I had a wonderful dinner with the first few principals involved in this conversation and two of our assistant superintendents as well as Ruth Sutton. The dinner time conversation? Moving away from letter grades. Everything we have read, seen, experienced and heard tells us this is the right path to follow. Ruth had spent the day with around 100 elementary and middle school teachers talking about assessment and was generous enough to spend time with us afterwards giving us her experience, thoughts and ideas as to the steps needed to make this work.
One thing she said that really stood out is that we need to get the kids to focus on personal bests and not on their rankings. The image that she painted was one of running a marathon and focussing on our time. Every time we run we want to get better. If we always finish first, second or third but our times are getting worse we are not improving we are regressing, but rankings would not show that. I loved that analogy, encouraging the students to focus on their progress and not on their rankings. She said that research shows that to keep students engaged that up until grade 12 they should not be ranked and sorted. The longer we have them focus on improving, the more successful the students will be. She also suggested that we bring in people from universities and big companies to talk to parents and students about what they want to see in their respective recruits.
The universities need to talk about the skills that the students need to STAY in university and not just to get in. Many of us can think of students that we went to in university that bombed out of 1st year university because they did not know how to self-assess, critically examine their work, peer edit and so on. It is almost a wasted group. What skills were they lacking that allowed for them to flunk out of university? What is it that most employers are looking for? Self-motivated, eager to learn, adaptable and goal setting individuals.
Every time we talked about what we needed to do, it came down to the assessment practices. If we are telling parents that this is good for the kids then the proof has to be in the pudding. The parents need to see the rich information that comes from formative assessment and standards-based assessment. It will not work if we take away what they know, tell them this is good and then not have the assessment practices to back it up.
Lastly we talked a little about reporting, what should the new report card look like and what should it contain. One of the ideas that I really liked was changing comment boxes to "Succeses and Next Steps". This would have what the child is able to do and what the child needs to focus on next. This speaks to planning, it speaks to record keeping, it speaks to solid assessment practices. The other part that I really liked was including the child's own writing of his or her report card. Have the student write "What I am good at?" , "what do I know?" and "what do I need to get better at?" as well as maybe "What are my next steps as a learner?" and have them present their own evidence to back it up. If this is done properly the child's own self-evaluation should pretty much be bang-on.
After EdCampVancouver and this dinner, I am very excited about where education is headed.
Showing posts with label PLN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLN. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Ed Camp Vancouver
Today was a most interesting day of most amazing professional development. The day was presented as an unconference, no key note speaker, nothing lavish, just a bunch of dedicated people who are passionate about education. It was representative of most stakeholders: parents, teachers, principals and some students. It is hard to describe the day in a way which accurately would reflect the conversations that were held today.
The beauty of the day was the respect for the knowledge of the group that was there, the fact that everyone had something to offer, something to share, something to reflect on, a question to pose and a desire to learn. These were not sessions that were being offered by someone looking to pad a resume, someone who had not been in a school in years and was preaching nor was it someone who had already done the same presentation 25 times in the year and did not adapt it to the group present. These sessions were lead by questions from people within the room. I was looking at the board of potential topics with people putting sticky notes on them to show which ones were of interest.
As we were looking at the board of topics there were other conversations that started and new topics were posted. As new topics were posted some stickies migrated, others added their stickies to the new topics and 16 topics were chosen for the day. 4 sessions per time slot, 4 different time slots. There were conversations around assessment for learning, bringing English LA into the 21st century, Social Media 101, moving away from letter grades, engaging all partner groups, moving away from awards ceremonies, creating online communities as well as many other great subjects. We were there from 9 am to 4 pm, and then some of us went to a pub to continue the conversation afterwards, those who had the long commute home had their continuing conversations in the car, the #edcampvan hashtag continued to be used long after the day was over. It is now 10 pm and that hashtag is still showing up and being used! Talk about powerful pro-d!
I took in 4 amazing sessions, each one passed quickly, with conversations continuing long after the session was over. The discussion were so rich, provocative and reflective. The varying points of view from different districts, levels, stakeholders and experience was so enriching. I honestly feel that I would have happily attended each session for a day instead of just the 45 minutes sessions (which often continued well after the time elapsed unlike other sessions where people were packing up their bags before presentations were over). It just felt as though we were just warming up. To have that many people together is powerful pro-d. There was so much to listen to, so much to share, so much to think about and so much to bring back to schools. As I was driving home I started to wonder how we could make our pro-d days much more like this. Good solid conversations, professional dialogue and getting to the meat and potatoes. Let's get it all out on the table.
