SBG Recording Methods: Wants VS Reality

Now that quarter 1 is over and I will be submitting student’s earned grades soon I wanted to give a little update on my SBG progress.

Below is my list of wants that I mentally made at the beginning of the year while getting ready for SBG:

• Use Blueharvest to keep students/parents updated on students progress towards meeting standards.
• Use Blueharvest to keep examples of students meeting standards (i.e. notebook pics, conversations, etc)
• Communicate with parents/students electronically about progress in class.
• Students specifically aware of standards being taught and assessed (more aware of their learning)
• Students correct own assessments (@fnoschese’s idea seen here)

Here is my reality check list:

• Most student’s can’t use Blueharvest because they don’t have email or computers at home.
• Computers in my classroom are broken and I don’t have enough for students to use within the 50 min time period of lesson/learning
• Student’s are really keen on taking pictures of their notebooks with an iPad, phone or other electronic device for evidence but I have no system in place in order to upload to Blueharvest or Threering.
• Parents don’t have email either and they don’t even have phones at home let alone internet to keep in contact about student progress.
• Students are VERY into their learning and are way more aware of what they are learning and the level at which they are learning a standard or benchmark.
• No way close to students correcting their own assessments.
• Not using enough assessments for students to show learning progress.

I feel like a failure!  But seems like I set myself up for that.  Look at that list of WANTS…I mean really!  This is the first year I am doing this and I wanted to accomplish all that.  After reading Frank’s Keep It Simple Post I wish I would have ran into this BEFORE my year started.  So now I am reassessing my list to improve on the failures and I have come up with this:

• Use some form of progress tracking on paper (because my students don’t have access to technology they need)
• Give the option for students with technology to use Blueharvest (I have some students that really want to use it)
• Upload all evidence for students using Blueharvest or  Threering (haven’t decided yet)
• Give a type of assessment (exit card, quiz, homework) once a week (no more than 3-5 questions) to give students more opportunities to display progress towards meeting standards.
• Take it one step at a time so I don’t feel like a failure.

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