I am on a mission to gather your insights on the use of scoring rubrics to help our development team as they build a rubric-scoring tool this summer. Your help is needed because I know there are many ways teachers use scoring rubrics. The schools I taught in had guidelines around scoring – but the guidelines were different at the different schools. I want to understand your needs so this becomes a tool you are excited to use! Continue reading “Use rubrics? We need your help!”
“It cut my workload in half”
Teachers experience new Turnitin functionality with Campus Learning in closed beta program
Teachers at Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester, NY took part in a closed beta program integrating Turnitin with Campus Learning. How did it go?
“In a nutshell, it cut my workload in half,” said Michael la Liberte.
He went on to explain that, prior to the integration, “I would create the assignment in Infinite Campus and then I’d have to create the assignment again in Turnitin.com.” And that wasn’t Continue reading ““It cut my workload in half””
Use Student Data with Score Analysis
Individualize instruction based on the newest data in your Campus Grade Book
I don’t even know how many ways I tried to use formative data in my classes in a timely way. It was so hard because it took so much time. Even if my assessment
was short and easy to score, sorting those scores and analyzing the results piece by piece to look for gaps in understanding took time. Sometimes I would only get through one or two periods worth before I had to get myself home, make supper, and go to bed. Then I’d need to be in my classroom at 6 a.m. to try to finish the rest or hope I could whip through them during my prep, provided I didn’t need to cover another teacher’s class. Sometimes I would just apply the weaknesses of first hour to the sections later in the day, foregoing the idea of individualization for hoping I was meeting the needs of most. Continue reading “Use Student Data with Score Analysis”
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Growth Mindset changed my classes
Teaching growth mindset can change the culture of a class.
Last year, I was part of a team of teachers who decided to spend a week of our homeroom/advisory time teaching sixth graders about growth mindset. Our decision to teach about mindsets was made toward the end of the school year in an effort to respond to some of the negative fixed mindsets we were noticing. While I would recommend starting the year with an introduction to growth mindset with follow up throughout the year, even starting it three-quarters of the way through, we saw positive changes! All of the students in the sixth grade received the same message about challenging themselves and being more aware of their learning. If a task was particularly easy for a student, others in the class would remind them to challenge themselves. It was the beginning of a change in culture.
What is Growth Mindset?
Track progress on standards
Simple, but so hard to do
Standards-based grading makes a lot of sense. So why does it end up being so hard? It seems so simple. You have a set of standards to teach and you want to ensure that every student has multiple opportunities to learn, practice, show growth and ultimately show proficiency for each standard. Not all students will learn in the same way or need the same amount of practice so you want to be flexible and patient, but also creative because you need to keep the students who show proficiency engaged in extending their understanding or moving them on to the next thing.
It’s simple. But it’s so complicated.
Welcome!
Welcome to the Teachers on Campus blog!
I want this blog to be about you, the teachers. I taught for 13 years. I know there isn’t one best way to do things and that teaching styles and learning styles vary. So if there is an idea posted here that you know can be adapted to reach more students, by all means, use it as you see fit. I want this to be a place for teachers to share what they know and learn from each other.