missions

Yeah!

Hi Nyon,

Thanks for sharing your voice here! Unfortunately, we have already begun to fade out the Mission system and it is planned to be completely removed in June 2020. That being said, if you have any feedback or suggestions for how we could improve the new Course Mastery system to better fit your learning needs, please feel free to share in this thread!

Thanks, and happy learning!

I am really bummed about Mission going away. I teach 7th and 8th grade math in SF.

I teach at a Title 1 school in SF and the Missions were my main go-to tool for remediation and promoting equity. We have no tracking in SF which I 100% agree with. Missions helped a lot with remediation in a heterogeneous classroom.

I encouraged all students who were interested (for extra credit) to start with the K Mission challenge and work their way up through the grades. Through 3rd grade for 7th graders and 5th grade for 8th graders. It was a way to fill in the gaps without being embarrassed during class or having to ask their peers. The kids loved it because it was 1) optional 2) private 3) self-paced 4) built confidence as more holes were plugged.

One 8th grade student said that she missed and a bunch of things in 1st grade that she never knew and was afraid to ask. But now she could easily get help without feeling ashamed. I noticed a big impact on a student's confidence in class and they participated way more in group discussion. I had one student who was from Tonga and went to kindergarten in Tonga and then nothing till 6th grade in SF. No one knew why. Missions helped him a lot. 

In addition, my EL students could learn English math terms quickly by doing the K-3 missions. It held them to focus on terms they didn't know. And my SPED students would brush up on skills at a pace they could control. For all students, they could do this waiting for the bus or at home instead of giving up precious lunchtime with their friends. 

The K mission helped them feel instant success and motivated them to keep going.

The mastery challenge is not the same. It is SUPER OVERWHELMING for a kid who knows they are behind to see a WHOLE grade's course work and every single assignment they need to do. No one is going to do that AND all the regular assigned grade-level course work.

Their confidence is already low and the mastery challenge puts the nail in the coffin. They have to watch videos and do problems and fail and then watch another video. It is too much. And then too much failure before they see any success. They will give up.  Five or six 30 problem Unit tests for a diagnostic is also a lot to go through. 

The Mission assessment was just enough to hook them.

I understand why you made this decision but I don't think you thought about ALL kids and the way they learn.

Not sure what I am going to do next year. First Corona and now this.

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