Leadership: Why Every Teacher Should Be a Researcher

    The theme of this module in our course was teachers as researchers. While my previous entry was specifically about action research (AR), ultimately it is important for all teachers to think of their work in the classroom as research and to be intentional about using a framework and making decisions based on data.

Action research uses the following process:

Phase 1: Planning (Come up with a testable question, do some secondary research, design the process) 

Phase 2: Action (Complete the primary research and data collection cycles)

Phase 3: Analysis (What does the data show?)

Phase 4: Conclusion

and from phase 4 we can cycle back to phase 1. Ideally action research would be completed collaboratively (and there are other models we can consider, such as Collaborative Inquiry, which ultimately have a similar process and the end goal - to try new things and learn from it - is the same).

If we are not able to engage in formal AR (collaborative time is not always given, common goals may not be determined) then we should make a best effort to engage in this process on a smaller scale for our own educational practices. I can see this process being used in two ways. Many educators likely are doing this very informally, but we could all benefit (as would our students) from thinking about it in more depth and making sure to complete the process.

In our day to day teacher we are constantly assessing student learning, collecting data and making decisions based on that data. Often this process is based on intuition and anecdotal data that is not tracked. This does not make the  process wrong, but likely we could be making more efficient decisions to improve student learning by being more intentional. I see this process as:

1. Plan a lesson including intentional decisions for assessment for and/or as learning
2. Do the lesson and collect the data (it could be fully collected such as a simple exit ticket using Google Forms/Quizzes or it could be as simple as using a thumbs up/side/down survey where you jot down the counts)
3. Reflect on what the data tells you (record your reflections, especially if it informs something to do differently in the plan next time)
4. Make an informed decision about student learning and use it to inform the next cycle

By using the process more formally on an individual basis we making an effort to limit our biases (which we all have - and what makes them a bias is that we often don't recognize them).

On a larger scale, as educators we often have a goal for ourselves for a semester or school year. Sometimes this goal is more personal in nature (i.e. to improve work-life balance) and sometimes it is purely about student learning (i.e. to improve on giving descriptive feedback). Although this goal may not be a collaborative effort we can still engage in a more formal process to work through this goal. We are more likely to hold ourselves accountable and, I would guess, are more likely to succeed. The point in both the day-to-day example and this is the same: be intentional!

Plan (don't skip the research)

Collect the data

Reflect (write it down)

Make informed decisions

Where this can (and does) become difficult is that by not being collaborative we can remain stuck in our isolated classrooms. It becomes important to have conversations with others in the building about your work to keep away from that bubble and to seek feedback from others. If we all engage in work like this it will start to lead to some meaningful collaboration, or at least will allow us to support each other in individual endeavours!

Leadership: Leaving the Classroom

 For this entry for my AQ course we have been asked to consider whether we would potentially leave the classroom for a leadership role.

I have discussed this with a few people but I don't think it was overly public knowledge. My answer is yes. I actually was really considering going into the instructional coach (IC) role, I really hope this role makes a comeback in our board when everything settles down. For some reason this leadership role has always appealed to be more than becoming a curriculum leader (though this is something I have also considered).

I like this role because you get to engage with teachers and students from a group of schools and build relationships while helping the system innovate and move forward in education. My informal leadership within my schools has often been around leading by example through trying new assessment and instructional strategies and sharing those strategies with those around me. This is the nutshell of the instructional coach role - you work with teachers looking to try new things and help them navigate those changes.

I also appreciate that this type of role would allow me to build on my skills for working with adult learners. I have facilitated many workshops at this point but have not done much formal work with other teachers of the coaching nature. In the last couple of years I have also started to realize that there is another role I would like to end up in at some point, and the IC role would be good experience to prepare me for this. But that is another story for another day!

Leadership: Positive Professional Development Experience

 This entry comes after some learning about effective professional development facilitation in our Teacher Leadership course. Thomas R. Guskey discusses backward planning needed for this type of professional development to happen - and makes it quite obvious why so much PD tends to fail. The big take away from this article is to note that these 5 things need to happen when planning teacher learning:

1) Desired student learning outcomes - what specific outcomes do we want to see and what evidence best reflects these outcomes (the decision should be based on data)

2) New practices & policies to be implemented - determine practices based on evidence (actual research, with citations) that will result in the desired outcomes

3) Needed organizational support - ideally needing school leader support and school resources (release time, technology, instructional materials) as well as feedback for teachers as they implement new strategies

4) Educator knowledge and skills - what must educators know and be able to do to implement the practices/policies?

