Grading

I think grades are very important in school. The purpose of grades and testing is to assess you on a certain topic. Then when the teacher grades it, you will get a letter grade to show where you stand and how much understanding you show towards the current topic. This current system is based off a 100 point scale and it's usually 90 - 100 is an A. 80-89 is a B, and so on. Or somewhere close to that.I think the current system quite accurately shows students learning and understanding. It gives an exact percentage which categorizes you into a letter grade. This letter grade shows how good you're doing or exactly how much you need to improve.

Standards-based grading is very different. In this it gives the student a very general idea of where they are. This helps teachers reduce the amount of paperwork they have to do according to this site. Which allows them to have more time to think out the next days lesson plan or anything else equally important. However, it does not give the student an exact standing. In short, the grading is very broad.

I favor the traditional grading system more because it will tell me exactly how much I need to improve. Where as, the standards will only tell me if i'm proficient, not proficient, or advanced proficient. Now most people would say what's wrong with only knowing that. However, as a gifted student, I want to know exactly how much I know where I need improvement. An advanced proficient  could be anywhere from an 80-100 or maybe 85- 100. Most people are okay with B's but not everyone. I myself think of getting B's as bad.  So the standards won't be as explanatory. The traditional system is much better than the standard system.

Creativity Crisis

The Ted Talk and article really made me rethink creativity. I never thought about how much schools are killing creativity. I was really interested in the point Ken Robinson said about the dancer. It proves how creativity can help you in life. She became a professional dancer when someone told her she had to move to learn. But someone else who doesn't appreciate creativity would just tell her to calm down. It shows teachers who believe in direct directions and no originality will not help all students. It's better to teach with creativity somehow involved with their teaching style. I have experienced lack of creativity in certain classes. Teachers state you have to do something a certain way. Even math can have different solutions to problems. Instead of thinking one way you can think of many different solutions. Ken Robinson said schools are destroying creativity and I agree. The creativity crisis article states that you can learn creativity as long as you practice, like basketball. Which teachers need to start to do.

This creativity crisis will affect the future a lot. Even now, world wide problems can be solved only with creative solutions. Like making peace in Afghanistan.  So in the future when new problems occur, we should have new ideas and solutions. This is very important and we have to continue the creativity that came from us when we were kindergartners. According to the article, creative students with teachers who are tolerant of too much curiosity and wrong answers tend to excel. When they don't they tend to drop out of high school. This shows how much we need teachers including creativity. Once we do that, creativity will no longer suffer.