I would have loved to have school boards and Ministry of Education representatives there. They need to hear our thoughts without the bureaucratic red tape that can exist when meeting with govenment representatives. Open honest conversations without politics so that they can hear what it is that we are trying to do, hear what our barriers are, understand how it would be better for students and we could hear what their vision is without a podium and a rehearsed speech, what their concerns are, what their barriers are. If we can truly have all stakeholders represented then we can really begin to make magic happen.
There is much to bring home to our schools and a lot to think about how the day was shaped and how we can use this format. Is this the future of pro-d?
The beauty of the day was the respect for the knowledge of the group that was there, the fact that everyone had something to offer, something to share, something to reflect on, a question to pose and a desire to learn. These were not sessions that were being offered by someone looking to pad a resume, someone who had not been in a school in years and was preaching nor was it someone who had already done the same presentation 25 times in the year and did not adapt it to the group present. These sessions were lead by questions from people within the room. I was looking at the board of potential topics with people putting sticky notes on them to show which ones were of interest.
As we were looking at the board of topics there were other conversations that started and new topics were posted. As new topics were posted some stickies migrated, others added their stickies to the new topics and 16 topics were chosen for the day. 4 sessions per time slot, 4 different time slots. There were conversations around assessment for learning, bringing English LA into the 21st century, Social Media 101, moving away from letter grades, engaging all partner groups, moving away from awards ceremonies, creating online communities as well as many other great subjects. We were there from 9 am to 4 pm, and then some of us went to a pub to continue the conversation afterwards, those who had the long commute home had their continuing conversations in the car, the #edcampvan hashtag continued to be used long after the day was over. It is now 10 pm and that hashtag is still showing up and being used! Talk about powerful pro-d!
I took in 4 amazing sessions, each one passed quickly, with conversations continuing long after the session was over. The discussion were so rich, provocative and reflective. The varying points of view from different districts, levels, stakeholders and experience was so enriching. I honestly feel that I would have happily attended each session for a day instead of just the 45 minutes sessions (which often continued well after the time elapsed unlike other sessions where people were packing up their bags before presentations were over). It just felt as though we were just warming up. To have that many people together is powerful pro-d. There was so much to listen to, so much to share, so much to think about and so much to bring back to schools. As I was driving home I started to wonder how we could make our pro-d days much more like this. Good solid conversations, professional dialogue and getting to the meat and potatoes. Let's get it all out on the table.
I would have loved to have school boards and Ministry of Education representatives there. They need to hear our thoughts without the bureaucratic red tape that can exist when meeting with govenment representatives. Open honest conversations without politics so that they can hear what it is that we are trying to do, hear what our barriers are, understand how it would be better for students and we could hear what their vision is without a podium and a rehearsed speech, what their concerns are, what their barriers are. If we can truly have all stakeholders represented then we can really begin to make magic happen.
There is much to bring home to our schools and a lot to think about how the day was shaped and how we can use this format. Is this the future of pro-d?
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Changing the Face of Reporting Through Assessment Practices
A little while ago I wrote about how a number of schools in my district were looking at changing our reporting practices, moving away from letter grades to standards based reporting. Based on the recommendations of @tomschimmer and @birklearns when it came to re-examining our assessment and reporting practices, I picked up two books by Ken O'Connor: How to Grade for Learning and A Repair Kit for Grading; 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. I have just started reading A Repair Kit and already in the first chapter there is a great list which would be a very good conversation starter for any staff. The discussions on these points alone could take a while.
15 fixes for Broken Grades
Grades are broken when they -
• include ingredients that distort achievement
• arise from low quality or poorly organized evidence
• are derived from inappropriate number crunching, and when they
• do not support the learning process
Fixes for ingredients that distort achievement
15 fixes for Broken Grades
Grades are broken when they -
• include ingredients that distort achievement
• arise from low quality or poorly organized evidence
• are derived from inappropriate number crunching, and when they
• do not support the learning process
1. Don’t include student behaviors (effort, participation, adherence to class rules, etc) in grades; include only achievement.