5) Optimal professional learning activities - the set of experiences that will allow 4 to happen

So where have I seen this in practice?

A few years ago the Instructional Coordinator for Assessment at our board created the Secondary Assessment Leadership Team. This was a team you could apply to and 1-2 candidates were selected from each school location. We participated in an assessment camp that happened in the summer over 2-3 days and then had full day PL release during the year as well as some evening PL sessions to attend. This was continuous learning over time geared at building leadership capacity in the board in assessment with the goal of improving student learning. Here is how each of the 5 planning items were addressed:

1. We wanted to see student learning improve through changing assessment practices in the secondary portion of the board to better align with Ontario policy. This shift should see assessment & evaluation provide students with more varied opportunities to show their learning, get descriptive feedback and have a more transparent assessment experience in school. By doing this we believed that we would see improvements in student wellness and academic achievement. I don't know if the central data collecting for these goals happened. It may have happened on a school by school basis through student surveys and monitoring grades and final evaluation results.
   
   
2. Our work was all grounded in research. The learning of the SALT team used thoughtfully chosen resources over a period of time. For example, one year our work was focused around "Developing Assessment-Capable Visible Learners" by Nancy Frey, John Hattie and Douglas Fisher. We also had board developed smaller resources created by teachers based on research that as SALT leaders we could use with our school staff.
   
   
3. I have partially addressed this above - you can see clearly that we had board level support and resources (time release, reading materials) - and this support extended to the school level (at most locations). Principals were briefed about the work of the SALT team via a video conference and (ideally) the SALT lead was with the principal at the time. Release time was provided for school teams and principals could use the school discretionary release days for this purpose as well. SALT leads were expected to plan professional learning for their locations and this often occurred during provincial PA days, staff meetings and early-release days. Feedback for teachers would have been more dependent on how each location planned.
   
   
4. Our first year with the SALT team focused on improving final evaluations. Much of the practice was grounded only in the use of products and exams were still common-place in many locations. The Secondary Assessment Steering Committee felt that addressing final evaluations was an important starting point with the most impact as it would help steer more teachers toward changing practices in other places. We use our Final Evaluations checklist a lot that year and addressed teacher knowledge around Growing Success, equity, triangulation and analyzing final evaluations next to the overall expectations of a given course.
   
   
5. The SALT team sessions were set up to have us look at part of the resource we were focused on that year and also evolved to include leadership and facilitation skills (including planning for PL). It always included time to work on our planning while sharing and getting feedback from fellow group members. We often used reflective time to debrief on things we had tried since the last meeting so that we could adjust, learn new things and plan for the next leadership opportunity.

I had never really thought about these explicit steps for planning professional learning/development in the past, but I will definitely refer back to this learning for my future facilitation opportunities!

Leadership: Inspired to Learn!

    This entry is for my Teacher Leadership course and we were asked to take any topic from the module that resonated with us and describe it along with "its importance to being a pedagogical leader."

One of the candidates in the course has inspired my own learning when they created their AQ course outline titled "Nurturing Learners in the Classroom." The purpose of the course is to learn more about:

• Science of learning
• Factors contributing to student learning
• Myths in learning
• Executive functioning
• Content retention
• Educational system models
• Teaching students about the brain and growth mindset

The above topics are all ones that I have explored (or at least asked about) in the past and these ideas have sparked me to want to start to dive a little deeper into one or more of them again.

Too often we think of teaching and pedagogy as being based on the topic we are teaching. Too often we make it through our B.Ed programs and still do not really know how people learn or what is required to build classroom cultures and school systems that are actually equitable. It is actually vital to being a good teacher to understand how humans learn (and how this is different depending on developmental age) and to analyze and reflect on our own teaching using this lens.

If you are going to be a pedagogical leader (which can be thought of as "supporting teaching and learning. It includes instructional leadership—supporting classroom teachers in their key role of implementing curriculum" according to Michael B. Abel) then it should be considered essential to understand the science of learning and how we can best take advantage of what we know about the human brain to be effective educators and to lead others into using these best practices.

