I had the pleasure of working with my district's K-5 teachers earlier in the week as we kicked off some professional learning with Garnet Hillman on best practices in standards-based grading.
Garnet impressed me last fall when I saw her present at What Great Educators Do Differently (WGEDD) and I knew her practical approach and honest and experienced perspective were exactly what we needed in our next steps.
Our teachers were alive with conversation about our standards. As expected we dug in various places, tweaking language, unpacking our standards into our learning targets or Know Understand Dos (KUDs), aligning assessments, and creating rubrics.
Garnet's central message resonates with my own values about the importance of the "why." (She even cited Sinek! Hooray!) If we can continue to return to "why" this shift in grading is so important for our students we can withstand the hard work it takes to get us to our destination. Simply put, this is better for our kids. More targeted feedback, more student ownership, more conversations about learning.
If you are looking for a gold standard expert with a heart full of why - check out Garnet Hillman http://garnethillman.com/
Thanks to all of our teachers for their continued commitment to learning.
Garnet impressed me last fall when I saw her present at What Great Educators Do Differently (WGEDD) and I knew her practical approach and honest and experienced perspective were exactly what we needed in our next steps.
Our teachers were alive with conversation about our standards. As expected we dug in various places, tweaking language, unpacking our standards into our learning targets or Know Understand Dos (KUDs), aligning assessments, and creating rubrics.
Garnet's central message resonates with my own values about the importance of the "why." (She even cited Sinek! Hooray!) If we can continue to return to "why" this shift in grading is so important for our students we can withstand the hard work it takes to get us to our destination. Simply put, this is better for our kids. More targeted feedback, more student ownership, more conversations about learning.
If you are looking for a gold standard expert with a heart full of why - check out Garnet Hillman http://garnethillman.com/
Thanks to all of our teachers for their continued commitment to learning.