I had the pleasure of talking with Matt Townsley and Nathan Wear about their new book, Making Grades Matter.  During this episode, they provide an overview and discuss how the strategies and lessons they've learned can help secondary educators in a PLC get started implementing standards-based grading.

Making Grades Matter: Standards-Based Grading in a Secondary PLC at Work®

By: Matt Townsley, Nathan L. Wear

Rely on this practical guide to help your PLC implement a standards-based grading system at the secondary education level. Further your professional growth as an educator and discover motivational strategies for students to help them increase achievement.

Find your copy here: https://www.solutiontree.com/products/making-grades-matter.html

Connect with Matt and Nathan:

Matt Townsley @mctownsley

Matt's Blog

Nathan Wear @Nathan_Wear

Nathan's Website

The Twitter account about their book - Making Grades Matter: SBG in a Secondary PLC @GradesMatterSBG

Are the teacher-student relationships in your classroom and your school yielding two years growth in one year of time?

Educator and author, Greg Wolcott and I sit down to discuss his new book, Significant 72, and why creating a psychologically safe yet intellectually stimulating classroom environment is the only way students can be successful in school and life. It starts with relationship building.

Bio

Greg is an author, presenter, consultant, adjunct and he currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in a suburb of Chicago. As an educator in the Chicagoland area for over 20 years, Greg is passionate about developing opportunities for all students to succeed as well as finding ways for all teachers and staff members to utilize their strengths to maximize the learning of each and every child whom they interact with on a daily basis.

What is Significant 72?

The Book

The article we discussed: Only a fraction of students consistently get grade-appropriate assignments

You MUST follow Greg on Twitter! @GregJWolcott

Whether your new to standards-based learning or looking to refine your game, Merri Beth and Josh cover everything in this episode from educator mindset to community buy-in, retakes, and homework. 

Idea, people, and resources mentioned in this episode:

Join our Facebook group! The purpose of this group is to connect educators who share a focus on the ongoing paradigm shift in instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Join us to collaborate with prominent educators and walk away with strategies to support your teaching and learning initiatives. bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity

Follow us on Twitter! We share resources and spark conversations about healthy instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Ask your questions using the hashtag #ModernMeasures or follow @Modern_Measures.

Jon Bartelt is the Superintendent at Bloomingdale School District 13,  serving over 1,300 K-8 students and their families in northeast DuPage County in Illinois.  

On this episode we discuss the implementation of Bloomingdale's standards-based learning initiative (SBL). Topics include homework vs. practice, getting staff and community buy-in for SBL, and strategies for shifting assessment and grading practices.

Connect with Jon on Twitter: @jonbartelt

Rushton is the founder and executive director of Next Vista for Learning, which houses a free library of videos by and for teachers and students at NextVista.org. His graduate research at Stanford University included using speech recognition technology with beginning students of Japanese in computer-based role-playing scenarios for developing language skills. In the 1990s his work with teenagers at a high school in California led him to begin using internet and video technologies to make learning more active, helping him reach students who had struggled under more traditional approaches. 

Rushton is the author of Making Your School Something Special from EdTechTeam Press, as well as Making Your Teaching Something Special, released in the summer of 2017. 

I learned a lot from Ruston about the value of an authentic audience and he shares practical idea you could implement in your classroom as early as tomorrow! Connect with him...

Twitter @rushtonh 

Next Vista for Learning -  Next Vista for Learning is focused on helping teachers and students share insights creatively using technology. Digital media apps and software and other modern tools for exploration and collaboration can help teachers see new possibilities for their students and themselves. 

Website Inspiring Improvement: Because no educator and no school is so amazing that there is no room for getting better

Email [email protected] 

Scott's bio

Latest Book: Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning

We also discussed: Different Schools for a Different World 

Resources for the "4 Shifts Protocol"

Scott's website

SHOW NOTES

- Access to ideas for incorporating critical creativity in your classroom (link)

- Critical Creativity Facebook Group (link)

- Connect with educators on Twitter interested in #criticalcreativity and #rigorouswhimsy 

- Pick up a copy of "Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom"

Includes foreword by Howard Rheingold, a Creativity Credo and tips for "Crushing it with Creativity"...

How might we choreograph a short story, remix a political party, sketchnote an equation, costume a scientific phenomenon, or hashtag a nutrition plan? Veteran classroom educators, Amy Burvall and Dan Ryder, believe intentional acts of creative expression enables deeper learning, turning the creative spirit into a force for authentic understanding.

 SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation by posting questions for our guests on Twitter using #ModernMeasures

Join our community page on Facebook http://bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity 

Books Katie Mentions:

Other Mentions

Connect with Katie!

Thanks for listening!

SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation by posting questions for our guests on Twitter using #ModernMeasures

Join our community page on Facebook http://bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity 

Books Rik Mentions

#SBLchat (link)

3:00 Rik discusses the benefits of making yourself vulnerable as an educator

12:30 #COLchat (link)

20:15 and 23:30 Rik Rowe on standards-based learning. What piqued your interest to learn more about the approach? Why SBL over conventional practices?

25:52 Why averages can be a misrepresentation of student learning and students need more than one attempt to demonstrate evidence of learning

38:00 A case for retakes on summative assessments