NO ZEROS - at school

To me, not assigning zeros on student work is a complicated and sometimes convoluted and misunderstood concept. Rather than giving away free marks to students, to me, a philosophy of No More Zeros means that students are provided with the opportunities to increase and ameliorate their marks. I do not believe that students should lose marks for distorting factors, such as handing in work late. Students might see a big ZERO in their online gradebook, but that doesn't mean they have zero understanding of the concept, or zero knowledge. In most cases, it means they didn't hand the work in! Who am I to determine this lack of engagement will equal a poor mark on a report card?

Instead, shouldn't we be giving students the opportunity and experience to try, try again? Isn't that how we actually learn?

“If you hand me an essay that’s really lousy, do I say ‘F, do better next time,’ or do I say ‘I’m not going to grade this. I expect a higher quality of work from you. I wrote comments on it. Let's set up a time, and we’re going to work on it together, and then I need you to turn it in next week,’” - Sarah Duncan 

No More Zero Days
(Linked on Crackmacks)

Take good care,
​-M

We've had students out of school for a month now, and teachers in Alberta have been given specific direction around final marks. The first indication that came from the Education Minister was that all students would be passed through to the next grade level.

That's more or less true, but it becomes complicated at the High School level, where generally, students need to demonstrate a 50% in their overall mark to move to the next core curricular level.

However, not everyone has access to the same level of learning and education since schools were last open on March 13, so the best option has been to assign a grade for the work that was done before March 13, and assign that as the best guess of a final grade.

Students will have the chance to demonstrate their learning, and to increase their mark from whatever they might have had for the first six weeks of this semester.

We are giving students the chance to continue their learning. We hope that students have motivation to either increase their overall grades, or (better yet) increase the level of their skills and knowledge!

For some students who were anticipating finishing up their High School this year, and those who were upgrading to achieve a higher mark, they are disappointed that some opportunities to increase marks are no longer available to them (specifically Alberta Education Diploma Exams).

However, we need to think about what our role is right now. Are we here to support students with increasing their marks, obtaining their high school diplomas, prepare for the next level of learning, or to continue to foster a love of learning and engagement with their learning?

Statistically, we've seen about 2/3 of students regularly engage with their teachers in the last couple weeks when we try to host online synchronous sessions. 

reference: Calgary Herald article (April 13, 2020)

However, we also know that almost 100% of students are in communication with their teachers in some way (email, phonecall, video chat, etc). So, we know that students are being supported by their teachers - at least through regular channels of communication.

In order to increase student engagement in learning online, we need to have clear and consistent communication, standard structure and organization, and ensure we are collaborating with all of the students, teachers and experts in our field!

Our website has a lot of great tips and tools to help with these core critical areas:

• communication
• structure and organization
• collaborating

During this time, and always, we are educators first. We are all teachers. We are all learners. 

Marks do not matter as much as overall connection and engagement.

I would always be happier with a rich deep and rewarding conversation and connection than assigning marks based on work submitted to an online dropbox.

Take good care,
-M

Teachers are asking a lot of themselves right now. I can't say the school boards are asking for it, or parents are asking for it, or students are asking for it.

Teachers are asking themselves to become experts in online teaching in a short amount of time. Teachers are expecting they can continue on, as normal, under the most unusual of conditions.

Well, to them, I have one phrase that's been repeating through my mind the past three weeks: Settle Yer Kettle.

Stop.
Think.
Then react.

You're not going to turn into an online teacher overnight. Your students aren't going to turn into online learners overnight - if at all! Your students are being asked to do something they've never done, and they've never signed up for. So are you.

So be gentle on yourself. Be kind. Be patient. Be compassionate to yourself.

In fact, this website  has a whole section on WELLNESS. Check it out - there's some good stuff there for students, and for teachers - including resources on how to be self-compassionate.

I've worked with teaching and learning online since 2006, and one thing has always been true to me: nobody's designated school is the online school. Every student comes to online learning for a different reason. 

In March of this year, hundreds of thousands of students came to online learning as a last resort - as an emergency.

This isn't ideal. For you, or for them.

Recognize that. Be gentle with yourself, and realize a lot of what you're putting together isn't really great Online Learning - it's Emergency Remote Teaching.

This article has been linked on the COVID-19 page on our website, and I'm including it here for your reference.

There are lots of ways we can help support you be the best that you can be - and part of that is capitalizing on what you're already doing, and what you have been doing with your students from the beginning of the semester.

Making connections.
Building relationships.
Helping them be the best they can be.

COVID-19 hasn't changed any of that. I promise.

Take good care of yourself.
-M