Thank you, Rachel, for inspiring me to further my learning and return to parts of education that reignite my flame!

Embracing Vulnerability, Recognizing Privilege and Taking Action for Change

We cannot sit idly by, or simply post resources to social media that inevitably only serves to connect with like minded people, and think that we are doing our part. And by we, I mean the white population of the world.

Black and Indigenous people of colour's (BIPOC) lives matter. They matter, not just because they are just as human, but because they have been systemically disadvantaged and discriminated against for hundreds of years.

It is time for us to do the work. The BIPOC communities have been fighting for long enough. Change starts from within. As white citizens we need to recognize, learn about and work to change the systemic discriminations that are built into who we are and what our country has become. It is NOT enough to be a person who is "not racist". We must work to become informed people who actively engage in the discussion, make personal changes and actively speak up/act when witnessing discrimination.

By no means do I think myself an expert. I am still early in my journey to learning about anti-racism. I am just fortunate to have some amazing colleagues who were doing the work and helped me get started on this journey. Last year we engaged in a lot of learning that allowed me the space to start to look at my own thoughts and actions and start to recognize my own biases and start to see microaggressions for what they are. I started to come to a better understanding that as honest a life as I had wanted to live, I had not seen the racism within myself before. I grew up with friends of different ethnicities and was engaged to a visible minority - so how could I be racist?

And so my journey to embrace mu vulnerability, recognize my privilege and to take action to change had begun. If there is a moment from those early days that really sticks out, it was when student stories (from students at my own school) were being shared with and I found myself realizing that I was (unconsciously) responding to the reactions of students of colour differently in the classroom. I had to do a lot of reflection to identify which of my actions/words/thoughts I needed to become more aware of - the mental list had begun.
What I am sharing here today is no authoritative stance, nor does it necessarily reflect any perfect views or ideas. This is just me trying to use my privilege to stand with the BIPOC community. Hopefully you are starting to ask "So what can I do to fight systemic racism in Canada?" It may not be a simple answer, but it is doable!

1) Educate yourself! This does not mean that you should seek out BIPOCs on your life and ask questions. It is not their job to teach you. (But if someone of colour does choose to speak with you about racism, make the effort to really listen! If a BIPOC tells you that there is something that has caused harm, that is often a moment of vulnerability and trust in their relationship with you - if you are not able to respond with meaning in the moment, be honest that you need time to process and appreciate that they trusted you enough to share - make sure to continue that conversation within a reasonable time to honour your relationship). Start with learning some vocabulary and doing related research on Google OR pick up a book like "So You Want to Talk About Race" which is a good introduction to big ideas and vocabulary OR watch Dear White People on Netflix (and Google vocabulary when it comes up).

2) Do the work! In learning about things like white fragility, systemic racism and microaggressions, do the *personal* work to start to recognize the things you say and do that you may not have realized were racist before and with to change your attitudes, habits and behaviors. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. We are talking about dismantling a system that has been an advantage to you your whole life, try to take your discomfort out of the equation.

3) Be part of the solution! Use your privilege for good. Learn when to stand behind, beside or in front of the BIPOC community to support the work. Say something when you see/hear something. You will not get it right every time. In fact, you will mess up. It's inevitable. But keep learning and keep doing the work. Here is an image about allyship that a friend shared that I found helpful (it is intended for Trans Allies, as soon in the header, but the principles are universal).

Source can be found here.

Privilege can be complicated and comes in many forms. Most of us have some, but some have more than others. Let's choose to use our privilege for good.

Midterm Conferences & Term Reflection 2.0

Another overdue blog entry! Better late than never.

I wanted to share the new experience with midterm conferences in second semester (as students were more involved with the learning map and I made some tweaks to the reflection they were doing).

Student Reflection

This time around, students were better able to make use of the learning map. Since they had since it since the first week of the course they had a better understanding of what the map meant and how to use it. This meant that student's evaluation of themselves was generally more realistic. It also meant that students were better able to identify what they were doing well, and what they needed to set out as a next step (which meant that the report comments they helped me write were more meaningful).

Student Conference

Conferences were close to student-led conferences. More of them were prepared to show me evidence of their learning and defend their self-evaluation. Some were still under prepared, but there were a lot fewer that needed to go back to do the reflection before re-booking their conference.

Overall there was still some separation between where students believed they were and what I had seen, but it was a lot easier to ask them for evidence of the learning, which led to students doing some reflection in the moment and often realizing that they had not yet shown me something. They were productive conversations and students sometimes expressed they wanted to have more of them (they are time consuming, but I hope to find more and more ways to give students this individual time that they need).

Term Reflection

Some student feedback and personal reflection led me to realize that the reflection I was having students do was not as productive as it needed to be. At midterm I still had students identify a strength and need for each OLG and then evaluating using the learning map. Problem was, they were not engaging enough with the evidence of learning they had identified (and it was a little redundant), So I changed the first chart they were willing in to look like this: (note, you can see the previous version here)

Feel free to borrow and tweak this if you are interested!

Send me a tweet or comment on this blog if you have any other suggestions, ideas, or questions. Would love to hear from you :)

"Gradeless" Math 2.0

Well the blog updates got pushed to the bottom of the to-do list in second semester (not unusual) so this is a tad overdue, but I wanted to share some of the changes that my reflection on first semester lead to.

Some context:
- first semester did not have a learning map with descriptors until after midterm (I did not find I was able to write clear descriptors that I liked until I had evidence of student learning to use to write them)
- the learning map was not clear to students and since they had not engaged with it during the semester having them do final reflections and self-evaluate their course mark was difficult for them
- students relied heavily on the teacher for feedback

And so I set out in the second semester to make some changes. As many of you will be able to relate to, my thought process was more ambitious than life would allow for.

The new iteration (Gradeless 2.0):
- I added to my deconstruction of curriculum to include the learning map (read here for a description of the first week of class in Semester 1, I kept the math processes part and then the grades 10s did the following instead) by cutting up the map into pieces and giving it to them to put together (this forced them to read at least parts of the map and start to become familiar with it)
- Trying to spend more time modelling the use of criteria and feedback for students and giving them more dedicated time to do assessment as learning (trying to help them be less reliant on the teacher)
- Having students engage in the learning map by self-evaluating at the end of each set of summative evaluations (admittedly, this happened after the first set but did not get done in explicit class time after that)

New reflections:
- The new iteration was time well-spent. Students definitely had a better grasp of what the map was intended to do and were more comfortable using it (not all of them, there is still some work to be done, perhaps a more pointed effort to conference with students more often)
- I want students to refer to the map more to increase their focus on identifying where they are and what their next steps might be (keep the focus on noticing and naming the learning and reflecting on their progress)
- Students seemed to appreciate the transparency. One going as far as to say "I finally know what it means to be a level 4 in math" and used this as a way to help himself set goals
- The feedback at the end of the course from my students shows that even the ones who rated the learning map on the low side liked the idea of it, they just found it confusing at times

So it seems like the learning map is something I should continue to pursue and should put a focus on helping to make it more student friendly - I am just not sure what that would look like yet. I wonder if there is  way to make it a bit more interactive so that students can see examples of some of the more confusing parts or read explanations of terms.

If you have any suggestions they would be welcome!

Happy summer!

JALI Assessment As Learning Reflection

As many of you who have read one of my blog entries already will know, I am have been on a journey to improve my understanding and use of assessment in my teaching practices over the past few years. In semester 1 of this year I had the opportunity to participate in one of my school's "mini courses" offered for teachers. This one was lead by one of my colleagues and was to work on our use of assessment AS learning.

This is an area that I feel I have continued to struggle with but know that I need to tap into better. In order to survive in my quest (see recent post on this quest) for a feedback-focused math classroom I need to tap into the skills of my students to give themselves (and each other) effective feedback. Students deserve feedback, and getting them involved in the process engages them in the learning better, makes evaluation more transparent, and makes teacher workload a bit more manageable.

I was able to be exposed to some strategies I had not considered in my classroom before the JALI course and am now trying some new things in semester 2. My goals are for students to:
- engage in the learning map more regularly
- do more co-construction of criteria
- explicitly use criteria to give each other (and self) feedback on their work
- (and by extension) for students to better self-identify their needs

I am grateful for colleagues who are so willing to share their experiences and expertise with others and found sharing with the other course members was a reward in itself!

