I do them maybe two or three times a week. It depends in what we're learning. Sometimes it's a short writing prompt or brainstorm. If its a brain storm i might let kids write ideas on the board. Sometimes I do a cnn10 activity/worksheet. Sometimes I find a short reading with questions.
I basically grade them at random. I look for completion and effort.
I tell my kids that everything is graded. Even if I don't grade it. I've never had a student bring it up to me. They got so many other assignments going on that they forget anyway.
I have them annotate primary and secondary sources using SNOTS (small notes on the side) method and DOPP (details, observations, POV, and purpose).
I grade them every time they take a unit test and their bell ringers are 20 points of the grade. (20 bellringer, 20 point SAQ, 60 MCQ)
I give them a template on Google Classroom in a Google Doc with space for 10 days worth of responses. After 2 weeks of classes they submit it and I grade for completion. 2 points per day, so 20 points every 2 weeks. Most days it’s review. Sometimes I have them read a paragraph in the textbook to answer a question. Sometimes it’s opinion-based to start a discussion or prepare them to have something to contribute for partner talk.
I like the 10-day template idea (or even 5-day).
I’d tell the class I’m going to score at least one of them per week just to make sure they don’t leave it blank until the day it is due. I usually leave a timestamped message on Google Docs in the comments (Blank / No Credit) if I see students that are not doing the activity.
I do warm-ups everyday. I make a Google doc with each day of the week for them to type their responses and turn in on Friday. It’s usually review questions about what we learned the lesson previously. I’ll either do true or false, scenarios with an answer key, or questions with just a one or two word answer. I put the questions on slides each day and show them on our BenQ board. I grade them at the end of the week for completion. As long as they’re doing them and actively checking their answers when we go over them for the day, they get an A. I also weight it x5 because we do it five times a week for participation.
If I notice less of them actually doing the warm-up and just waiting for us the review it and just type the answer out, I usually go around the room quickly with a clipboard and check who has it done before going over it. They resist the first few days, but when they notice a daily zero, they get it together.
I read the question before I saw what sub it was posted in, and I thought you were talking about the Salvation Army people outside of stores!
I ask "icebreaker" questions more than "bellringers," they're not history-related, and I answer it myself so that students can learn more about me and hopefully make a connection.
Last week, it was "what's something that you want to be better at" and I told them that I'm trying to learn to play the drums and I'm terrible at it. Looking at students' responses, I get to learn more about them.
I ask review questions, would you rather questions, thoughts on quotes. Sometimes I’ll play a song which most hate and ask their thoughts. I grade them at the end of the quarter but really only take note of who does them and grade accordingly.
Essential Question of the week
New vocabulary word for them to write into their notebook.
Easy warm up question to ask the students.
-
We’re doing paper notebooks for the 8th graders this year and I grade them for completion. Really shows class participation data when you hand out a bunch of 0’s to student who star at the screen and bs with their friends.
I do bell ringers almost daily. We have a weekly bell ringer sheet (sometimes multiple pages depending on what we're covering) that the students fill out and keep. Normally we watch a 2-5 minute video about whatever the topic is for the day. While watching the video students have to complete 1-3 key review questions from the video. We then discuss the questions as a class right after the video is done.
I teach at a very low performing middle school. My students are not dumb, but many are terrible at writing and spelling and won't complete things because they don't know how to spell or how to write down what is in their heads. They know what they want to say in their heads and can verbalize it, but they just can't write it down. I'll go over it together with them and then type it on the board. I've found it's a sneaky way to get them to take daily notes, go over key vocabulary, and have them write almost every single day.
Sometimes the bell ringer reviews material already covered. Sometimes we listen to a song, or there's just a graphic (map, chart, political cartoon, etc.) for them to look at. We've been learning about the U.S. government the last few weeks so they've been filling in some bubble maps and T-charts.
I don't grade them, even though I tell them that I do. Consistency and building a routine is important to getting them to do it. I'm not saying all of my students complete them everyday, but they all know the first thing we do when we come in is the bell ringer.
I also try to link my bell ringers to assignments or tests. It took some time, but students now know to go back and check their bell ringers when they're working on assignments because we've already answered some questions on their work.
