Taking Grades Off the Table w/Vanessa Ellis

Taking traditional grading off of the table has revived my teacher soul. I don’t know if that sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true.

Tweet this

Vanessa Ellis is an 8th-grade social studies teacher at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Columbus, Georgia. In 2017, Vanessa was named a Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year, and in 2018, she was selected as a Harvard Fellow to study research-based practices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2022, she was honored as Teacher of the Year for her school and for the Muscogee County School District. This year, she officially joined our team here at TG2 and is currently one of ten finalists for Georgia Teacher of the Year. She resides in Midland, Georgia, with her husband and three children.

Other resources

• Blog posts on Teachers Going Gradeless:

  • Not Yet Gradeless, but Grading Less

  • Where Do We Go From Here?

  • Different is Not Deficient

  • Avoiding Quit Point

• Vanessa on the web:

  • On Instagram: heymrsellis

  • On Twitter: @heymrsellis

  • On Linktree: @heymrsellis

  • YouTube Channel