Reflecting on my reflections. I’m going to get all metacognitive here and go for some introspection. For the past week I’ve been writing a reflection of each of the six questions brought up in the #mschat for the week of Dec 3rd, 2014. I’m sitting here feeling a few different emotions but mostly I’m feeling […]
Read more "What learning should we celebrate in school?"Well, we’ve made it. This is the 6th and final personal reflection of last week’s #mschat in regards to grading. I have to say it’s the first time that I’ve spent an entire week thinking about one conversation. It has allowed me to reflect about it from a multitude of perspectives. I’m realizing now that I […]
Read more "What types of practices “distort” grades?"We are up to the fifth question of last week’s #mschat and this one deals with motivation. The question of motivating students is another one that is near and dear to my heart and I was pretty excited when I found out it was going to be part of the #mschat. Now that I am […]
Read more "How are students motivated if behavior is not part of the grade?"This post is the fourth in a series of reflection posts from last week’s #mschat on Twitter. When the fourth question came up in #mschat, I immediately rushed to the conclusion that the ‘behaviors’ in question were negative ones. Behaviors such as yelling, disruption of other students’ work, falling asleep, defiance, aggression and/or anger towards […]
Read more "Should behaviors be included a grade? Why or Why not?"Before I start with my reflection today I want to begin with a comparison from Carnegie Mellon University Eberly School for Education’s definition of summative assessment. I’m putting this at the top of this post for anyone to refer back to and compare some of my thoughts and Twitter posts by #mschat participants. Why Carnegie […]
Read more "What is the Role of Summative Assessment with regard to grading?"My reflection on #MSchat Question 2: So yesterday I started writing about my expanded thoughts and ideas of #mschat on Twitter thursday night. The chat focused on grading and some of the issues that teachers are forced to think about (but might not always). It was my original intention to write about all six questions in […]
Read more "What is the role of formative assessment with regard to grading?"Grading has been a hot topic recently. I was in a Twitter chat last night (#mschat) that focused the entire hour on some of the issues and concerns about teacher grading policies. Since my office has construction workers cutting a hole in my exterior wall today, I’m not going to be able to write that […]
Read more "What is the purpose of grading?"If you’ve been reading my blog, you might be aware of my love for Google Earth. Yes, I know it is a bit of an obsession but I have to tell you from a geography teacher’s perspective there are very few platforms out there that: are FREE are robust enough to create an immersive experience […]
Read more "This easy Google Earth activity will get you started"Yesterday I was writing about the amount of work that teachers bring home with them and how it is adversely affecting them to the point of causing, or at least contributing to, teacher burnout. I feel compelled today to expand on that conversation and provide some deeper inquiry and insight to my thoughts. You can […]
Read more "Why taking grading home with you is part of a much bigger problem."Teachers have this nasty habit of not being able to stop thinking about their work. Even during the holidays you might see a teacher at a Thanksgiving dinner steering the conversation to what they are currently doing in class to ask for input from those around the table. You might even see that same teacher […]
Read more "Why you should leave your work at school at least twice a week."
peter spiegel 