I do brain teasers daily. I don’t grade them (I’ve thought about changing this in the future though). I mostly want to work on my students critical thinking skills and thinking outside the box. They’re always so worried about getting things wrong that they won’t even attempt it. I think the brain teasers give them a fun, low stakes way to exercise those skills. They’re not history related though so idk how that would fare everywhere.
We call them Do Nows in NYC schools. Usually it is a Stimulus Based Question, sometimes multiple choice, sometimes it is an image that asks a question about things like point of view, purpose etc. Do it everyday. Formative assessment, i don't grade them.
I have an app calledPopsicle Stivks that can randomize and grade students. The grade it keeps is cumulative and based on the number of times their name came up.
I use that app to grade for participation while they are doing it and to randomly call on and grade kids when we go over it.
This semester I did questions on Google Classroom. I gave them a participation grade for completing them. Two points per day for a total of ten points per week. I just take a few minutes every day to go through and make sure they completed them. The question is set to open when class begins and end after seven minutes. If they don't complete it within seven minutes, they never get to.
I do not like doing the questions on Google Classroom. Next semester I am going to go old school and hand out a sheet of paper with bellwork/exit tickets on them. I'll check them when they're supposed to work on them when class begins and before class ends.
Generally, their bellwork is a question related to the content we've learned, are learning, or will learn soon. Sometimes it's a reflection/journal, sometimes it's a word of the day routine. Exit tickets are often what's a question you have, what's one thing you learned, how did you feel about today's lesson, etc. I also try to get the kids to complete a weekly survey on Google Forms as a SEL check-in.
In general, I found that students today don't want to do anything if it's "not for a grade." So last year, I was making most everything worth points, and it was killing me because I was drowning in grading. This year, on the advice of a colleague, my new policy is that they will get one thing graded each week. They will not know what that thing is until the time comes, typically I just prayed the thing with the highest for the lowest completion percentage, just depends on how I'm feeling that day
This is interesting. I teach APUSH I have told kids to just assume everything will be graded because it's AP and the standards and stakes are higher. But every five minutes I have a kid asking me if the thing we are doing is graded and there's always a few that say "ok so I don't have to try that hard" if I say we are going to go over it together but then I hit them with the ol' thi is AP there is no easy way out so I've been trying to find a way to hold those kids accountable without getting myself backed up with grading things. I might adopt this method next year.
My kid would be out of your class so fast. There is so much pointless work as it is, and as an educator myself with five kids- all of whom are neurodivergent- this style of teaching really just irritates me. It isn’t student-focused at all, and doesn’t take into account how much these kids have going on outside of your classroom.
For example: my youngest is 13, in 7th grade. He’s a straight A honor student. He’s actively involved in band and football in school, and just received his black belt in martial arts (which he spends 4-6 hours minimum on outside of school). These aren’t things we as parents have put on him, but things he has a serious interest in, and we encourage our kids to be well-rounded individuals. Now multiply that times five, and you’ll see what my hectic schedule looks like, not including my own workload.
His father passed away in 2021, and while he was dealing with that loss, he did have a couple of teacher that had rigid class structures much like you. When his stepfather and I asked what assignments were for grades, it wasn’t because we encourage laziness, it’s because as people with autism and adhd and a combination of both while dealing with loss, and juggling so many other life situations, we have to prioritize what is of the most importance and we teach our children that skill as well.
You don’t know what the home life is like for all of these kids, or what they’re dealing with. They don’t owe you their personal details. But you as an educator -do- owe them a student-centered educational approach.
Bell ringer just about everyday. Kids are told one day each week will be chosen to be graded. Not a lot of points, but does add up by the end of the semester.
My Do-Now is two new vocab words. The students have 5 minutes to complete. They are given a paper with two Frayer Models, where the "definition" quadrant is already filled in. Using that definition, they place words from a word bank into "related concepts" or "non-examples." Finally, for the "picture" quadrant, I actually print out little images on Avery return address labels for them to place with the correct word. It's definitely me being extra, but my kids are 11, and honestly I bet even older kids would still love stickers. After completing the two Frayer models, on the back of the paper they have four or five sentences to fill in the blank with the correct vocab word.
For grading I have a clipboard with all of their names written in seating chart order. After five minutes, they are expected to discuss their answers with their table (incentivized with Dojo points), and I grade for completion on a scale up to 5. Then we review. The grading and review also takes about five minutes, but the whole ten minute activity does help settle them into class.
