Friday Focus
September 7, 2018
Maple Trail
The picture above is the first phase of Maple Trail. The Common Area shown is the retention pond that has just been built. The dirt from the pond is going to be used to build up the various building sites.
Food Bank
This is a picture of the boxes filled with milk, yogurt, cereal, and other food products collected at breakfast and lunch. This is one week's worth of food that I delivered last Saturday to the food bank in Ingalls. They are very appreciative of our donation and the products are all distributed to local families each week.
Meeting
On 9-25 at 7:45 AM in the Media Center, Mr. Buck and Kim Williams of the United Way will be meeting with certified staff to discuss the upcoming United Way campaign.
September 11
We will be doing our traditional silent dismissal on 9-11. We will also have the flags that line the driveway out that morning.
Lockdown
Last night we had safety training with the instructional assistants. It was an excellent session and lots of questions were answered. Each member of our staff has the power to make that call.No one is ever going to criticize anyone for calling a lockdown because they were suspicious about a situation.Thanks for keeping your eyes and ears open for the safety of us all.
Valerie's Vision
We have all been recently completing plenty of Safe Schools training videos. I must confess, it drives me nuts when I don’t get a 100% on a Safe Schools quiz. If I have time, I will often retake a quiz(even if I only missed one), so I get a perfect score.
I saw a tweet last week from Mike Mattos that stated the following, “Some say that giving kids redos on a test will not prepare them for the real world. But how many adult exams are given once w/no second chances? SAT? ACT? Drivers’ test? Contractors’ license? The Bar? Medical boards? Virtually every real life exam allows redos.”
I also recently attended a meeting with a parent who graciously thanked a teacher for allowing their students to “redo” questions on a math test that were missed. The child received partial credit. We had a discussion on a test score not being a final measure of knowledge, but another opportunity to learn.
While teaching and grading practices are an extremely personal decision, I want to encourage you to think outside the box with allowing students to redo missed test questions. I ran across a teachers page where she describes the procedure she uses for test corrections. It is worth a quick read if you are considering incorporating this practice, but are afraid that it could be viewed as “unfair”. https://www.mathgiraffe.com/blog/best-procedure-for-test-corrections
When I make a mistake, I typically want an opportunity to make things right- whether on a test, with an encounter with a person, or simply in life. This week, I encourage you to explore the “redo” practice and determine if this is something worth incorporating in your classrooms.
“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”- Bill Gates
I saw a tweet last week from Mike Mattos that stated the following, “Some say that giving kids redos on a test will not prepare them for the real world. But how many adult exams are given once w/no second chances? SAT? ACT? Drivers’ test? Contractors’ license? The Bar? Medical boards? Virtually every real life exam allows redos.”
I also recently attended a meeting with a parent who graciously thanked a teacher for allowing their students to “redo” questions on a math test that were missed. The child received partial credit. We had a discussion on a test score not being a final measure of knowledge, but another opportunity to learn.
While teaching and grading practices are an extremely personal decision, I want to encourage you to think outside the box with allowing students to redo missed test questions. I ran across a teachers page where she describes the procedure she uses for test corrections. It is worth a quick read if you are considering incorporating this practice, but are afraid that it could be viewed as “unfair”. https://www.mathgiraffe.com/blog/best-procedure-for-test-corrections
When I make a mistake, I typically want an opportunity to make things right- whether on a test, with an encounter with a person, or simply in life. This week, I encourage you to explore the “redo” practice and determine if this is something worth incorporating in your classrooms.
“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”- Bill Gates