As a teacher candidate, I understand that maintaining accurate documentation is essential, responsible, and legally obligated. From accident reports, taxes and spending in classrooms to the student's grades, the seriousness of keeping accurate records is a vital part of being a teacher, with severe consequences with liabilities if I do not. I have seen this in my career and thoroughly understand my duties and obligations. In the fall classes in EDUC 426 Creating Learning Communities, my professor, Dr. Wylie, gave our class an assignment to create a mock Classroom grade book and do an analysis of the grades to find the connections between the grades, the student performance and discover ways we can look at the data and pull information out to provide data-driven decision-making. "Data-driven decision-making (sometimes abbreviated as D.D.D.M.) is the process of using data to inform your decision-making process and validate a course of action before committing to it" (Stobierski, 2019). In my assignment, I have attached the results for the convincing of references; the trends can be seen in the mock grade book in three different styles of ways to track data across the grade book and how I would organize and keep my files in a proper alignment to K.C.S. grading which follows the W.V.D.E.'s grading scales. This accomplishment of maintaining accurate records fills me with a sense of pride and satisfaction.

 

The significance of the mock grade book assignment, in my experience, is that I had no prior knowledge. No teacher had shown me how to use a system to develop a grading scale or maintain records like grades in a way like this. I found a way that I adapted and used quickly because, as my learning style, I can start learning how to repeat once I start doing. I copied that grade book for my use in my EDUC 426 Residency. I have organized my data further to provide the data from the effectiveness of my lessons. I believe in data-driven decision-making, and I see that the numbers that support the student's academic success, and each number tells a story; class averages can say to a story, and individual numbers can draw a different picture. The number of missing assignments can even paint the picture of home life or additional supports that may need to be in place for specific students before the time is too late. It is best to keep the records updated quickly to monitor these trends because students' learning can fluctuate with lessons, new concepts, and strategies.

 

Another example of maintaining accurate records is my action research project, Social Emotional Learning (S.E.L.), enriched with data-driven decision-making. This is my friendship chain, which is based on the ideas of the works of Dr. Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset and the authors Annie Brock and Heather Hundley from their book The Growth Mindset Playbook: A Teacher's Guide to Promoting Student Success. This project allows students to self-reflect, record their behaviors, and monitor their moods. This is to create a classroom environment with desired behaviors in a supportive manner facilitated by the teacher, which is rewarding and self-reflecting in writing from the students as they report back to me their feelings upon their actions. This project is in alignment with the school's R.O.A.R.S. School-wide P.B.I.S. program (Dweck, 2008).

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The data accumulated shows the value of the growth mindset in how students perceive the tasks. What I especially love about this research program I conducted in my classroom is that it is an entire project with a new spin, reflecting an idea from renowned psychologist Carl Rogers, "Unconditional Positive Regard," which is "a humanistic approach to psychotherapy developing healthy and productive relationships at school and beyond." Students learn respect for themselves and others, model desirable behaviors for peers, and self-reflect on these moments; these behaviors are reinforced and valued in the classroom (Brock & Hundley, 2017).

 

I record the data I accumulate in my folder for the students during the period I wish to test, which I am testing and compare the average mood on months or students and see how they feel for tasks or days when they completed a task. This gives me a better understanding of the students and how to work towards meeting them with obtaining desired behaviors. If a student shows that they did not receive that many links, I can ask questions like, "Why have I not observed these behaviors?" or "Have I overlooked a student and not seen what they are doing?" "Maybe they do not wish to do things that are noticable?" Not all students are the same, so setting the standards for all student's requirements to receive the link would not be as fair as allowing students to earn them this way based on individual capability. For example, one day, a student was working very hard, and when he was usually observed not being as engaged, I would award him/her a slip. A student who usually stays quiet but decides to engage in a lesson would earn one, but for a student who answers all the questions all the time,  it would not be fair to give him/her one every time. This is an application of incorporation of the Holistic from HUMAN Developer into my education philosophy.