Reflecting on "Gradeless" Math - Modelling Life-Long Learning

This post can also be found on our team's TLLP blog.

As the title of this entry may suggest this entry is serving as a place to express my thoughts around how last semester went and the changes I am hoping to make. My desire is that this "public diary" will help me to be accountable to my goals, will inspire someone else to take a risk, and will model that we (teacher) practice what we preach - we are all learners.

What worked well that I will continue:

• Having students engage in deconstructing curriculum (specifically the math processes and instructional language)
• Making students reflect on their learning (often!)
• Having a grounding document for evaluation (learning map with overarching learning goals)
• evaluation is based in criteria
• Having students analyze their evidence of learning to determine their grades (and conferencing about it)
• Constructing success criteria with students

What I will strive to do better:

• Engage in curriculum deconstruction more frequently (not just at the beginning of the course)
• Doing more explicit instruction around reflection (how, when, why)
• Helping students understand where they currently are (map was not ready until midterm last semester, students did not know how to use it or make meaning from it) so they can better match evidence of learning to the map and, therefore, determine a midterm and final term grade
• Teaching students to self- and peer-assess and give appropriate, meaningful feedback
• Spending time getting students to co-construct criteria for types of questions or tasks (and for daily topics)
• Getting students to self-identify as needing help and committing to getting that help (perhaps with a simple Google form)
• Collecting student feedback on my practices

What I will do differently:

• Provide a copy of the completed learning map from the start of the course to each student
• Engage students in the use of the map frequently
• Scaffold student note-taking based on investigative learning (i.e. in the early stages I am publishing a "note outline" that asks prompting questions indicating that there is something they should take note of/think about

Future goals and desires (that are just not realistic right now):

• Have a usable learning map for the other course(s) I am teaching 
• Engage same-subject colleagues in work around assessment practices [we are engaging in some "department" professional learning time in the coming weeks that may help with this]
• Be better at recording observation and conversation assessment data of student learning

Seeking "Gradeless" Sanity

This post can also be found on our team's TLLP blog.

It has been awhile since my last entry. Life and work got a little overwhelming, in retrospect. The midterm part of the semester contributed to that (you can read about it here) on top of having 3 straight days of PL/a conference to attend to and I was well behind where I would have liked to be in terms of giving feedback to student. Summative evaluations began to pile up, the essentials had to be prioritized and returned first. No matter what anybody tells you, 84 students is a lot.

But too often this number of students for a secondary educator is a normal reality. So we need to make this better. We need to find ways to meet student's needs, give them the feedback they need and deserve, and still come out sane on the other side. I wish I could tell you that this reflection was going to provide you with the magic answer. But...I don't have it...

Yet.

I am determined to find a way. I am determined to figure out how to be able to leverage students to become effective self- and peer-assessors, despite having a curriculum that is loaded so heavily with content. There must be a way. I have spent time reading (and even talking to) Starr Sackstein and reading books about descriptive feedback. I have spent time talking to other educators, in various subjects, who are on a journey to better feedback (many of whom are on a journey to "gradeless" - or at least "grading less"). And I am sold - I have "drank the kool-aid" (as many have put it). I believe that what I am trying to do is good for kids - that it leads to improved learning and skill building, better self-confidence, ownership of learning, and is more likely to lead to growth mindset of life-long learning. What I am not able to find, is anyone who can help me find solutions that work in a content-based subject/curriculum. I believe that what I see now would make for some amazing learning in language classes. But I am still struggling to wrap my head around how it is possible to meet with provincial policy (i.e. cover the expectations of my course) and still be sane at the end of the school year.

