Several years ago, as our state moved to a proficiency-based (competency-based) system, I began thinking pretty deeply about how assessment needed to look different if there were no grades attached. There seemed to be some pretty big questions about motivation, engagement, and the need for learners to be more self-directed than we were confident they […]
Since I am trying very hard to limit grades in my entrepreneurship class, I have been focusing on reflection followed by feedback as a way to make sure learners know where they are in their learning. As a proficiency-based class, I think that reflection is a key component of the assessment process. Unfortunately, students have […]
Link to Examples #boldedventures course on Thinking Classrooms The Thinking Classroom Vertical Whiteboarding
PBA is not about grades One common misconception about proficiency-based learning (competency-based learning) is that it is about changing a grading system. In particular, when people discuss proficiency-based assessment, they immediately start discussing the one through four scales for measuring learning. The 1-4 scale of measuring achievement came from the creation of learning scales meant […]
This year, I was very lucky to have the opportunity to teach entrepreneurship. I used the opportunity to experiment and reflect on proficiency-based assessment as it relates to project-based learning. The driving question for this semester long course was what businesses make the best Shark Tank pitches? This overarching idea was broken into four parts. […]
This week, I worked with a student who will be piloting a gradeless transcript through mastery.org next year to organize her evidence-based assessments. It became very clear to me that this process is cumbersome and being thoughtful about how we organize the process might help to focus our efforts on the learning rather than the […]
If you are someone who thinks kids should just suck it up and do school because it’s just part of the process, you won’t want to read this post. I believe every kid deserves to have meaningful school experiences. I think that it is entirely possible that we have no clue what these kids are […]
What We Ignore About Learning I’m not sure why this is but it seems as if administrators and teachers forget all they know about learning when it comes to designing and participating in their own learning experiences. Professional development opportunities are generally set up as one time events, very often with no real-time relevance. In-service […]
In his recent book, Atomic Habit, James Clear digs into the idea of habits and how we make and break them. There were a few ideas that stuck out to me and are related to innovation coaching. Because teaching is so complex, it is easy for people to revert back to old and comfortable ways […]
Creativity is such a fun disposition to develop. I never thought of myself as creative because I’m not terribly artistic and in my experience, most people go straight to art when you start talking about the topic. Creativity is about thinking flexibly. Many people think you are either born creative or you aren’t but there […]
