The Countdown to Launch
A year ago I started using Sown to Grow in my 6th grade math class at Caliber Beta Academy in Richmond, CA. This came about through a casual conversation over coffee with the founder Rupa Gupta where she explained how Sown to Grow’s process builds student agency and improved learning outcomes.
I was immediately interested in using Sown to. Grow to help my students track their grades, connect their actions to their progress, and set goals that would help them gain ownership of their academic data and ultimately, their learning. The process of recoding data, setting goals, and revising goals was not a new concept for me as a teacher. However, I was spending an extraordinary amount of time managing a paper process and struggled to give real-time feedback on student goals. The process was not timely or sustainable for me or my students.
And that’s where Sown to Grow came in. I could now provide my students the “space” to record their grades and a “platform” to track progress and receive timely feedback. The interface was easy to use and students enjoyed getting to display their feelings with emoji-like icons before each reflection. I liked that setup was simple and I could now have all my students’ goals in one location.
I used Sown to Grow throughout the past year and saw greater potential for its use at Caliber. During the last trimester I piloted an “Advisory” template that would allow students to enter grades from all classes into the platform and create academic or personal goals that I would provide feedback. The pilot produced promising results in improving growth mindset and confidence in students, as well as strong feelings of pride and ownership over the grades students received.
That brings us to now. This Friday, September 21, Caliber Beta Academy will be launching Sown to Grow in our 6th-8th grade classes using the “Advisory” template. Each week students will be imputing their grades from all their classes and setting weekly SMART goals. I am excited to capture the journey of my school as we experience the GLOWS and GROWS of implementing Sown to Grow in 16 classrooms with over 250 students.
I hope this honest and real-time perspective will be a helpful input as we push our collective thinking as educators on how students can lead in their learning!
