Whew!

First quarter is over and in the books. A lot of good things happened, a little bit of not-so-good things happened.

For the most part, standards based grading was a raving success. My students are more enthusiastic about learning, they are taking more ownership of their learning, and did I mention they are actually learning?

Sure, standards-based grading is far from perfect - but its a heck of a lot closer than the traditional method. Here are the most important lessons I've learned after a quarter:

• I'm not an expert. I've send numerous emails and interacted countless times on Twitter talking to teachers that have already begun implementing SBG. Personal learning networks are key to saving yourself a lot of wasted time and energy when beginning SBG. 
• Continue to have restrictions. Some of my immediate SBG changes were no points off for late work, 3 quizzes per day, maximum (only for Physics concept quizzes), work can be revised up until the end of the quarter. This made my past 3 weeks miserable. First of all, students were getting lazy with work and turning it in whenever. I've now included a standard for Effort which will take into account things like grammar, completeness, and punctuality with work. I've lowered the amount of Physics quizzes per day to 2 because I noticed (as did my wife and every other teacher visiting my room after school) that I was going insane on quiz days. Lastly, students cannot submit work after 1 week prior to the end of the quarter. They all witnessed my grading stack grow and grow and actually felt sorry for me - so I didn't have any students arguing on this one.
• Students can be motivated. I've seen underachieving students go out of their way to ask other students for help. I've had packed out rooms after school full of students completing extra work to help them practice concepts. For the first time in three years, my Physics class is truly engaging and my seniors have not even begun to show hints of senior-itis! 
• Parents can be supportive. I had a great time after this quarter's parent-teacher-conferences (PTCs). I can't tell you how many parents expressed such gratitude and sincere thankfulness at the efforts I'm putting into my teaching. I, as well, am so thankful that the parents and administration of my school are so on-board with this!  I also had more than one parent tell me how their son/daughter had been turned off to science due to a previous experience, only to really start to enjoy it again in my class... and this is why I teach!

It's safe to say that after one quarter of SBG, I'm a fully convinced believer.

Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding standards based grading!