Here is what I know:

1. Overarching learning goals and my learning map provide:

• Focus for my course
• Direction for students
• Clear, transparent assessment & evaluation that is rooted in curriculum & policy
• A third point for conversation around evaluation and reporting
• Something tangible for students to deconstruct and make meaning from
• A way for students to engage in self- and peer-assessment (descriptive feedback)
• A way for students to self-evaluate (know where they are)

2. Overarching learning goals and my learning map do NOT (yet?) provide:

• A way to help students see that sometimes the skills are hindered by the content knowledge (i.e. why they are meeting expectations in this area when studying trigonometry, but may not be when studying quadratic relations)
• the ability to "spiral" material in a course that has curriculum strands that are not related in any obvious ways (but this is also something I could see working on in the future)
• A way for students to give themselves and others feedback around individual content criteria needed (and honestly, I would love to de-emphasize this in my head as I honestly believe that mathematical thinking skills are the most important part)
• An effective way to record evidence of learning so I can track student progress (I am finding recording to be much more time-consuming than in the past)

3. Giving descriptive feedback helps:

• Students focus on learning
• Teachers focus on what is the most important at the time
• Students to identify potential next steps
• Students improve their learning
• Show students what you really value

4. Giving descriptive feedback takes:

• Time (giving "out of" marks is definitely faster, but I still very much believe has little real value)
• Effort
• Additional thought
• You to an uncomfortable place (so much cognitive dissonance!)

5. No matter how many times I am kicked down, I love what I do. And I will bounce back. I will accept my short-falls in the past, set goals for the future, and keep coming back for more.

Reflections on Midterm Conferences in "Gradeless" 9-10 Math

This post can also be found on our team's TLLP blog.

It has been an observation of mine that students are struggling to transfer the meta-cognition skills gained in other places into the math classroom. The ideas and structures I am putting onto their math learning seem to be very different than anything they have done in math before that they do not realize they have done it elsewhere. It has made for some interesting reflection on my part.

In continuing with my journey to explore student reflection I wanted to have students self-evaluate at midterm and conference with me to determine their report grade and report card comments. I set this up using an assignment on Google Classroom and had the sign up for a conference time-slot.

My grade 10s were given a reflection document that included a few things (outlined via images below).

Part 1: Identify pieces of evidence and start to identify criteria from the map that were evident in that evidence

Part 2: Highlight where evidence shows that they are for each criteria of each overarching learning goal in the course (the map is a partial map, only including the aspects relevant at this point in the course)

Part 3: Self-evaluate and reevaluate learning and next steps

When this was all said and done I opened this file when students came to me for their conference. Since I was finding that students were struggling with this process in math I ended up spending most of this time looking at their map with them and identifying areas where we disagreed so that we could discuss them. I recognize that I had not done the map justice (did not explain it well enough) and had already known that it would be difficult as it would be their first real exposure to it (I was only able to write the map myself the week before giving this assignment). Needless to say, I learned a lot - and had already planned to get a student focus-group together to help me reword the map more appropriately for students.

So next time I will:
- get students using the map earier
- rework it to use more student-friendly language
- model how to use the map
- have students evaluate using the map before midterm
- continue to build student reflection and self- & peer-assessment skills explicitly

The grade 9s I do not have a map for so I approached their reflection by having them fill in a chart while referencing the parts of the curriculum document that were relevant at this point. They were often able to identify specific expectations that they were doing well on and ones that they had to work on. What ended up lacking was them considering these expectations from a lens that expanded from just the "understand and use" - I need a way to make sure that the 9s consider the math processes as well in the future.

Overall students responded fairly positively during conferences when I pointed out things that had not considered that showed they were struggling with aspects of the course, but the discussions took a long time. The conferencing process was valuable, but I need to seek some ways to make it more manageable and to be away from facilitating student learning for less time.

Questions Coming From "Gradeless" Math

This post can also be found on our team's TLLP blog.

Going "gradeless" (using feedback-focused assessment) has brought about some great things with students, but often leads to more question than answers about my assessment practices. If you are reading this and have any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear from you!

Overarching Learning Goals & Learning Maps

I have started my year in grade 10 math with a set of learning goals and an incomplete learning map. I went into this process with an understanding that these documents will always be working documents. Changes will be needed depending on the group of students and changing needs of the course/society/etc. I am only 6 weeks into the semester and already envisioning the need for changes just based on pedagogy and assessment policy. Some of the reasons for this will be become more evidence in the topic below.

My learning map only has descriptors for level 3, which is partly by design.
1) I couldn't figure out how to describe the learning for 4 levels since I had not even tried using these goals for standards-based grading

2) I want student language to be used on the map so really need their voice to complete it

Hopefully I can get to a point soon where I have enough student evidence to show them that they can help me with that.

