main concern was that she did not know what to average because in each class the columns and assignments were all labeled differently. And she was right. In each of the three classes I looked the column used for assessments were all labeled something different. Imagine the confusion that some parents might experience when viewing all of their student’s grades. As I mentioned above, please communicate suggestions you have to your department chair so that we can discuss all possible scenarios at our next meeting. Have a great weekend and TURN UP THE HEAT!!!!!
As you begin thinking and discussing about grades, I want to share a story. Last Friday, I took a call from a parent who was checking their son’s grades to see if he could spend the night with a friend that weekend. Her concern was that she was not able to determine how her son earned the grade he had with all of the different grades in the grade book. I pulled up her student and looked at three classes she was most worried about. Each of these three classes all had assignment and assessments recently entered and were up to date. The parent’s main concern was that she did not know what to average because in each class the columns and assignments were all labeled differently. And she was right. In each of the three classes I looked the column used for assessments were all labeled something different. Imagine the confusion that some parents might experience when viewing all of their student’s grades. As I mentioned above, please communicate suggestions you have to your department chair so that we can discuss all possible scenarios at our next meeting. Have a great weekend and TURN UP THE HEAT!!!!!