Jul 07
Not sure, jury’s still out on that one for me. In my brief, 22 year career, I’ve tried incentives such as grades, stickers, beans in a jar, lotto tickets, class money, awards all the way to abolishing all of those, even the grades. The change to no rewards and punishments worked, but not as well …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2013/07/07/badges-do-we-need-them/
Oct 15
Diane Ravitch writes, speaks and blogs about education reform. Not the kind of reform that jeopardizes education but the kind of reform that will make education a priority for all children (click on my education reform tab for more info). Ravitch is coordinating a Campaign for our Public Schools on her blog. She’s urging us …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/10/15/letter-to-the-president/
Jun 04
We talk a lot about preparing our students for real life. We entice them with the reward of high marks (A’s, 100%’s, 3’s and 4’s) and we threaten them with failure (F’s, 0’s, 1’s and 2’s). It’s easy to think that enticing kids with high marks works because of the kids who work hard for …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/06/04/real-life/
Apr 30
Classroom management is not an easy thing. If something works one day it won’t necessarily work the next day. Sometimes blowing the beginning of the year sets the stage for a difficult year. Sometimes no matter how bad things get there are still good times. In 21 years of working with kids ages 9 to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/04/30/student-discipline/
Aug 22
[Note: I don’t use the consequences or document listed in this post anymore. I am striving to make learning for my students about information and NOT about rewards and punishments. A difficult endeavor worth doing!] I’ve been getting quite a few pointers from the Smart Classroom Management blog. If you don’t subscribe to it, do …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/08/22/classroom-management-communication/
Mar 20
Monday, March 22, 2010, students were given copies of their final grades for the 2nd trimester. Students received a progress report along with a letter for parents. I drafted that letter after an earlier blog post I wrote about grades. I’ve come to the decision that grading my students is doing harm. Based on conversations …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2010/03/20/change-in-grading-policy-for-mr-gs-science/
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I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
