ECS 401 Blogs

 My post this week looks different-- and a little lackluster and too short. Truthfully, I was unable to focus much in anything other than the upcoming three-week block. My symbol for this week was the only thing I was able to focus on apart from unit planning: the seven dialogue papers I scored. I thought long and hard after we'd finished the dialogue paper scoring on Wednesday.  Am I doing this right? Why did I think this would be easy for me? Did I miss something? Am I bad at assessing? Every subsequent paper I assessed made me doubt my ability to assess . I have been planning for this unit I will teach, and I'm hesitating at assessment. This rubric sucks. Will I even be able to assess the students with this ? Why don't I get it?  It is my hope that during these next three weeks, I will be nicer to myself. To push forward. To explore assessment in many ways. To seek help when I need it. To continue trying. I have not forgotten my goal this term. I will make it happen....

  "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." -Confucius What we learned this week:     It is odd not to write about learning circles. I still have the book borrowed from the U of R library and am hesitant to part ways with it. To be completely candid, I don't believe there is much to be read from my posts now without such a massive segment. You may just get a lot more rambling. I sometimes forget what we learned on Wednesday nights after procrastinating on these blog posts. My usual routine would be to check the agenda and choose what really stood out to me. This week's agenda is the shortest we've had so far if I'm not mistaken. I briefly glanced at it before class and told my dad that we might be let out earlier tonight. I was spectacularly wrong. I didn't mind, and it passed by pretty quickly.      We did a Poll Guru at the beginning, and it was great to touch base with everyone after the break. I remember one of the questions was ...

  "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." -Abraham Lincoln What we learned this week:    Last circle discussion for Anne Davies' Making Assessment Work . I felt a little sad knowing that this was the last time our group would come together to discuss the recent chapters. Part of me liked that we were finally through with the reading, but I also enjoyed our discussions. This whole experience proved to me how invaluable it is to learn from each other. As the we conclude this segment of the course, I am happy to assess that our group has shown constant improvement and willingness to connect with the book and to personal applications. We may have struggled with attendance at the beginning, but most of us stuck around and made it work. I would definitely give us an "insightful" this week as well. We delegated tasks equally and contributed to every discussion. I also thought that we were very organized and communicated well. We discusse...

"Each person must live their life as a model for others." -Rosa Parks What we learned this week:     Another successful learning circle! We got Angela back and rotated our duties once more. I was able to do the recap of chapters 7 and 8, and we had a wonderful discussion afterward. I think this week also merits an "insightful." Although we didn't have as much to talk about from the chapters, we made lots of personal connections. Some of the things we discussed were: Multiple scenarios with student involvement in assessment-making. There are math, science labs, research, read-aloud, clean-up. Relate to outside the classroom, analyze samples, and make acronyms. Will having students focus on the assessment criteria take away the focus on actually learning meaningfully? Learners need to be accountable and involved. They will practice organizational skills, improve the quality of communication, and show their parents. Keep it simple, involve students, value evidence,...

  " A little progress each adds up to big results." -Satya Nani What we learned this week:     You know the drill. We had a lovely discussion this week as well. The recap of the chapters was shorter than the previous weeks, but it went something like this: Evidence time! Collections of evidence may differ. The three types of sources are observations of learning, products students create, and conversations with students about learning. They are also called Triangulation. Reliability: students produce the same kind of result at different times. Validity: the extent to which the evidence from multiple sources matches the quality levels expected in light of outcomes. You can observe students doing pretty much everything. Observations are essential for assessment. Some students prefer showing what they know. Observing can assist in scaffolding for the next activities. Collecting evidence through products: anything to be taken in like exams, essays, presentations, etc. Products...

  "Any fool can know. The point is to understand." -Albert Einstein What we learned this week:      Our second learning circle discussion was rewarding, and I learned many things from my fellow staff. We were still missing two members, but we welcomed Angela to the circle! I was truly impressed with her enthusiasm and courage to join in the conversation despite it being her first class with us. I imagine that it could be pretty intimidating, especially with catching up on reading. This week, we were able to discuss the following from chapters 3 and 4: Beginning with the end in mind : knowing where you are headed before you even start. What do I want my students to learn? Learning outcomes are opportunities and challenges. They are guides for teaching and student learning.  Having the outcomes without added expectations is useless. How to properly assess if students are meeting those outcomes? Students are not learning at the same place. Learning is not sequentia...