KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL: Newest version of Eagle News

MYERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Improving math skills

Mrs. Barnard's kindergarten class at Myers Elementary School learned a new math game in recently. It improved counting skills as well as number recognition.

BLAIR MOODY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Silly String is king!

Students at Blair Moody Elementary School had their choice of many rewards for their good behavior. By far the most popular choice was getting to Silly String the principal!

TOMMIE SAYLOR: How about a system that actually depicts learning over grades

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”

-- Socrates

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

At times we make things more complicated than necessary.  Why?  Perhaps it is human nature to take something simple and make it complicated. Perhaps it’s in our efforts to address every problem in our pursuit for perfection.  With goodwill and honest intent, we create systems that harm those we wish to help, those we are sworn to serve.

I speak of the manner in which grades are assigned.  A grade is an indication of the level of mastery a student has acquired over the content material taught.  But, it today’s schools, an assigned grade is often speckled with so many impurities that its value is easily brought into question. 

If a student is a discipline issue in class, we shave off a few points. If the student turns in an assignment late, we shave off a few points. If the student brings in a box of Kleenex, we add a few points. If a student stays after and helps us clean up or set up, we add a few points. There’s extra credit, bonus questions … points, points and more points.

In high school and middle school it is all about points. 

It is not about what the student has learned; it’s all about the student jumping through enough hoops to earn enough points to receive a specific grade. The focus is not on learning. It is on earning points.

Because of this, our students have learned to “play the game.”  They have learned which assignments they do not need to worry about, which assignments they can just skip and not complete, which concepts don’t hold enough points to bother learning. 

Our students have learned how to manipulate the system.  Simply, our students are learning to focus on points earned not on concepts learned. Ask a student and they will instantly and expertly tell you how many points they have to earn a specific grade, and what “hoops they have to jump through.”

Yet if you ask them what they have learned, you will be confronted with an awkward silence and blank stare.

I think the elementary may have gotten it right. Look at an elementary report card and you will see a long list of concepts and a rubric detailing the student’s mastery of the listed concepts.  Ask a pupil what they have learned, and they are anxious to share with you all their newly acquired skills. 

In the elementary, the focus is on learning, not on the acquisition of points.  Elementary teachers don’t grade students based on behavior, attendance and/or compliance. Pupils are evaluated by the mastery over content.

If we wish to advance as an educational institution, we need to return to our roots.  We need to cast off the shackles of an antiquated grading system that does not serve the needs of our students, that is not focused on learning, and conveys false messages.  We need to return the purity back to our methodology of evaluating the level of proficiency our students have acquired in their explorations of content material.

What starts here, changes the world. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.

KINYON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Students beat the Wings in a shoot out ... honest!

Kinyon Elementary School welcomed the Detroit Red Wings to talk to the kids about education and dedication. The staff and students had fun in the resulting shoot out. The students won, 3-2. Children are selling Red Wings tickets to raise funds for student activities.

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Classes make ghosts out of paper

On Halloween, third and fourth grade students in Mrs. Van's and Ms. Donaldson's classes at McDowell Elementary School made ghosts out of tissue paper.  They then rubbed balloons on their heads to create static electricity to make the ghosts move around.

MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Loving the latest read

Ms. Donaldson's fourth-grade class at McDowell Elementary School has fallen in love with her latest read aloud by Lemony Snicket called "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

The first words they say when they come to the library are, "Is my hold for Lemony Snicket in?'

"A Series of Unfortunate Events" is the story of the three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Claus and Sunny. The books are narrated by Lemony Snicket, a mysterious man who follows the story through clues passed on through a secret organization known only as the V.F.D.

The series begins with the three children losing their parents in a fire. Consequently, a banker named Mr. Poe takes charge of the children and leaves them with the nearest relative, Count Olaf. The children, however, are dubious to the fact that Olaf is actually a relative. Olaf and his troupe become the villains of the series.

McDowell recommends these books to the world!