2. Don’t reduce marks on “work” submitted late; provide support for the learner.
3. Don’t give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a higher level of achievement.
4. Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement.
5. Don’t consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately.
6. Don’t include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence
Fixes for low quality or poorly organized evidence
7. Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarize into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards/learning goals.
8. Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear descriptions of achievement expectations.
9. Don’t assign grades based on student’s achievement compared to other students; compare each student’s performance to preset standards.
10. Don’t rely on evidence from assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only on quality assessments.
Fixes for inappropriate number crunching
11. Don’t rely only on the mean; consider other measures of central tendency and use professional judgment.
12. Don’t include zeros in grade determination when evidence is missing or as punishment; use alternatives, such as reassessing to determine real achievement or use “I” for Incomplete or Insufficient Evidence.
Fixes to support the learning process
13. Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence.
14. Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated opportunities; in those instances, emphasize more recent achievement.
15. Don’t leave students out of the grading process. Involve students; they can - and should - play key roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement.
The first chapter resonated with many of the thoughts that I have had, namely around the punishment/rewards aspects around letter grades and what they represent. O'Connor writes that grades have served a variety of purposes including: to communicate student achievement to students, parents, school administrators, post-secondary institutions and employers as well as sorting and selecting, motivation and punishment. These purposes are in conflict with communicating their successes and ranking and sorting. The first chapter is a lot to chew on.
Which ones are the most important? which ones resonate the most with you?
Which ones are the most important? which ones resonate the most with you?
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Twitter Effect and Standards Based Reporting
What has started off as a few innocuous questions is gaining huge momentum. Who knew that responding to a tweet could have a potentially large impact on an entire district? A simple twitter conversation around eliminating letter grades led to me sending an email to an assistant superintendent which then led to a conversation in person between the 3 main participants of that conversation. From there it grew to a potential committee of about 9 schools, which then led to an email to the 70 some odd schools in the district to which about another dozen or so schools have responded that they are interested in taking this on.
I have to admit that I am borderline freaking out right now because I thought this might be a small group. I was wrong. My assistant superintendent is lining up potential facilitators, using connections to bring in some amazing people and looking for a way to get this project subsidized. My superintendent is sending me references for material that I should be looking at. We had our district volleyball tournament and teachers are coming up to me and telling me how excited they are to be a part of this. I am stoked, but also quietly shaking in my boots.
I guess we are going to have to call this the "Twitter Effect" rather than the "Butterfly Effect". If someone tweets in Coquitlam, BC, what can happen? Now I guess I get to the point of my post. Help!!!!! I had the opportunity to virtually take part in the Educon session Standards Based Grading: Is it fair? by Kristen Swanson and Mike Ritzius. I loved the presentation and the conversations that I could overhear, but I really enjoyed the virtual chat that I was able to take part in. Through that chat I was given 4 great resources as a starting point:
I have to admit that I am borderline freaking out right now because I thought this might be a small group. I was wrong. My assistant superintendent is lining up potential facilitators, using connections to bring in some amazing people and looking for a way to get this project subsidized. My superintendent is sending me references for material that I should be looking at. We had our district volleyball tournament and teachers are coming up to me and telling me how excited they are to be a part of this. I am stoked, but also quietly shaking in my boots.
I guess we are going to have to call this the "Twitter Effect" rather than the "Butterfly Effect". If someone tweets in Coquitlam, BC, what can happen? Now I guess I get to the point of my post. Help!!!!! I had the opportunity to virtually take part in the Educon session Standards Based Grading: Is it fair? by Kristen Swanson and Mike Ritzius. I loved the presentation and the conversations that I could overhear, but I really enjoyed the virtual chat that I was able to take part in. Through that chat I was given 4 great resources as a starting point:
I am going to put together a quick google doc to try and collect as much information and resources on standard based grading/assessment. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Please find the document here:
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Why do I blog?
I have been trying to figure out what made me start blogging and I am not 100% sure. I never particularly enjoyed writing at school, but perhaps that was a result of being limited in what I could write about or just some negative experiences. It was not until I started my Masters that I discovered that I actually enjoyed writing, although the deadlines were a challenge every once in a while. It was the first time that I was given license to write about something that I actually cared about or was interested in. I was reflecting on my practice, with thought and accountability for the first time since I was doing my teaching degree, and as I think of that now, there is something seriously wrong with that.
