Enrichment is Essential for All Students
It’s true, students likely have not learned what they would have in a pre-Covid, fully in-person school year. Standards of where a student should be, at a certain grade level, are defined. Schools that use competency based grading systems and or that are a high functioning PLC may also have defined what is essential [...]
3 Tips for Making Virtual Office Hours More Effective
Many schools and educators are using 'office hours' to meet with students and set aside time to give them the extra help and one-to-one communication they need. You may think of office hours just being something that college professors use but they can be effective for high schools, and even middle schools as well. [...]
Competency-Based Education: Rethinking Grading Practices
Competency-based education focuses on student learning and mastery of skills, not seat time. Many schools have begun to, or have already shifted to this type of model.Students benefit from competency-based education because it's more flexible, and ensures that they really learn a concept. It's not based on a traditional model where students are required to [...]
Time for Change: Building Buy In
Is your school thinking of adding a flex period to its schedule, but struggling to get buy-in? And how do you find time in the school day for a flexible period when your schedule is already packed? When schools are looking to make changes to their schedule, these are often two major roadblocks. It can [...]
PLCs and Flex Time: A Strategy to Meet the Needs of All Students
A flex period, also referred to as a flex block, activity period, WIN time, advisory (and more), is something many schools have added or are thinking about adding to their school schedule. Why? Flex periods allow teachers to give students time, for extra help, remediation, intervention, enrichment, genius hour, etc. Essentially, a flex period is [...]
Genius Hour, Reinvented
Genius Hour isn't a new concept. Schools take roughly an hour and allow students to work on something they really want to work on. It may be easier to do this in elementary schools than middle or high schools, when students are taking so many classes, where do you find the time? Some schools have [...]