Middlehood Madness: My report on report cards

Report Card Trouble

Okay, so my colleague and I had this fabulous idea. Truthfully, it was hers and I decided that I would set the goal for myself as well. With report cards looming around the corner the goal was to write one learning skill comment each day for the month of May. One.

Seems simple doesn't it?

I thought this would be perfect. I could look right at the empty student desk and type right after class. Save it and later copy it into the report card writing program.

This idea was awesome for two reasons. One it would help with writers block. I prefer each one of my learning skills to be very different. No cookie cutter learning skills. As a parent I truly would love that idea, but as a teacher it is so difficult to come up with ten different ways to say the same thing.

Here is my official report card for writing my reports.

There you have it. My confession of only one learning skill written. Yikes. It is already May 10th! I think I truly do work better under pressure.

To help with the report card writer's block, which I at times have struggled with, I am sharing a site with you. Another colleague of mine(same colleague with the May goal) happen to stumble across this in her own hunt for report card assistance. What a gem this is. The author of this blog has posted sentence starters for learning skills. SWEET. Just for those times when you need that little ~~kick in the pants~~ boost while writing. Thank you for posting this delicious resource. Check it out here at Teachingzcool.

A great strategy that I have done for the past four years in my classroom is to send home a weekly report to the parents. It takes time I admit to do on Friday or a Thursday on a short week but SO worth it. The weekly report tells the parents a little brief overview of the child's learning skills for the week. The parent is required to sign it on the weekend and return it on the following day back to school. It gives the parents and students a look at the trends and patterns in behaviour. The extra bonus....is no surprises with report cards. The students know that they have been getting Ns for several weeks so when they see an N on their actual report card it is expected. Parents have a chance to help and ask how to help their child. I have received nothing but positive feedback from parents. They do enjoy the weekly report. Here is a snap shot of it. You can pick it up in my new store.