Getting to know you - as more than a number
Monday, August 31, 2015 at 05:11AM Despite our efforts to carefully examine student performance and choose instructional interventions that best meet their needs, the truth is, we need to be collecting, organizing, and analyzing more robust data on our students—facts about their home lives, their likes and dislikes, their learning preferences—the things that really matter. Rethinking Data: How to Create a Holistic View of Students, Mind/Shift August 26, 2015.
In “Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes For Every School,” Mark Barnes and Jennifer Gonzalez recommend using a 360 Spreadsheet to collect a more holistic set of data about each student:
I love this idea. If we are to have any hopes of educating every child, we need to treat each child as an individual that must reached by different means and through different interests and challenges.
Do other kinds of numbers also tell us whether a student is truly engaged in a class? Attendance? Assignments turned in along with their completeness and timeliness? Participation in class discussion? Number of extra books read? Appropriate use of personal technologies? Demonstration of a passion for coding or music or track or science or ...
I've said it before, I would like our mission to create graduates who love to learn - and will continue to do so long after they leave our classrooms.
Oh, and it seems at least one brave admin likes to view teachers as more than numbers as well:
Reader Comments (2)
So spot on that students are people first! Miles's 4th grade teacher had the kids fill out a little profile with pretty much these same categories (other than medical) on the password protected class web site. Miles had fun with it and was so excited to show me his peers' profiles. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that which categories the kids left blank (or which kids didn't do it at all) probably spoke as loudly to their teacher as what they filled in.
Hi Sweetie,
Glad to hear my grandson's teacher sees him a a whole person. And yes, not filling out some of the blanks should send a message. I had not thought of that.
See you soon!
Love,
Dad​