What I Hate About June

1. Awards
Ever since I read Chris Wejr's post Death of an Award's Ceremony I have been thinking of how we could change how awards are given in my school. This year there was a lot of controversy and conflict over how awards are given.
At HRS we use 4 core + Physical Education averages for honours. Students get an award for the classes they receive over 80% in. If they get all 4 core over 80% (not an average of the 4 classes, but over 80% in each) they get invited to an evening awards ceremony where they receive a medallion. We also have top achiever awards for each grade (boy and girl) and for overall top mark in the school. At the evening ceremony there are also special awards for various other achievements.
There are several philosophical issues for me with this whole process.

• There is no consistency for giving marks or how they are weighted. Some teachers grade behaviours like participation or organization or effort. Some teachers give zeros, some don't. Some teachers give bonus marks, some don't. Assignments, quizzes, tests etc. are weighted differently by each teacher. Some teachers average percents and others do a running total of raw score. You can see how this could create an inequality between students in core classes taught by different teachers.
• Many of the special awards have "outgoing" as one of the criteria. We do not have any special awards for introverts. Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking has reminded the educational community that we need to value the contributions and achievements of these students as well.
• Why are we still segregating boys and girls!? We have had to give a boy with an 80% an award for top grade 9 male, but not give an award to 3 girls who had averages over 95%. He deserved to be recognized but those girls didn't?
• The cut off to submit grades for analysis is the end of May. So any assessments in June (including final exams) are not "counted". This means some students actually end up with less than 80% (no, we don't take away their award) and some get over 80% (they are invited to the ceremony in the following year).

2. PATs and Final Exams
I know how my students score on their PATs (or final exams) isn't necessarily a reflection of their knowledge, skills and attitudes and it doesn't show the growth the students have achieved over the year, but I have been catching myself say "This will be on the PAT" and I feel compelled to spend time reviewing before the exam. Reviewing instead of engaging my students in learning something else. I don't want them to do poorly on this test because of course some of my students really care about how well they do on tests and some are putting a lot of pressure on themselves (and me) to do well.

3. Meeting Student Needs
I teach science to 64 students and I feel like I have just started to fully understand how to meet some of the complex needs they have. The class I struggled with most at the beginning of the school year has finally started to engage. And I only get to teach them for 4 more days (and we are doing review!).

4. Grades
I have to give a student ONE grade that sums up an entire year of their learning. There are over 200 outcomes in the science curriculum. What does this grade even mean!?

Of course there is a lot to love about June too.