This is not to say that I was not reflecting on my teaching, but the reflections were more to do with day to day teaching in terms of what worked and what didn't work with individual lessons. I was not thinking pedagogically, I was not pushing myself to improve my practice. Eventually I started to join some learning teams and was fortunate to be a part of the numeracy task design team with some great teachers under the guidance of Peter Liljedahl from SFU, and for the first time I was really thinking about my practice as a whole and I ended up completely rethinking my teaching. The problem here was that I was only sharing my practice with a few people, and only getting feedback from people who all thought the same way, it was like we all had our own mini-cult (who all became administrators). This would have been a great time to begin blogging.
By blogging I open myself up to criticism, helpful suggestions and accountability. I know that if I am going to put ideas out there I had better be ready to back up and be prepared to defend. I have been limiting myself to topics which I am very comfortable with as I begin to wrap my head around this. I am steeling myself to begin being a model of reflective practice for my staff. If I am not willing to put myself out there and expose my practice to criticism, how can I expect those around me to do so as well? I love the ideas put forth in this following blog entry.
For the first time in a long time I am really trying to put together my thoughts coherently for others to be able to reflect on, give suggestions, thoughts and criticisms. But rather than just an instructor, faculty advisor or sponsor teacher, I am opening it up to the world. I am trying to move outside of my comfort zone, my school, my district and my province. I am hopefully going to be a model for the students in my school and my colleagues. I am getting back into the practice of writing about things that I am passionate about and trying to move my practice forward. Let the journey begin.
This is not to say that I was not reflecting on my teaching, but the reflections were more to do with day to day teaching in terms of what worked and what didn't work with individual lessons. I was not thinking pedagogically, I was not pushing myself to improve my practice. Eventually I started to join some learning teams and was fortunate to be a part of the numeracy task design team with some great teachers under the guidance of Peter Liljedahl from SFU, and for the first time I was really thinking about my practice as a whole and I ended up completely rethinking my teaching. The problem here was that I was only sharing my practice with a few people, and only getting feedback from people who all thought the same way, it was like we all had our own mini-cult (who all became administrators). This would have been a great time to begin blogging.
By blogging I open myself up to criticism, helpful suggestions and accountability. I know that if I am going to put ideas out there I had better be ready to back up and be prepared to defend. I have been limiting myself to topics which I am very comfortable with as I begin to wrap my head around this. I am steeling myself to begin being a model of reflective practice for my staff. If I am not willing to put myself out there and expose my practice to criticism, how can I expect those around me to do so as well? I love the ideas put forth in this following blog entry.
For the first time in a long time I am really trying to put together my thoughts coherently for others to be able to reflect on, give suggestions, thoughts and criticisms. But rather than just an instructor, faculty advisor or sponsor teacher, I am opening it up to the world. I am trying to move outside of my comfort zone, my school, my district and my province. I am hopefully going to be a model for the students in my school and my colleagues. I am getting back into the practice of writing about things that I am passionate about and trying to move my practice forward. Let the journey begin.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Global Collaboration Part 2
For lack of a better way of putting it, this is basically a request for some ideas, links and suggestions about the potential of Twitter. Over the past few weeks I have been trying to encourage staff, colleagues and members of the British Columbia Principals and Vice-Principals Association (BCPVPA) to use Twitter because it provides an effective communication and sharing tool. The best part of it is the fact that it is free and global. In a few weeks I will be meeting with some other members of the BCPVPA to look at effective communication between members across our province. How is it a collaborative tool? I guess there are many ways to try and explain it and Chris Kennedy in his post A Recipient in the Sharing Revolution summed it up really well. A few days after I posted this blog I came across the blog of @Nunavut_Teacher who gave a great explanation of this very point in his post The Power of Twitter: My geographic location did not stop me from meeting these Tweeters!
Much of the talk about the power of Twitter centers around PLNs. Hashtags, such as #edchat, #education and #edtech are quick entries open up potential PLNs. I am amazed at the world wide wealth of knowledge that is out there, but also the world wide wonder wonder when it comes to education. When I wrote my post about Twitter I may have had 30-40 people following me (mainly fabulous colleagues from my school district in Coquitlam, BC), none outside of North America and yet if you look at the page views of my blog below you can see the global possibilities that are there in terms of contact with the World. Last time I checked I know no one in South Korea, Russia, Japan nor South Africa and 1 person in Australia.
