It's the final countdown!!!

Wow! It's November... This year sort of feels like it is flying by! This section of ALC 9 has certainly flown by, as it is my first time completing the course as a quarter option, rather than a half year option. I am very happy with the change in length, as it made students work a little bit harder to complete their chosen challenges. Are there still a few students who have not completed a full challenge? Yes, unfortunately there are a few students scrambling to get their challenges done by Friday morning, but I have a feeling their typical junior high procrastination will be sorted out by the time our Trade Fair rolls out on November 4th. 

Towards the end of this block, I will be handing out a student self-reflection activity to help me understand a little bit more of their thought process on how well their challenge turned out. I will use this reflection to offer them additional feedback about their challenges at the Trade Fair on Friday, but also to help me determine their final "grade" on PowerSchool. As this is a CTF course, I will be using the formative scale decided upon by our school to offer students a score of Excellent, Proficient, Satisfactory, Limited, or Insufficient. I will also add direct feedback in the form of a written comment specific to each student (and their project) to support the assigned letter "grade." 

Abbreviations to report Formative Assessments are:

E	Excellent	Exemplary performance of outcome(s); evidence shows indepth understanding and independent work habits.
P	Proficient	Skilled performance of outcome(s); evidence shows solid understanding and occasionally guided  work habits.
S	Satisfactory	Acceptable performance of outcome(s); evidence shows generally accurate understanding and guided work habits.
L	Limited	Partial performance of outcomes; evidence shows inaccurate understanding and ongoing support is needed during work.
I	Insufficient	Insufficient evidence to show the student has an acceptable performance of the outcome(s).  The work must be improved and resubmitted.

Here are some pictures of students putting the final touches on their projects: