The purpose of schools is to provide students with an opportunity to explore and experience new opportunities. When we choose to equate quality with test scores, families, teachers, and administrators lose sight of what truly is important—the child.

Learning Maps makes learning and assessment more accessible to students, allowing them navigate curriculum in their own way.

I have tried many ways to get students to understand that writing is neither “right” nor “wrong.” Writing is about what works, what touches the reader, and what is authentic to the writer’s experience.

In my years as a math anxiety specialist, I have found two main things to be helpful: written feedback and parents and teachers who are supportive and work as a team.

Just as a coach provides feedback on improving a baseball swing or long jump form, I provide feedback on the use of historical evidence, thesis construction, and other discipline related skills.

Andrew Burnett uses video to augment the power of verbal and written comments in his feedback to students.

Taking away grades signals a fundamental change in the power dynamics of a classroom, and students need to be supported in order to thrive.

I am a teacher. I am a room. I am a space to fill. I am a culture to create. I am a world to shape.We are teachers. We are rooms. We are spaces to fill. We are cultures to create. We are worlds to shape.

We should be focusing on “better” practices, as what is “best” today may not be best for the children we teach in the future. With that in mind, we need to continue to be on the lookout for teaching practices that we feel are right and good for the children we have in front of us.

So the question is: How do we, people who are interested in making education better for students, help traditional schools adopt some of the things that made my education so far fantastic?

With feedback, students know exactly where they stand and what to do to move forward. That is empowering.

Having spent a good deal of time learning about creating a gradeless classroom, I returned to the classroom ready to make a change.