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On Feedback...

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  Consider, for example, how students use grades. They see them as a reflection of their abilities, and sometimes more deeply as a reflection of their ability to learn at all. Grades shape their self-efficacy in particular skills (“I’m not good at math”), but they also shape learners beliefs about their intelligence (“I’m not good at learning”), and eventually, they can begin to shape their identities (“I’m not a very smart person”). Ko, A. J. (2019, March 16).   Grading is ineffective, harmful, and unjust — let’s stop doing it . Medium; Bits and Behavior. https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/grading-is-ineffective-harmful-and-unjust-lets-stop-doing-it-52d2ef8ffc47 ‌ I have experienced the truth in this argument as both a teacher, student, and parent. And while it does tie back to individual mindset, that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about the crazy amount of time that many of us put into grading assignments (many have told me tails of how they spend their h
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On Rigor...

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 Recently I attended a webinar with Alex Kajitani , former Teacher of the Year in CA, current teacher, author, and is known widely as the "Rappin' Mathematician". In this, he provided the clearest and most thought-provoking definition of RIGOR that I have come across: This got me thinking about what other ingredients need to go into something to make it rigorous... Robyn Jackson, a National Board-Certified English teacher, speaker, and author provided 4 requirements for something to be rigorous in this video for ASCD. Rigorous experiences will require students to: make meaning for themselves impose structure on information take individual skills and put them together to create a process apply what they have learned in new and novel situations As we plan forward for the uncertainty of the 2020-2021 school year, is it right to decrease rigor? I argue NO. Rigor is what makes our courses and teaching rich and deep, interesting and creative. Without it, we are mostly posing pr
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