That’s right folks, the big news for the new school year is Learning Skills and Work Habits is the new direction and focus of the new report card system in the province of New Brunswick.
With every new school year, there are usually new things. New changes in teacher positions, new teachers being hired to replace teachers who either move or have retired or for most years its obviously new students, however, this year I have moved up a grade following my grade 6 class from last year up to grade 7.
Nope, this year it isn’t the students that are new, but the way we assess and evaluate them. Yup, the big change is the move to a new report card and grading system in New Brunswick and the focus on learning skills and work habits.
That’s right folks, its out with the old and in with the new for the New Brunswick Education System.
This year the province of New Brunswick has been rolling out a new report card for K-8. My school district will be reporting to parents about their children’s progress using this new report card this school year for the first time.
With anything new there will always be a learning curve and while most people hate change, I actually like it… as long as I have a heads up and LOTS of time to process it, think about it and prepare for it…
I try to be as transparent as I can when it comes to assessing my students. I spend a fair amount of time at the beginning of the school year discussing with my students how I will be assessing them, what I am looking for, how I am looking for it and why we do the things we do. I really want my student to understand exactly what I am looking for so there is no grey areas later on down the road…so with that being said, I will no doubt go over the new report card with my students including the section of learning skills and work habits.
I am focusing on learning skills and work habits on the blog today because after having spoken to a few High School teachers during our latest round of PD’s, I asked them a simple question,
” If Middle school students came to you knowing ____,
what would be your top three wishes?
I was totally surprised by their answers…. here I was thinking they were going to say that they wished they would know the content better, or have a better handle on the concepts taught…nope, it wasn’t a curricular concern at all…. it was a “work habits of the students” issue as well as an attitude towards their learning.
One teacher told me that as long as students knew how to learn, she would certainly be able to handle teaching them the curriculum.
Growth mindset, attitude, motivations, learning skills and work habits… these will be my focus on the upcoming school year.
Now it should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway…I’m always curricular driven, that is of course my mandated responsibility, however, I know that I need to provide my students with what they’ll need as well… SKILLS…They need skills to become life long learners, and eventually employable contributing members of society.
When I first learned of the new changes to our report card and grading system, I sat down with my husband and owner of TPT store Shoreside Studio and asked him to created a series of posters I could use in my classroom. I explained the 5 new learning skills and work habits and he designed these posters for me.
Learning Skills and Work Habits
These new learning skills and work habits posters will not only serve as a visual reminder for my students, but will also be a reminder for myself.
I know I am a visual learner and I am learning how to assess my students this year based on this new report card. I need to be reminded daily of my focus so that I don’t find myself inundated with “% of content assessments” and very little skill based assessment data.
Again this is new to me and I am sure there will be an evolution in my thinking and practices, but I invite you to follow me on this journey.
Has your district moved to a different system? What system is your district currently using? Drop me a comment below and let me know.
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