I also keep a binder at each table and select the best do now papers at the end of each day to be added to the binders. So the do nows double as a dictionary the kids can reference whenever they need
I never grade bell ringers but I either do review from the previous (edit) class or some kind of debatable question...maybe a video of a current event if I can find a relevant one with a discussion question after. It should only be about 5 minutes just to get kids into the flow of the lesson.
I will sometimes grade exit tickets. Usually for completion depending on what I want them to know or be able to do.
I put a daily question on the board. It is graded for a participation point. They must attempt to answer the question to get the point. I walk the room to make sure they are attempting. If they aren't or give a joke answer, I deduct a point
With the dramatic rise in absenteeism, review bell ringers have gotten harder because so many kids can not exactly engage with them.
I have students copy the learning objective into their planner now. It takes 90 seconds and *anyone* can copy. So it's essentially a class management ritual because I've trained kids to assume total silence upon the bell and copy. During that 90 seconds I can take attendance and then from the quiet/calm call for their attention and start the day.
I teach MS, however, where such kid management considerations are a much larger aspect of instruction compared to HS.
I teach both MS and HS and am finding it almost impossible to keep the MS quiet during the bellringer time. How do you do it without sending 20 to the office every day for multiple refusals to stop talking?
I teach 6th grade and my warm-ups are a Canvas quiz (so self-graded). It’s a review of what we covered the day before. It’s only three questions and they get three tries. On Mondays, it’s either a grade check or a reflection (reflections I do grade). It’s not a perfect system but it’s works okay.
Senior HS Economics. Flipped classroom-ish. Laptop based, Teams platform. Most classes start with a 5-10 question MCQ on the video homework. Quiz Self-marks. Record score as AfL not Evaluation. I have several test banks which makes it easy.
1 I generally used progress learning ( old usatestprep) and pick a standard i had covered or was covering. It was generally a topic or question we had gone over that previous day. We are a one to one technology school so kids would be required to open up the the google classroom assignment for that week and record the full correct answer not just the letter. At the end of the week i would grade em for 10 points an answer. If your not here not my problem talk to your class mates figure out the answer. My first two years this went great, helped to balance kids grades out if they did poorly on test or quizzes. This year im at a different a district and the kids arent used to such work and miss alot and canvas fucking sucks as a learning platform, so i have a lot of kids lose alot of points bc of it but not my problem.
I don't grade them but generally use them to draw on knowledge from the day before and push them toward making connections with the new materials. I give two minutes for thought, two for discussion, and one for group talk.
1. My school uses Pearson/Savaas and it integrates with Schoology. I use the Pearson quizzes as Bell Ringers/warm ups. They are short, 5 multiple choice questions.
2. It automatically grades them. I don’t actually count it as a grade though. I tell them everything is a grade but no one asks me why it doesn’t show up in the grade book. If they did, I may start adding it.
3. It’s a completion grade. They can take it as many times as they want to earn the highest grade they can.
They are meant to be a review of the previous day and we discuss them after.
I like this system currently bc it doesn’t require too much extra work for me, gives the class some structure/routine, gives them something to do while I do housekeeping, and provides a review to start off class.
I do them every day. They are spiral review and we go over them right after I take attendance. It’s usually one or two questions. For the first two quarters, I use open ended questions that they have to write the answer to. Starting by in January, we will have one or two MC questions that mimic question types seen on our state test. I get them to do it because I set the expectation from day one that we do it every day. Some kids, of course, halfway do it, but we are talking about the questions no matter who does it so they at least get a verbal review of material. They get a new sheet each Monday and keep them in their binder.
Sometimes I have them analyze a visual/graph source and make a claim based on it. Sometimes I do a brain dump if I wanna see incoming knowledge. Sometimes a visual source and they tell me what they notice, what they wonder, and what they think is happening. I grade random times for them. Mostly completion because we discuss them as a class
1. Variety of warm-up activities including test review, preview or inquiry questions, journal responses, drawing or coloring (sometimes), video with questions, etc. I give my classes 15 min for these.
2. I tell them everything is for a grade. I collect the warm-ups and don't actually grade them. I will sometimes round up a student's grade if their work is that stellar or well done. Best advice I ever received: don't grade everything your students do, but tell them it is lol
I do them maybe two or three times a week. It depends in what we're learning. Sometimes it's a short writing prompt or brainstorm. If its a brain storm i might let kids write ideas on the board. Sometimes I do a cnn10 activity/worksheet. Sometimes I find a short reading with questions. I basically grade them at random. I look for completion and effort. I tell my kids that everything is graded. Even if I don't grade it. I've never had a student bring it up to me. They got so many other assignments going on that they forget anyway.
