Upcoming events.
Community Gathering - We’re Writing a Book! (Part 1)
Did you know that we’re writing a book?!? Rather than toil in silence until we have a final product, we felt our Community Gatherings would be a perfect way to assemble with trusted community, share what we are writing/have written, and get questions and feedback from participants. As educators embracing gradeless practices, we recognize this as one of the most valuable—and rarest—forms of feedback! Part 1 of our series includes contributors Firas Moosvi, Greg & Heather Pask, Rhonda Higgins, Mariana Morales Lobo, and Heloisa Pait.
Community Gathering - We’re Writing a Book! (Part 2)
Did you know that we’re writing a book?!? Rather than toil in silence until we have a final product, we felt our Community Gatherings would be a perfect way to assemble with trusted community, share what we are writing/have written, and get questions and feedback from participants. As educators embracing gradeless practices, we recognize this as one of the most valuable—and rarest—forms of feedback! Part 1 of our series includes contributors Barry Fishman, Susan D. Blum, Rita Shah, Sherri Spelic, and Carla Meyrink.
Community Gathering - Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop
Vanessa Ellis interviews Jesse on his new book, Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop, and then opens the floor to questions from participants. Participants will be entered in a drawing to receive a signed copy of Undoing the Grade!
Community Gathering - End of Year Check-in
We gradeless teachers tend to put a high premium on reflection. We’ve likely heard the quote attributed to John Dewey: “We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience.” Does your department, school, or district carve out time for this all-important element of the learning process? Well, we at TG2 think it’s important, especially if you’ve dipped your toe into gradeless waters this year.
Community Gathering - Midyear Check-in
With half the academic year gone, it’s a perfect time to take stock of how your gradeless journey has gone so far. Whether you just dipped a toe or dove in head first, we’d like to hear how it’s going…and offer our help! This month our breakout rooms feature gradeless educators who will field questions and facilitate discussion. We’ve tried to cover several bases with educators representing different subject areas and levels.
A Special Community Gathering - There’s No One Right Way to Ungrade!
Because ungrading is essentially a liberatory practice, it cannot be held to one formula or single standard. Instead, ungrading relies on a robust community of educators to circulate, celebrate, and elevate the practice in its various forms. Lisa Wennerth, welcomes four trailblazing educators, whose upcoming article “Why There Isn’t One ‘Right Way’ to Practice Ungrading” posits ungrading as a fundamentally open, welcoming, and responsive practice for all—not just the elite few.
Community Gathering - Communication
With little or nothing recorded in the gradebook, students, families, and other caring adults may be in the dark about HOW AM I DOING? Why is the old sort of reporting problematic? What methods of communication do you use to shift the paradigm? And perhaps most importantly, WHAT should we be communicating, both inside and outside the classroom?
This year, we are hosting Community Gatherings via Google Meet, giving us a chance to meet with one another and reflect on our successes and struggles, especially ones that relate the month’s theme: Communication. TG2 founder, Arthur Chiaravalli, will be hosting our gathering on Sunday, October 30 at 1pm ET, welcoming guests who have contributed to our learning this month. Please RSVP to let us know you are coming, telling us what topics are of most interest to you so we can arrange for polls, breakout rooms, and more. And help us spread the word!
Registered guests receive an email with the link before the gathering. Hope to see you there!
Community Gathering - Why Go Gradeless?
What is going gradeless for? What pedagogies thrive within or are supported by gradeless practices? Why did you go gradeless? Why should others go gradeless?
As we’ve seen this month, there’s often a very personal story at the heart of the decision to get away from grades. Sometimes that has been a positive reason, like seeing students flourish in less-stressed environment; other times, it has been negative, like feeling crushed under the weight of constant grading-related tasks. Usually it’s some combination of both.
This year, we are hosting Community Gatherings via Google Meet, giving us a chance to meet with one another and reflect on our successes and struggles, especially ones that relate the month’s theme: Why go gradeless? Michelle Cottrell-Williams will be hosting our gathering on Sunday, September 25 at 7pm ET, welcoming guests who have contributed to our learning this month. Please RSVP to let us know you are coming, telling us what topics are of most interest to you so we can arrange for polls, breakout rooms, and more. And help us spread the word!
Registered guests receive an email with the link before the gathering. Hope to see you there!
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Ekta Sahasi
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.
Friday Livestream with Aaron Blackwelder
Aaron Blackwelder, co-founder of Teachers Going Gradeless, is a Washington State Teacher of the Year candidate, a Washington State English Teacher Fellow, boys and girls golf coach, and a contributor to Spectrum Magazine.
