Promote Creative Thinking Through Passion Projects

Teach Better TeamBlog, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lesson Plan Better, Mastery Done Better, Personalize Student Learning Better

In This Post An overview of passion projects in the classroom. Why you should consider doing a passion project with your students. Suggestions to rethink a unit and approach it as a passion project! Creative thinking is a skill we absolutely want to cultivate. We want our students to think critically and analyze. We want them to assess situations, look … Read More

Preparing Students for Life: How Retakes Help Instead of Hurt

Teach Better TeamBlog, Differentiate Better, Grade Better, Lesson Plan Better

In This Post: A common argument against retaking assessments, and why it doesn’t quite work. The benefits of allowing retakes in your classroom. “You can’t do retakes, they won’t have redos in the real world.” This is one of the most common arguments I hear about allowing for reassessment in our classrooms. And honestly, I don’t think it’s valid. At … Read More

Using Conferences for Grading Students

Teach Better TeamBlog, Differentiate Better, Grade Better, Mastery Done Better, Personalize Student Learning Better

In This Post The struggle of quantifying mastery with a letter or percent. Grading conferences as a solution to this struggle! Steps to set up grading conferences in your classroom & communicate about them to stakeholders. Feedback from students on grading conferences. In a mastery learning classroom, determining student quarter or final grades can be difficult. How do you assign … Read More

Building Better Rubrics

Chad OstrowskiBlog, Grade Better, Innovate Better, Lesson Plan Better

In This Post: An experience with a badly created rubric. What rubrics should measure… and what they shouldn’t. Ideas to include students in rubrics and assessment. Some time ago, I sat listening to presentations from my students. I paused at a student who obviously had not understood the concepts they were presenting on. The student spoke well, included the required components in … Read More

Why Your District Should Stop Worrying About Missed Days

Chad OstrowskiBlog, Mastery Done Better

In This Post: The problem with time-based learning and why we should move away from it. A solution to make time more flexible and learning more important. How Mastery Learning can help you (and your school) make this shift & worry less about unplanned days off. Missed Days are Coming Depending on where you live (I live in the Northeast), … Read More