Organizing Marks for Outcome Based Report Cards

If there is one thing I have learned from my short time as a teacher it is that you can never get too comfortable with what you are doing because someone is bound to come along and change it!

As I head into report card time again I find myself scrambling trying to figure out where I put my assessments and what marks to give my students. I am usually a very organized person and in my first year of teaching I spent a lot of time creating a marks book that worked for me. Then last year my district made the shift to outcomes based reporting which has resulted in a year and a half of me trying to find a new way to organize my marks book. Hence the scramble... it took a while to find one.

If you are not familiar with outcomes based reporting it is a method of reporting where teachers mark and report on specific outcomes which come from the Program of Studies or States Standards document. I think it's great to be able to show parents exactly what has been learned, what topics/skills students understood well, and what topics/skills require more practice. The challenge comes in finding a way to organize my marks in a way that makes sense and ensures I have enough assessment for each of the report card outcomes.

After months of searching I think I have finally found a method that will work for me! It is so simple I cannot believe it took me this long to find it but now that I have I feel way more relaxed and organized.

Here is my breakthrough!

(Sorry about the horrible picture.. hopefully you can see enough of it that it makes sense.)

 I cannot take credit for this idea as I heard about it at our Teacher's Convention but still thought I would share it with you.

This is the marks book page I am using for our current unit on Measurement. It fills half a page and I print one for each student. In the left hand column are the outcomes that I will teach in the unit. Along the top of the page are the assessments I will use to determine students' marks. Of course I also leave room at the bottom to add any comments or observations I feel are necessary.

Sure it takes a little planning before hand to decide what I am going to take in for marks and what I am going to use to guide future teaching but the pay off, for me anyway, is totally worth it. The grey spaces show that the assessment in the top row does not connect to that specific outcome. I try to make sure each outcome has at least 2 assessments that I can use to report on student learning so that if a student has a bad day it doesn't effect their overall mark.

At the end of the unit I take any assessment pages I can (in this case it would be everything except their math journal pages) and attach it to the marks book sheet. That way I have everything together if a parent wants to see how I came up with the mark given on the report card.

It is definitely not rocket science and doesn't use any fancy technology but I find it helps keep me accountable with my marking - I tend to put it off a little too long - and keeps my student assessments organized and handy.

If you would like a copy of the template feel free to email me or leave a comment below and I will gladly share it with you!

Welcome to the Balancing Act

Wow! I am just starting to realize how long it has been since I posted anything to my blog. Thank you to those who have still been stopping by to check it out even with no new posts showing up. In true teaching fashion life has become completely crazy these past weeks. My husband and I are the athletic coordinators at our school and have been coaching all our 5/6 sports teams for the past few years. This year we had a number of our junior high students ask if we could have a 7/8 team as well. We tried to find some parents to help out with coaching but had no luck. So without really considering what we were getting ourselves into we agreed to coach 4 teams between the two of us. Needless to say it has been a crazy start to 2014!

All this has served to remind me how important it is to maintain a work/life balance. I love the opportunity to coach because it means I get to interact with more students from the school. Extracurricular activities mean so much to students which makes it worthwhile for me to volunteer a little extra time each year. However as I am learning this year there comes a point when you have to say no and pull back a little for the sake of your own energy and passion.

For any of you who are new to teaching I would like to give you the following advice - Find something you are passionate about, whether it is sports, art, music, board games, or something else, and introduce it to your students. Don't be afraid to volunteer some time for extracurricular because I can promise you the benefits will outweigh the time costs. My husband and I love coaching sports and have been able to set up a wonderful athletics program at our school. The joy we see in the students' faces makes the volunteer time completely worth every minute.

In the same breath, don't be afraid to say no if you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work and time being asked of you. If you are being stretched too thin you may find your passion dwindling and the time you spend with the students begins to feel like more work.

As teachers we have so many opportunities to work with students and help them find activities they are passionate about. For me that opportunity is coaching and I love every minute of it! How about you?

The Almost Organized Teacher: My Basic Organization Rules

One of my big goals for this year is to work on my organization skills. I am notorious for piling papers on various surfaces until I am no longer sure what still needs to be marked, what needs to be put away, what needs to be sent for printing, and what can be put in the recycle bin. This year I would like to improve on this and keep my desk and papers organized. In my few years of experience I have discovered what works and doesn't work for me and I would like to share a few basic rules I have discovered when it comes to staying organized and creating a system that works.

Organization Rule #1: Organization takes time and consistency.
No matter what system you may use to keep yourself organized it only works if you take the time to use it. For myself I am still trying to develop the habit of clearing off surfaces on a daily basis. In other words I need to take a few minutes every day and put everything away, whether it is supplies we used in Science, a homework assignment the students handed in today, or extra copies left over from the day's lessons. The big thing to remember is that moving clutter from a table to a teacher's desk doesn't count. This is a big thing for me to keep in mind as I am still working on defeating my tendency to simply pile stuff on my desk so I can ignore get to it later. So far I haven't managed to accomplish this completely every day and that is fine... creating new habits takes time. If I don't get to it every day I definitely make sure I take time on Friday afternoon to catch up and make sure everything is clear and ready to go for a new week.

This week was no exception. Here is a picture of my small group working table from Friday after school. Don't worry this pile wasn't there during the school day... I moved it off of my desk so I could get some work done.

 Before I left today I made sure to put everything back in its place and now both my desk and my small group table are ready for the students again on Monday. I am still working at making sure I devote the time and consistency needed to keep things organized but I can already see improvement from last year :)

Organization Rule #2: Put your spin on whatever system you decide to use.
I have spent a lot of time looking at other teacher's classrooms and marveling over their systems for staying organized. I'm the type of person who tends to find an idea and jump in with both feet before I really think things through. (Don't worry, I'm getting better at that too!) The result is I have tried a variety of different organization techniques in the past two years and they have all taught me one thing... just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for me. Of course I encourage you to still look at what other teachers have done as there is no reason to re-invent the wheel and there are a lot of fantastic teachers out there who have been doing this a lot longer than I have. However you need to look at their systems and decide what parts of it may or may not work for you and make a system that works for you and your organizational needs. There is also some trial and error involved... at least that is the case for me.

Organization Rule #3: Be ready to change your system if needed.
As I said earlier, I have tried a few different systems for keeping myself organized. While I don't necessarily recommend changing your system completely, especially in the middle of the year (been there, done that, it doesn't work very well) you need to be ready to try different things if your system doesn't seem to be working. It takes a while to come up with a system for things that suits you and works within the demands of the job. Remember that you will get there! I'm pretty sure I have... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In a future post I will go over some of the systems I am using for keeping myself organized this year. Don't expect them to be revolutionary, in fact most of them you will probably have seen before. Just in case you haven't though... stay tuned.