In my English Language Arts class, we finished our first trimester.
In today’s blog post, I share a few memories about the unique Montessori assessment process. I also do a few singing exercises and sing another round of When the Man Comes Around, by Johnny Cash. While singing, I hit A1, and this is the first time that I’ve achieved this on camera.
Media Logs
Vlog
Github Study Respository
Link to my Github repository containing music notes.
General Session Records
| Date Session | Duration (Minutes) | Public Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-02 | 120 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel Study. Low notes. When the Man Comes ARound. Guitar Accompanyment. |
| 2025-11-03 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, low notes, vowel study. |
| 2025-11-07 | 20 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-08 | 20 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-11 | 20 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-13 | 20 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-14 | 12 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-15 | 23 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-16 | 25 | Vowel study. Sliding lip trills. Low notes. When the Man Comes Around. |
Memories to Share
A Unique Method of Educational Assessment
The school year at Chinook, the place where I work as an ELA 7-8th Grade teacher, is divided into three trimesters. The first trimester started on August 20th and ended last week on November 7th. As a Montessori Charter School, the manner of carrying out these trimesters is different than the public schools to which I was previously accustomed.
One of the key differences is that the students’ means of displaying what they have learned is not focused around their grade (although they do receive one), but rather around their portfolio. Throughout the trimester, as students complete tasks they save the physical and digital copies of their work. When the end of the trimester arrives, they place the work in a digital portfolio using Google Sites. They also frequently write reflective essays throughout the trimester, and these are displayed in their Google Sites as well. At the end of the trimester, they organize and polish their portfolio for the trimester. As the portfolio grows throughout their time at Chinook, it becomes a long-term visual record of their creative works.
Another key difference the derives from the Montessori method is that Chinook does not hold parent-teacher conferences. Chinook requires that parents complete volunteer service hours throughout the semester. These can be tasks such as washing towels, repairing broken furniture, helping with the school play or the Science Olympiad, and other things. Parents also pick up their children in the classroom at the end of the school day, which gives parents, students, and teachers a chance to get each other on the same page. Since everyone is already seeing each other often, a parent-teacher conference would be redundant.
Instead of the parent-teacher conference, at the end of the trimester, students lead their parents in a Portfolio Presentation Day. Teachers leave the classroom around noon each day, allowing students to take charge of the process. Parents arrive at this time and students take out both their physical binders and their computers in order to show their creative work. Students explain their work to their parents and parents can listen, ask questions, and provide other guidance.
The experience was unique and unusual. I enjoyed this chance to see my students taking the lead in our classroom. The next trimester is already here and I am trying to take into account what I have learned by re-organizing my curriculum to have more opportunities for polished work to display in a portfolio.
Artificial Intelligence Transparency Report
No artificial intelligence was used for the writing or performing portion of this blog post.
I used Google’s Gemini AI to help me create and manage my sql database for tracking relevant data. For example, I used Google Gemini to write a script that exports my singing data records from my custom PostgreSQL database and format the data as an HTML table.
How You Can Help
I need your help to become established as a teacher and storyteller.
Here is a link to a blog post that describes how a supportive reader can help me in my quest.
In short, you can…
Buy a copy of my children’s novella, Westly: A Spider’s Tale
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