I have them annotate primary and secondary sources using SNOTS (small notes on the side) method and DOPP (details, observations, POV, and purpose). I grade them every time they take a unit test and their bell ringers are 20 points of the grade. (20 bellringer, 20 point SAQ, 60 MCQ)
Loving SNOTS!!!
I give them a template on Google Classroom in a Google Doc with space for 10 days worth of responses. After 2 weeks of classes they submit it and I grade for completion. 2 points per day, so 20 points every 2 weeks. Most days it’s review. Sometimes I have them read a paragraph in the textbook to answer a question. Sometimes it’s opinion-based to start a discussion or prepare them to have something to contribute for partner talk.
I like the 10-day template idea (or even 5-day). I’d tell the class I’m going to score at least one of them per week just to make sure they don’t leave it blank until the day it is due. I usually leave a timestamped message on Google Docs in the comments (Blank / No Credit) if I see students that are not doing the activity.
I do warm-ups everyday. I make a Google doc with each day of the week for them to type their responses and turn in on Friday. It’s usually review questions about what we learned the lesson previously. I’ll either do true or false, scenarios with an answer key, or questions with just a one or two word answer. I put the questions on slides each day and show them on our BenQ board. I grade them at the end of the week for completion. As long as they’re doing them and actively checking their answers when we go over them for the day, they get an A. I also weight it x5 because we do it five times a week for participation. If I notice less of them actually doing the warm-up and just waiting for us the review it and just type the answer out, I usually go around the room quickly with a clipboard and check who has it done before going over it. They resist the first few days, but when they notice a daily zero, they get it together.
I read the question before I saw what sub it was posted in, and I thought you were talking about the Salvation Army people outside of stores! I ask "icebreaker" questions more than "bellringers," they're not history-related, and I answer it myself so that students can learn more about me and hopefully make a connection. Last week, it was "what's something that you want to be better at" and I told them that I'm trying to learn to play the drums and I'm terrible at it. Looking at students' responses, I get to learn more about them.
I ask review questions, would you rather questions, thoughts on quotes. Sometimes I’ll play a song which most hate and ask their thoughts. I grade them at the end of the quarter but really only take note of who does them and grade accordingly.
Essential Question of the week New vocabulary word for them to write into their notebook. Easy warm up question to ask the students. - We’re doing paper notebooks for the 8th graders this year and I grade them for completion. Really shows class participation data when you hand out a bunch of 0’s to student who star at the screen and bs with their friends.
I do bell ringers almost daily. We have a weekly bell ringer sheet (sometimes multiple pages depending on what we're covering) that the students fill out and keep. Normally we watch a 2-5 minute video about whatever the topic is for the day. While watching the video students have to complete 1-3 key review questions from the video. We then discuss the questions as a class right after the video is done. I teach at a very low performing middle school. My students are not dumb, but many are terrible at writing and spelling and won't complete things because they don't know how to spell or how to write down what is in their heads. They know what they want to say in their heads and can verbalize it, but they just can't write it down. I'll go over it together with them and then type it on the board. I've found it's a sneaky way to get them to take daily notes, go over key vocabulary, and have them write almost every single day. Sometimes the bell ringer reviews material already covered. Sometimes we listen to a song, or there's just a graphic (map, chart, political cartoon, etc.) for them to look at. We've been learning about the U.S. government the last few weeks so they've been filling in some bubble maps and T-charts. I don't grade them, even though I tell them that I do. Consistency and building a routine is important to getting them to do it. I'm not saying all of my students complete them everyday, but they all know the first thing we do when we come in is the bell ringer. I also try to link my bell ringers to assignments or tests. It took some time, but students now know to go back and check their bell ringers when they're working on assignments because we've already answered some questions on their work.
I grade three of them a quarter and I choose them randomly!
I do brain teasers daily. I don’t grade them (I’ve thought about changing this in the future though). I mostly want to work on my students critical thinking skills and thinking outside the box. They’re always so worried about getting things wrong that they won’t even attempt it. I think the brain teasers give them a fun, low stakes way to exercise those skills. They’re not history related though so idk how that would fare everywhere.