The Achievement Chart

I am grappling with the achievement chart in math - I am a fan of ensuring that we are assessing using all 4 categories (for those of you outside of Ontario those are Knowledge & Understanding, Application, Communication and Thinking) but I am struggling with the "descriptors" that Ontario uses to split them into 4 levels and even more grappling with what it means to have knowledge & understanding at a level 4 (exceeding expectations) when removed from thinking. I cannot get away from the idea that to show level 4 K&U you must also be showing T.

Manageable Feedback

This is the biggest question for me in out TLLP. How do I give students the feedback in math that they need and deserve in a manageable way? If I were to do all of what I think is beneficial I would literally not sleep. When everything is in place I will try to find ways to do it a bit more electronically so there is less hand writing to do, but the idea still baffles me in such a skill-based course (with the sheer volume of skills/understanding they need).

If anyone has any idea I would love to hear them. There is only so much that they can accomplish through self- and peer-feedback.

Managing Conferencing

I love doing interviews with kids about math. It is always an eye-opening look into what they actually understand (sometimes things they have not been able to articulate on paper and sometimes finding out just how much they are memorizing and not understanding). When I was teaching senior courses I usually found the time I needed to have these conferences, but I am having more trouble doing so with junior courses. It is a to harder to get them to be automonous for 3 days so that I can have the time needed.

Any ideas are welcome!

Week 2/3 in "Gradeless" Math - Self & Peer-Assessment and Reflecting on Progress

This post can also be found on our team's TLLP blog.

In the second full week of school I put a lot of focus on starting to develop student's skills in self- and peer-assessment. Without these skills the idea of developing an environment that creates more autonomous learners likely would not happen (and the burden of giving descriptive feedback would fall entirely on me - and I also have a goal to get more sleep this year).

Here is the gist of the steps I attempted to take last week:

1. Give students questions to use when reflecting on their work (such as "Have I written my solution so that someone else can follow it?"). I put these on the board and uploaded a photo of them to our Google Site for student's to reference.

2. Introduce the model I am using for descriptive feedback (Acknowledge what you are doing well; Describe what your next step should be; Determine how/when you are going to work on your next step). I also put this on the board and uploaded a photo to our Site. In the future, I would like to provide students with exemplars and discuss what good feedback looks like.

3. Assign students to choose a question they have done and use the questions from 1 and the model from 2 to write descriptive feedback for themselves (and asked them to upload to Sesame so I could give them feedback on their descriptive feedback).

4. On the next opportunity I modeled how I used the success criteria to write the reflection questions for students (this time we were looking at problem solving).

5. I then assigned a question for them to do as practice and when most of them were finished I had them swap with a neighbour and peer-assess using the questions and write descriptive feedback for their partner.

6. For homework that night I asked them to choose one of the questions they did at home to upload to Sesame and include descriptive feedback for themselves. I followed up with those who posted one to give them feedback on their self-assessment.

I plan to have report conferences with students at midterm and the end of the course to determine their report grades together. To help them prepare for this I also implemented the next two steps at the end of the week.

7. I created a chart (pictured below) with instructions for students for them to use to help them summarize what we had been doing. I filled in the overarching learning goals (OLGs) that I wanted them to focus on and they needed to list the evidence they had of that learning (i.e. quiz, homework, activity) and then list the corresponding success criteria from our learning map as ether "met" or "still working on".

8. Based on the instructions students sent home an email that summarized the chart (on my Google Classroom assignment it stated that they should: Tell them what they learned/were able to do; Inform them of what is still being worked on; Summarize how the student feels they are doing so far).

Once students started to send the emails and I looked at a couple I realized I needed to get them to do a reflection portion to help consolidate a bit better. Upon this reflection I decided to add this to the bottom of these reflections.

This will make sure students are reminded to revisit their goal and will hopefully lead to students setting some relevant goals for where they are at the time.

I will definitely be continuing to get students to use self- and peer-assessment and will continue to work on using the above style reflections to see how they go. Right now the tough part is convincing all of them to complete it (I gave them time in class, but probably not enough).

Week 1 in Math - My Motivations & Understanding Expectations with Students

What, Why and Where

I am finally embarking on my vision of a "gradeless" classroom. What does that mean? It means that my students will receive feedback that is feedback-based. Learning becomes about learning. Grades take a step back and are determine for reporting periods.

