 To talk about how competency-based education is here in our school, we kind of got to go back to what we had before it. Listen, listen. One of my biggest concerns is that we never really let class discussions or engage kids on a level in which we really went deep inside the standards to really understand them. Quite frankly, we were not going into the depth of the standard. All right, go ahead and get started. I'm going to step back here with this group. In most cases in my regular classes, if I were to get an 85 on, say, a test, that would be the end of it. I would not be able to go back to it or redo it to learn the skill completely. And with the competency-based system, you can completely learn the entire topic. Competency-based education class looks pretty much like a normal class, except that a lot of differentiation is going on and kids are doing work at their own pace. If you are working on the lab, you should have. For example, in my class, today we were learning about balancing equations. That's one of those topics that some kids get very quickly and some kids need some more practice on. So I went over some examples. I had some kids work out some problems. I did a quick formative assessment to determine who already understood it very quickly and who needed a little extra help. So the kids who understood it went ahead and started the lab. The kids who didn't came to the back of the room and we worked out several more problems until I felt more comfortable that they understood the process. So in competency-based education, you have the opportunity for 100% of the kids to learn 100% of the material. One of the most interesting parts of implementing competency-based education for me as a longtime administrator was I discovered, even though I had teachers that had the growth mindset, I had to give them permission to set aside the rules, to set aside how we always did things. Once I did that, it was like freedom. So we were looking at standards, how they were, retake policies, trying to eliminate rules for learning, and trying to get some authentic assessment and grading and mastery going along. We did that through the Tennessee Department of Education. In a competency-based class, I'm able to spend extra time on the areas that they need to work on. In a regular class, I would follow the scope and sequence. And if a student hasn't mastered, let's say, literary analysis, then they're going to get a poor score on that essay and we continue to move on. And you're matching on the monthly payment. I want you to show me your boards. I've really enjoyed it because the atmosphere in my classroom is totally different. The kids, if they get a paperback, they don't wad it up, they don't get angry. You know, in the past, it's like, I'll never learn this, forget it, and throw it away. They look at it, they analyze it right there, and then they're like, oh yeah, I just did this one little thing wrong. All you have to do is fix that one little thing and you're good to go. So I think they feel better about math class because it's not an all or nothing, it's a not yet. The biggest change that I've seen is that now our teachers are really focusing on those standards. Going to the depth of the standard, understanding how to teach to that depth of the standard, so that our students now can actually speak to the standard, talk to the standard, be able to analyze it, tell you what they understand about it, what they don't understand about it. So those are the great things that we have seen. She used an interesting one. She used the standard about determining the meaning of words and phrases. They got really good at saying, hey, I know why I have to retake this. I really didn't show the explicitness of complex characters, and so they got really comfortable with the standards. Montrester continued to tolerate the inconsiderate math. The language changed a lot, which held me accountable a lot more because I had to give the kind of feedback that would show them what's missing. So it actually made me a better educator. What is the competency here for this lab? Yes, Ella? That is to learn about atomic mass and how it affects reactions. So competency-based education is a different system of learning that instead of going by this 100-point scale, which is one test, one day, testing your performance just that once, instead it's kind of testing what you actually know. It's, hey, I didn't get that. I'm going to go back and actually learn that. Other classes, if you don't study one day, like if you forget or you don't understand the topic, you can't go back, so it puts more stress on you if you fail a quiz because you can't retake it. Like I'm not saying you don't work for math, you stop putting the effort and stuff, but the other classes are more stressful because you have to do it right the first time. I feel like after each topic that we learn or new problems or anything like that, I fully understand them, like I know. Me too. I will tell you that we happen to be a part of the Tennessee Department of Ed Cavents and Z-based pilot, so we got some pre-advice that was now invaluable. One of the things we had to do was write out a communication plan. It is the one most invaluable tool that I have learned. We had to first be able to put it into words and into written words, what we were doing and why, and why it was beneficial. Then we had to get it to parents. The parents have been on board 100% of the time. I feel like the school did a great job of communicating early and often the structure and just the overall idea of what competency-based education was. And that was extremely important because we always view the parents as partners in education. My struggle came with organization. I have kids coming in to retake one of 15 different pieces. But once you get your groove in, just be prepared. When I make up an assessment, I immediately make up the reassessment and I immediately make up the extra practice or design that activity. I give all students a student tracker. They know which competencies we are going to work on and what mastery of that looks like at the beginning of each quarter. So they can track their own data. I also track their data. They're allowed to redo things that they are struggling with. You're only 16, you're only supposed to do one kind of mission. In our other classes, it's very difficult to target what to begin at. But with the competency-based system, it maps out exactly what level you should start at and progress through and maps out what mastery looks like. They didn't get a lot of options in the beginning. It was more important that they understood all the standards. We graduated from one assignment being very explicit about how this relates to this specific standard to, alright, now you have two options. We just started, folks, and I'm studying this, but gradually it got to that. It's like they showed me what they needed and I just had to adjust to what worked for them. If what's the most important thing as an educator is for the students to learn and to love learning and to own their learning, then competency-based implementation is definitely the way to move toward. It takes time. It's not a one-year program. It is a mind shift that is deep and it can be embedded deeply into the culture of your school if you're willing to give it time and the work towards it.