Is it time to think about school already????
Hi Calvin and Everyone,
It's been just a few short weeks and I'm just beginning to relax and let down. The opportunity presented itself to get a kayak at a VERY GOOD PRICE, $649.00 for the entire package. It's a Women's kayak package offered thru LL Bean. So, soon I'll be out paddling around the local waterways. I've worked a bit pouring wine for the tourists; great fun!
Ok...School thoughts. I like the idea of tying our disciplinary plan to 'work ethics'. I'm concerned that tracking all the attendance to enforce the policy, however. Am I missing something about how we can track this without spending hours counting and recording each week? Giving this policy a heavy weight for final grades is important. I'm all for making it count 50%. I divide the grades in my class by 50/50 classwork and storework, anyway. This will transition well into my program.
Thank you, Calvin, for setting up the blog and recording all the ideas. I look forward to hearing everyone's contribution.
~Susan~
3 Comments:
This is great, Susan, that you've joined. My idea is for our blog members to post comments about each topic that we post, so they show up right below each topic. For example, if you've got questions about my proposal, post a comment, and then each of us can weigh in in the Comments area.
Having said that, I'll mention that I the way I grade my classes for work ethic is to keep a record in Aeries. Each Monday I do reports for the previous week - giving kids a chance to clear absences. Then I use the print reports feature of Aeries to print pages for each class so the kids can see their scores, and I post them in the same place in the classroom. I tell them to check their scores. Hopefully, they'll see where their headed and try to do better. I also let them know when they've lost work points or when they're in danger of losing work points. I find it easier to say to a student "You're going to lose you work points if you don't get back to work" than to say, "hey, knock it off, stop talking to Brian."
It does take work monitoring our kids' behavior, but once the system's in place, it'll be instinctive, and the kids - all of them - will learn what gets rewarded and what doesn't.
Always real consequences, predictable and consistent. That's the key.
We can also print blank attendance reports from Aeries and use them on clipboards to keep score. That worked easily for me for a while last year, until I decided just to keep an Aeries gradebook open for each class. Then, if a student lost points, I'd just walk to my desk and change his score.
What I'm saying is, take your pick how you keep score.
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