We call them Do Nows in NYC schools. Usually it is a Stimulus Based Question, sometimes multiple choice, sometimes it is an image that asks a question about things like point of view, purpose etc. Do it everyday. Formative assessment, i don't grade them.
I have an app calledPopsicle Stivks that can randomize and grade students. The grade it keeps is cumulative and based on the number of times their name came up. I use that app to grade for participation while they are doing it and to randomly call on and grade kids when we go over it.
This semester I did questions on Google Classroom. I gave them a participation grade for completing them. Two points per day for a total of ten points per week. I just take a few minutes every day to go through and make sure they completed them. The question is set to open when class begins and end after seven minutes. If they don't complete it within seven minutes, they never get to. I do not like doing the questions on Google Classroom. Next semester I am going to go old school and hand out a sheet of paper with bellwork/exit tickets on them. I'll check them when they're supposed to work on them when class begins and before class ends. Generally, their bellwork is a question related to the content we've learned, are learning, or will learn soon. Sometimes it's a reflection/journal, sometimes it's a word of the day routine. Exit tickets are often what's a question you have, what's one thing you learned, how did you feel about today's lesson, etc. I also try to get the kids to complete a weekly survey on Google Forms as a SEL check-in.
I’m going back to paper for a lot of things going forward!
Yeah, I wish my district would spend our tech budget on more copy paper and new instructional materials.
In general, I found that students today don't want to do anything if it's "not for a grade." So last year, I was making most everything worth points, and it was killing me because I was drowning in grading. This year, on the advice of a colleague, my new policy is that they will get one thing graded each week. They will not know what that thing is until the time comes, typically I just prayed the thing with the highest for the lowest completion percentage, just depends on how I'm feeling that day
This is interesting. I teach APUSH I have told kids to just assume everything will be graded because it's AP and the standards and stakes are higher. But every five minutes I have a kid asking me if the thing we are doing is graded and there's always a few that say "ok so I don't have to try that hard" if I say we are going to go over it together but then I hit them with the ol' thi is AP there is no easy way out so I've been trying to find a way to hold those kids accountable without getting myself backed up with grading things. I might adopt this method next year.
My kid would be out of your class so fast. There is so much pointless work as it is, and as an educator myself with five kids- all of whom are neurodivergent- this style of teaching really just irritates me. It isn’t student-focused at all, and doesn’t take into account how much these kids have going on outside of your classroom. For example: my youngest is 13, in 7th grade. He’s a straight A honor student. He’s actively involved in band and football in school, and just received his black belt in martial arts (which he spends 4-6 hours minimum on outside of school). These aren’t things we as parents have put on him, but things he has a serious interest in, and we encourage our kids to be well-rounded individuals. Now multiply that times five, and you’ll see what my hectic schedule looks like, not including my own workload. His father passed away in 2021, and while he was dealing with that loss, he did have a couple of teacher that had rigid class structures much like you. When his stepfather and I asked what assignments were for grades, it wasn’t because we encourage laziness, it’s because as people with autism and adhd and a combination of both while dealing with loss, and juggling so many other life situations, we have to prioritize what is of the most importance and we teach our children that skill as well. You don’t know what the home life is like for all of these kids, or what they’re dealing with. They don’t owe you their personal details. But you as an educator -do- owe them a student-centered educational approach.
Bell ringer just about everyday. Kids are told one day each week will be chosen to be graded. Not a lot of points, but does add up by the end of the semester.
Every 5= 1 homework grade
My Do-Now is two new vocab words. The students have 5 minutes to complete. They are given a paper with two Frayer Models, where the "definition" quadrant is already filled in. Using that definition, they place words from a word bank into "related concepts" or "non-examples." Finally, for the "picture" quadrant, I actually print out little images on Avery return address labels for them to place with the correct word. It's definitely me being extra, but my kids are 11, and honestly I bet even older kids would still love stickers. After completing the two Frayer models, on the back of the paper they have four or five sentences to fill in the blank with the correct vocab word. For grading I have a clipboard with all of their names written in seating chart order. After five minutes, they are expected to discuss their answers with their table (incentivized with Dojo points), and I grade for completion on a scale up to 5. Then we review. The grading and review also takes about five minutes, but the whole ten minute activity does help settle them into class. I also keep a binder at each table and select the best do now papers at the end of each day to be added to the binders. So the do nows double as a dictionary the kids can reference whenever they need
I never grade bell ringers but I either do review from the previous (edit) class or some kind of debatable question...maybe a video of a current event if I can find a relevant one with a discussion question after. It should only be about 5 minutes just to get kids into the flow of the lesson. I will sometimes grade exit tickets. Usually for completion depending on what I want them to know or be able to do.