Friday Livestream with Arthur Chiaravalli
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Arthur as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
Friday Livestream with Aaron Blackwelder
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Aaron as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
Friday Livestream with Arthur Chiaravalli
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Arthur as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Sherri Spelic
Sherri Spelic teaches elementary physical education at American International School Vienna. She has written extensively on topics related to education, identity, and power and among other things publishes a monthly social justice newsletter for educators Bending The Arc. Check out her book of essays, Care At The Core or find her on Twitter @edifiedlistener.
Friday Livestream with Aaron Blackwelder
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Aaron as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
Friday Livestream with Arthur Chiaravalli
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Arthur as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Rachael Kettner Thompson
Rachael Kettner Thompson is a middle school science teacher in Eastern Washington whose blog post Learning Journeys: Communicating Progress in the Gradeless Classroom demonstrates how to empower students to share their own learning.
Join us this week as we learn how to foster student metacognition in the gradeless classroom.
Friday Livestream with Aaron Blackwelder
What questions do you have about going gradeless? Join Aaron as we discuss questions about going gradeless.
Starting with Strengths #TG2Chat Twitter Chat
Regardless of their level of academic success, all students have inherent strengths—whether those interests, experiences, or cultural funds of knowledge. Valuing these assets in assessment can help create classrooms built on belonging, responsiveness, and equity.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Rick Wormeli
Rick Wormeli is an experienced classroom and building educator who now writes professional articles and education books educators around the world.
In this episode of TG2Chat Live! Rick will discuss how educators can communicate learning with students and stakeholders.
Authentic Assessment
How can we communicate learning? Quest Forward Academies educators Ed Vogel, MA, MFA & Jolene Zywica, Ph.D. lead us into new ways we can better share learning with students, parents, and other stakeholders.
Communicating Learning
Learning is the purpose of school. However, reporting learning can be complicated. This week, Lisa Wennerth and Aaron Blackwelder challenge participants to consider and share how they report learning to students, parents, and stakeholders.
Why We Gave Up on Grades #TG2Chat Twitter Chat
Often there’s a very personal story at the heart of the decision to get away from grades. Arthur Chiaravalli joins Aaron Blackwelder this Sunday as #TG2Chat asks the question of why you gave up on grades, and what that journey has meant for you, your subject, and the students you teach.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Natalie Vardabasso
Natalie Vardabasso is an instructional design and assessment specialist at Calgary Academy, a special education school in Alberta, Canada. She is the host of the #EduCrush podcast where she talks with educators, innovators, and activists who are reimagining education.
Inclusive Assessment #TG2Chat Twitter Chat
School culture isn’t inclusive by accident; it’s intentional. Assessment is one area where we can be intentionally inclusive, empowering all students to meet their potential.
Join Patti Forster and Natalie Vardabasso as #TG2Chat examines how assessment practices can be more inclusive.
Accountability in a Gradeless Class
What obligations do students have? What obligations do teachers have to their students?
Join Mike McAteer and Dave Eddy as #TG2Chat focuses on accountability in the gradeless classroom.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Starr Sackstein
Join Aaron Blackwelder as he interviews Starr Sackstein, author of the book Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School, and her latest book Assessing with Respect: Everyday Practices That Meet Students' Social and Emotional Needs.
This will be a great conversation that you won’t want to miss.
“Getting Started: Setting Learning Goals”
Join Lauren Thurber and Rhonda Higgens as #TG2Chat focuses starting the year with clear learning outcomes.
“Go Gradeless in 2021: Why You Should Ditch Grades in Your Classroom”
In this edWebinar, Aaron Blackwelder and Arthur Chiaravalli, Founders of Teachers Going Gradeless, explore these effects and provide viable alternatives for more humane, effective approaches to assessment, feedback, and reporting that help students grow beyond grades.
TG2Chat LIVE! w/Barry Fishman
Join Arthur Chiaravalli as he interviews Barry Fishman, author of a new introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of Wad-Ja-Get? a revolutionary classic on grading authored by Drs. Kirschenbaum, Simon, and Napier in 1971.
Workarounds #TG2Chat Twitter Chat
Arthur Chiaravalli joins Barry Fishman to discuss the “workarounds” gradeless teachers use as they wait for the infrastructure catches up with gradeless pedagogy.
What Now? What’s New? What’s Next? #TG2Chat Twitter Chat
Vanessa and Oliver Ellis co-moderate as we take time to reflect on this pandemic year, consider what lessons we’ve learned, and orient ourselves toward a better future for our students, our communities, and ourselves.