Author Archives: Tom Murphy

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Nov 9th History

Submitted by: Tom Murphy

We continued our DEI work.

  • I posted the titles for discussion that Kalil gave to us in our department chair meeting.
  • We voted and settled on our top two choices: Decentering dominant narratives and Facilitating inclusive discussion.
  • We divide into two groups each focusing on one of the prompts.
  • Both groups then had a five-minute silent discussion posting their ideas under their respective prompts.
  • After reviewing the posts each group had a ten-minute conversation.
  • We then switched the prompts and repeated the process.
  • When both groups were done we finished with a quick round of takeaways. Each member of the department shared their key insight.
  • Everyone in the department was on time and the discussion was lively and informed.
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Jan. 21 2020 Full Department

Submitted by: Tom

21 January 2020

Attended: Tom, Michel, Ann, Peter, Amanda, Jessica, Suzanne, Charlene

We continued our discussion of standards-based grading. In our divisional meetings, the high school had moved from discussing standards-based grading would work in our history electives to writing our first standards. We decided to focus on the 9-10th grade progression. In our meeting, it was invaluable to here from the middle school department members about their experience with jump rope. They shared their list of standards. The consensus was that the standards forced them to be more focused in their assessments and made them more thoughtful about how students received feedback. They said the challenges were that students still focused too much on the overall number they earn in the term. Also, given time constraints, not all standards could be repeated enough to get a clear sense of a student’s level of mastery. They cautioned us against developing too many standards.

After the cross-divisional discussion I met with the middle school teachers to hear what they wanted to work on. They decided they would like some time to work together on updating their curriculum. A half-day PD seemed best.

Standards-Based Grading Across the Divisions

Software: Jump Rope

Middle school range of grades from 1-4