I put a daily question on the board. It is graded for a participation point. They must attempt to answer the question to get the point. I walk the room to make sure they are attempting. If they aren't or give a joke answer, I deduct a point
With the dramatic rise in absenteeism, review bell ringers have gotten harder because so many kids can not exactly engage with them. I have students copy the learning objective into their planner now. It takes 90 seconds and *anyone* can copy. So it's essentially a class management ritual because I've trained kids to assume total silence upon the bell and copy. During that 90 seconds I can take attendance and then from the quiet/calm call for their attention and start the day. I teach MS, however, where such kid management considerations are a much larger aspect of instruction compared to HS.
I teach both MS and HS and am finding it almost impossible to keep the MS quiet during the bellringer time. How do you do it without sending 20 to the office every day for multiple refusals to stop talking?
I teach 6th grade and my warm-ups are a Canvas quiz (so self-graded). It’s a review of what we covered the day before. It’s only three questions and they get three tries. On Mondays, it’s either a grade check or a reflection (reflections I do grade). It’s not a perfect system but it’s works okay.
Senior HS Economics. Flipped classroom-ish. Laptop based, Teams platform. Most classes start with a 5-10 question MCQ on the video homework. Quiz Self-marks. Record score as AfL not Evaluation. I have several test banks which makes it easy.
1 I generally used progress learning ( old usatestprep) and pick a standard i had covered or was covering. It was generally a topic or question we had gone over that previous day. We are a one to one technology school so kids would be required to open up the the google classroom assignment for that week and record the full correct answer not just the letter. At the end of the week i would grade em for 10 points an answer. If your not here not my problem talk to your class mates figure out the answer. My first two years this went great, helped to balance kids grades out if they did poorly on test or quizzes. This year im at a different a district and the kids arent used to such work and miss alot and canvas fucking sucks as a learning platform, so i have a lot of kids lose alot of points bc of it but not my problem.
I don't grade them but generally use them to draw on knowledge from the day before and push them toward making connections with the new materials. I give two minutes for thought, two for discussion, and one for group talk.
1. My school uses Pearson/Savaas and it integrates with Schoology. I use the Pearson quizzes as Bell Ringers/warm ups. They are short, 5 multiple choice questions. 2. It automatically grades them. I don’t actually count it as a grade though. I tell them everything is a grade but no one asks me why it doesn’t show up in the grade book. If they did, I may start adding it. 3. It’s a completion grade. They can take it as many times as they want to earn the highest grade they can. They are meant to be a review of the previous day and we discuss them after. I like this system currently bc it doesn’t require too much extra work for me, gives the class some structure/routine, gives them something to do while I do housekeeping, and provides a review to start off class.
I do them every day. They are spiral review and we go over them right after I take attendance. It’s usually one or two questions. For the first two quarters, I use open ended questions that they have to write the answer to. Starting by in January, we will have one or two MC questions that mimic question types seen on our state test. I get them to do it because I set the expectation from day one that we do it every day. Some kids, of course, halfway do it, but we are talking about the questions no matter who does it so they at least get a verbal review of material. They get a new sheet each Monday and keep them in their binder.
Sometimes I have them analyze a visual/graph source and make a claim based on it. Sometimes I do a brain dump if I wanna see incoming knowledge. Sometimes a visual source and they tell me what they notice, what they wonder, and what they think is happening. I grade random times for them. Mostly completion because we discuss them as a class
3 multiple choice questions or a short answer. I mostly do the ones that are easy to grade.
1. Variety of warm-up activities including test review, preview or inquiry questions, journal responses, drawing or coloring (sometimes), video with questions, etc. I give my classes 15 min for these. 2. I tell them everything is for a grade. I collect the warm-ups and don't actually grade them. I will sometimes round up a student's grade if their work is that stellar or well done. Best advice I ever received: don't grade everything your students do, but tell them it is lol