This week's Take5 explores a new approach to grades, the problems created by extremely early lunch times in some schools (9 am, really?), and compassionate ways to manage your classroom. Also, we talk about new tech tools for the classroom and a dynamic resource from TED-Ed that gets kids using TED Talks to make connections beyond the classroom walls. So Take5.

This week’s Take5 is all about standards based grading. I believe in it (I think) but my school hasn't adopted these practices. Instead, our school's policy is based on the curriculum teams' preferences. Changing our team's particular grading policy would require a reckoning and revamp that we haven’t tackled...yet. I admire my math colleagues who adopted standards based grading at my school years ago not because they were told to but because they thought it was the right thing to do for kids. To add another layer to my thinking, when as a parent I hear friends of school-aged children talk about standards based grading, I get impression that they don’t like it or they don’t fully understand it or they don’t fully understand it AND don’t like it.

So why today's post? I think standards based grading is the future as educators continue to focus on bringing equity to our classrooms. To that end, I to want to learn more and hope that through my own learning I can move closer to these grading practices and maybe become brave enough to advocate for it in my collaborative team. Bonus: the more I learn, the more I will be able to explain it to my friends when it comes up in my mom world. So Take5 and dive into standards based grading with me.  Together, we might just broaden our understanding. 

This week's Take5 is all over the map (in a good way). We've got strategies for improving your grading practice. Seriously, it doesn't have to suck out the essence of your soul. We've got practical ideas for using Design Thinking in your classroom to stretch kids into problem solving as well as the BAAR strategy for creating a safety net for kids at the secondary level. We also focus on the news of the day, recent teacher strikes by taking a closer look at the have-nots in public education. Far too many of our schools and buildings are falling apart. The proof is in the pictures. Lastly, to end on a positive note - a powerful infographic about the multifaceted work of school librarians, because well, librarians rock.  Happy Tuesday.