Category: Success maybe

  • A year off–Why and what I learned

    What a difference a year makes. Or not. No, it did make a difference. A year ago, I was in the middle of my 3rd year of teaching. Do you remember your third year? If it sucked, because you felt like an utter failure at every single lesson, every single exam, and everything else you…

  • How to do video easily in a classroom.

    Well, some of us are not as good as Dan is when it comes to video. Heck, I bet 99% of us couldn’t do the things he does with video.  But why let that stop us from using video, and more importantly, coming up with ways to have our learners constructively use video in the…

  • A potential way to make Skills Assessment work for Alg 3-4 [Alg 2]

    So one of the biggest problems with using skills based assessment, or standards based assessment, or any of the other names that can be given to the process that Dan Meyer has been educating us on is that Alg 2 is just way to darn big. I mean, really.  Rational functions?  Composition of functions?  If…

  • The Gradebook

    First things first.  Everything I discuss here is specific to EasyGrade Pro 4.0.  Why?  That is what our district is standardized on.  I am sure that everything can be modified to any gradebook, however. First thing, set up the categories we will be using to grade with. Notice that only 15 percent of the grade…

  • Concept Map and Misc. Assessment Decisions

    Okay, so we have some philosophy down to guide our decision making. We have some rules and procedures, a way to communicate the test questions across multiple teachers, and some basic forms so our freshman will have a consistent set of handouts and standards.  Now all we need is some way for the teachers to…

  • Some Details on our Assessment Journey

    Okay, so we sat down (five of us) and hashed out some of the mechanisms and details we will use on our assessment journey. First, we all agreed on the principles that Dan documented. Yes, I said some bad words when I read his three principles, because he scooped me on something that he had…

  • Lesson idea for reading graphs

    Ok, so the lesson on reading graphs in the book was boring, I knew it and more importantly the learners knew it. So, to liven it up, I brought in my spreadsheet that I keep track of my utilities every month for my house. In it, I have my gas therms, my KWH (Kilo Watt…