Happy Holidays! First and foremost...the Algebros want to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays and hope for a great new year in 2015! We appreciate all of your support for what we do!
So I started thinking about my holiday wish. Obviously I have many, a brazillion dollars,a hoverboard or flying car (Back To The Future II promised me these things by now) or even the off chance LeBron James still has some high school eligibility and suddenly moved to my school. I'm a bit of a realist though...so I'll just sit and wait for my brazillion dollars patiently.
So my realistic wish....I wish that my kids could get credit for learning. Sounds crazy right? Well, let me explain.
When the Algebros started this journey 4 years ago we didn't fully understand all the benefits of flipped mastery. We truly just wanted to implement a system that held students accountable for actual LEARNING, not just DOING. We were impressed with it right away. We know its not perfect, but we're thrilled with how much our students learn. When I think about how difficult systems of equations was for my Algebra I students just 5 years ago without flipped mastery and how much easier it is for them now....well I'm overjoyed!
We soon discovered that we have some kids who just SWALLOW their learning instead of sipping on it day by day. Some of these students do high quality work and are able to finish our year long courses much faster...because as you all know...kids are different. Some move faster than others. Some move slower than others.
We have kids who in two school years could finish THREE math courses! I don' t mean go through the material and do the requirements. I mean...they have MASTERED three courses...tested out of EVERY SINGLE topic in Algebra, Geometry and Algebra II.
The problem? We aren't allowed to give them credit for this because of SEAT TIME. That's right. Carnegie units are based on the number of hours kids spend in a seat (or classroom). Is it based on whether they learn the material? Minimally in my opinion.
The message to me is this..."Kids...just come to school....do the minimum amount of work and you'll get your credit." Its pretty frustrating for me to be honest. I understand this and I'm probably a bit dramatic about this.
I just don't understand how in the 21st century we require a kid to sit in a room for x number of hours even if they learned the material in x - 20 hours. Why we hold our students BACK at all makes no sense to me.
Guess its over my pay grade.
Happy Holidays,
Sully
So I started thinking about my holiday wish. Obviously I have many, a brazillion dollars,a hoverboard or flying car (Back To The Future II promised me these things by now) or even the off chance LeBron James still has some high school eligibility and suddenly moved to my school. I'm a bit of a realist though...so I'll just sit and wait for my brazillion dollars patiently.
So my realistic wish....I wish that my kids could get credit for learning. Sounds crazy right? Well, let me explain.
When the Algebros started this journey 4 years ago we didn't fully understand all the benefits of flipped mastery. We truly just wanted to implement a system that held students accountable for actual LEARNING, not just DOING. We were impressed with it right away. We know its not perfect, but we're thrilled with how much our students learn. When I think about how difficult systems of equations was for my Algebra I students just 5 years ago without flipped mastery and how much easier it is for them now....well I'm overjoyed!
We soon discovered that we have some kids who just SWALLOW their learning instead of sipping on it day by day. Some of these students do high quality work and are able to finish our year long courses much faster...because as you all know...kids are different. Some move faster than others. Some move slower than others.
We have kids who in two school years could finish THREE math courses! I don' t mean go through the material and do the requirements. I mean...they have MASTERED three courses...tested out of EVERY SINGLE topic in Algebra, Geometry and Algebra II.
The problem? We aren't allowed to give them credit for this because of SEAT TIME. That's right. Carnegie units are based on the number of hours kids spend in a seat (or classroom). Is it based on whether they learn the material? Minimally in my opinion.
The message to me is this..."Kids...just come to school....do the minimum amount of work and you'll get your credit." Its pretty frustrating for me to be honest. I understand this and I'm probably a bit dramatic about this.
I just don't understand how in the 21st century we require a kid to sit in a room for x number of hours even if they learned the material in x - 20 hours. Why we hold our students BACK at all makes no sense to me.
Guess its over my pay grade.
Happy Holidays,
Sully