Today I had a brief Twitter chat about #Autism with @Grade1 @fiteach @MrWejr as @MrWejr was putting out a question about extrinsic motivation (I hear many times about using rewards 4 studnts w/ autism. I don't normally agree w/ rewards - is it diffrnt 4 stdnts w/ #autism? ) and had a number of people respond to it. None of them live in his city and I was the only one in his province, yet we all have experience with Autistic children and are able to share our experience, strategies and thoughts. It is amazing how many point of views and ideas that can be generated from the use of hashtags and PLNs. A parent from his school had arranged for a video conference on Autism and @MrWejr decided to tweet a few questions and then shared it with the staff and parents present. They were amazed at what came out of a simple tweeted question.
@MrWejr uses his PLN very effectively. Just today (a week later from the original post) he sent out another question. This question was sent out to myself, a principal in China, Alberta, Pennsylvania, and Massachusettes. 5 principals working in 3 different countries discussing the same issue. We all have different training, experience and school boards but we all work with kids. Why limit ourselves to our neighbouring schools? Are we ever going to get better at what we do by always conferring with the same people?
I am looking for examples of this. If you have written a post on this topic or are able to share an experience that directly impacted your profession as a result of putting out a question via Twitter, could you please share. I have found many great resources and fantastic articles and have my own personal experience but I am looking for other perspectives as I would like to have something more to demonstrate other than my own experience. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Remi
Below are some examples that I have picked up from an #edchat discussion:
http://harrison.warsaw.k12.in.us/index.php/classrooms/index.php?option=com_joomlaconnect_ce&Itemid=87&task=showPage&page_id=3
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/
How do we encourage other teachers not online to begin collaborating with peers? #edchat Be role models by doing it ourselves
What are the most effective tools for international collaboration projects? #Edchat wikispaces, skype, Flasmeeting, Animoto
Doing a stu twtr discussion tonite "what is the responsibility of the student" @ 7cnt time. Invite ur stu - use #ohs2010 - #edchat
You cannot understand your own culture completely without understanding it's relationships to other cultures. #edchat
show them the benefits of collab online "work smarter, not harder" #edchat
Much of the talk about the power of Twitter centers around PLNs. Hashtags, such as #edchat, #education and #edtech are quick entries open up potential PLNs. I am amazed at the world wide wealth of knowledge that is out there, but also the world wide wonder wonder when it comes to education. When I wrote my post about Twitter I may have had 30-40 people following me (mainly fabulous colleagues from my school district in Coquitlam, BC), none outside of North America and yet if you look at the page views of my blog below you can see the global possibilities that are there in terms of contact with the World. Last time I checked I know no one in South Korea, Russia, Japan nor South Africa and 1 person in Australia.
@MrWejr uses his PLN very effectively. Just today (a week later from the original post) he sent out another question. This question was sent out to myself, a principal in China, Alberta, Pennsylvania, and Massachusettes. 5 principals working in 3 different countries discussing the same issue. We all have different training, experience and school boards but we all work with kids. Why limit ourselves to our neighbouring schools? Are we ever going to get better at what we do by always conferring with the same people?
I am looking for examples of this. If you have written a post on this topic or are able to share an experience that directly impacted your profession as a result of putting out a question via Twitter, could you please share. I have found many great resources and fantastic articles and have my own personal experience but I am looking for other perspectives as I would like to have something more to demonstrate other than my own experience. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Remi
Below are some examples that I have picked up from an #edchat discussion:
http://harrison.warsaw.k12.in.us/index.php/classrooms/index.php?option=com_joomlaconnect_ce&Itemid=87&task=showPage&page_id=3
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/
How do we encourage other teachers not online to begin collaborating with peers? #edchat Be role models by doing it ourselves
What are the most effective tools for international collaboration projects? #Edchat wikispaces, skype, Flasmeeting, Animoto
Doing a stu twtr discussion tonite "what is the responsibility of the student" @ 7cnt time. Invite ur stu - use #ohs2010 - #edchat
You cannot understand your own culture completely without understanding it's relationships to other cultures. #edchat
show them the benefits of collab online "work smarter, not harder" #edchat
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