From Grades to Student Voice: The Community for Learning Story
Carla Meyrink, head of school at The Community for Learning in the Dominican Republic, has helped build a school centered on curiosity, inquiry, and student agency. In this episode, she explores how introducing grades undermined students’ enthusiasm for learning, and how her school responded through self-assessment, student-created criteria, writing conferences, teacher reflection, and meaningful student voice in shaping the school itself.
Can Administrators Go Gradeless?
If we want teachers to focus less on grades and more on feedback and growth, don’t we as administrators need to do the same?
School Leadership w/Eric Saibel
Eric is a principal at Hall Middle School in Larkspur, CA. Eric is the co-founder of Global School Play Day which is dedicated to promoting the idea that kids learn more when they play.
Cultivating Culture
We are famous, as educators, for asking others to take risks. Teachers do this to students, and administrators do it to teachers. We see risk taking as a key element of learning and growth. The problem is that we often assume that the conditions for risk are optimal.
Hate the Game, Not the Gamers
Is it true that rigid structures are more resistant to gaming? And perhaps even more important, is gaming the system really a bad thing?
The Child Behind the Grade
We have become accustomed to equating the student with the grade itself. Consequently, when we utter a number or letter, we believe we have adequately defined human being who sits in our classroom.