Today was our first official day back at work, and in the morning our teachers rotated through 5 or 6 different classrooms with a different type of instruction occurring in each. I was one of the presenters, and I instructed on how to set up our online grading program. There are some good ways, and some not-so-good ways, to set up the online grade book, and my goal was to give options how to set up a grade book using the good ways.
What constitutes "good", you might ask, and that's a good question! And the answer just came to me, and it was so fun that I used for each group of teachers that came in today. A "good" setup is one that allows us to avoid "the 3 C's"--calls, complaints, and conferences.
It's not that I don't think teachers should talk to or meet with parents, it's just that I don't think teachers should have to do so unnecessarily. I just have to believe that given a choice between going home or dealing with questions about how grades are calculated, most teachers would choose the former. Set up your grade book in an intelligent, reasonable, and defensible manner, and you won't have to explain or justify it to people. Save those interactions with parents for things more important than how the computer calculates grades.
We should strive to avoid or minimize the 3 C's: calls, complaints, and conferences. Good planning helps do that.
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