To counteract the anxiety caused by high-stakes assessments and grades, Nate Bowling invites students to focus on feedback and learning. Life is hard enough for students; assessment practices should not add to that stress.

With student-led conferences, families hear how students are progressing, more than any number or letter could tell them. Families become a part of the process, learning about their child’s interests and passions. Learning extends beyond the walls of the classroom.

The evaluative gaze of school is so constant a presence, so all-pervasive an eye, that many people have come to believe that children would actually not develop without it. But an oak tree does not require your opinion to grow, and believe it or not, 90% of the time, neither does a child.

Ekta Sahasi is the founder of spikeview, a global pre-professional portfolio platform for students and young adults. She is reinventing how Gen-Z represent themselves online, build meaningful networks, and forge a pathway to success.

Students using spikeview view their learning as a journey. They see where they have been, can explore what’s next, and make informed decisions on where not to spend time. It’s not a snapshot of one class or one reporting period. It’s life, as they know it.

Sherri Spelic, an elementary physical education teacher at American International School Vienna, shares her experiences and reflections on assessment, as well as how we can create more inclusive, responsive spaces in our classrooms.

Assessment feels like something I practice on my students; something I do to, more than with them. It’s hard for me to remember a time when the struggle to get my thoughts about an education related topic onto the page felt this fraught. 

In this episode of TG2Chat Live! we learn more about metacognition and student reflection from Rachael.

In my nitpicking, I spent far too much time bogged down in reiterating past teaching. In my marginal notes and technology-enhanced comments, I was giving a low-quality version of the lesson I’d given weeks earlier. I needed to notch up my nitpicking.

Although I always valued students’ improvement over time, the way I was assessing didn’t support those values. I said I valued process, but my vision was on product, which limited the opportunities for my students.

In this episode of TG2Chat LIVE! well known educator and author, Rick Wormeli, discusses how educators can better communicate learning with students and stakeholders.

Grades are so much a part of our own learning experiences and the tools available to teachers today it might be hard to imagine your school without grades. But a it’s possible—and powerful—when you can make it happen!