Why am I going here? I am giving the ownership of learning back to my students. For too long I have been the owner of the learning. It was believed that the teacher "gave" marks and students always wanted to know what they needed to "do" to get an 80. The shift is simple - I give feedback based on set criteria that students need to work toward and they reflect on their learning and act on a next step to meet those criteria. 

Where am I now? In the past 2-3 years I have done some work with creating overarching learning goals and reformatting evaluations (i.e. taking marks off of quizzes, using one-point rubrics to give feedback, etc.). Ultimately these changes have led me to need to go to a fully feedback-based classroom so that I can focus on doing this well. So this year (my grade 10 classes in particular) will learn math through feedback based on 5 overarching learning goals.

Our First Few Days

After spending a period on vertical surfaces solving a problem in groups we started to attack the curriculum. I wanted students to have a chance to find out what the curriculum was and to understand the lens through which the curriculum is taught. In fact, I wanted them to own it.

The Math Processes - the lens through which the Ontario math curriculum is taught

Students were in 7 groups of 3-4 students and each group was assigned to one of the processes. They were tasked with rewriting their process in their own words. I gave them two prompting questions to consider to help with the process: What does it mean? What will it look like in class?

Groups then rotated around and had a chance to add or suggest changes to the work of the other groups. When they returned to their own group they were to look at the suggestions made and decide on their final sentence - sharing their final work in a shared document.

As a group we looked at the final sentences which was my chance to ask them questions about their choices of words. This lead to us making some changes (I tried to make sure we were keeping as much of their wording as possible) and agreeing as a class that we understood what it looked like.

Overall Expectations - the content

Students were given the curriculum for one of the strands of the course and were tasked with rewriting the overall expectations in their own words. When they were finished I had the groups working on the same strand get together and come to an agreement before sharing it on our shared doc. We then looked at it as a class.

With my second section I made a better point of talking about the language in the document, defining words they needed and talked about what words were important to leave in.

Learning Map - putting them together

I reworded my overarching learning goals to use the students words from the above and then shared my learning map with the students. The 5 goals on this map are where we will focus our attention for the semester. Instead of having 7 processes and 10 overall expectations students how have 5 goals to manage and reflect on.

Reflection

While I am at a school where deconstructing curriculum is not new to grade 10 students it was their first time doing it with math "jargon" so the struggle was largely around the vocabulary used. When I do this again with students who are new to this process in math I would spend time at the start looking at math and instructional vocabulary and make sure that we know what they mean and which ones are important to keep.

Portfolio: Future Endeavours

As part of my Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ we are to build a portfolio of artifacts that reflect who we are as a leader and who we want to become. In this entry I will be reflecting on a role that I might like to take on in the future with my board.

I used to talk a little about seeking a department headship position. And there was a time where I thought the instruction technology resource teacher position was of interest to me. But in the past couple of years I have come to realize that I am not sure that a headship is what I would really be passionate about and the ITRT position might be fun but is not where I would find excitement.

What my journey (much of which is outlined in the previous portfolio posts) has lead me to realize is that the instructional coach position in my board is really what would interest me. The co-learning stance that they seek, the current focus on numeracy (and, by the way, numeracy does not equal math!) and the ever growing focus on assessment and evaluation speak way more to who I am as an educator. And I think that I would learn a lot about myself and about the profession.

I was fortunate enough to be exposed to this position by a great role model for a few years. She was very good at building capacity in the school and had a great learning stance (she was also an elementary teacher so felt she had a lot she could learn and also brought an interesting perspective to our work).

Last year I called on our IC so that I could bounce ideas off of him to build my first conversation-based evaluation for a senior math course. The result of this interaction was him sharing this gem of a resource with me.

Portfolio: Shared Responsibility: Developing Autonomous Learners

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Shared Responsibility where we looked at parent communication reasons & strategies, inquiry-based learners, mental health & resiliency, and student success stakeholders and planning. The item I have chosen is the inquiry-based activity (lesson) that I developed as part of the Developing Autonomous Learners section of the module.

In this section I was forced to come back to an always-repeating thought "what does inquiry-based learning really mean in a math classroom?" So I did some research to find out what others thought this means and discovered that for a math teacher this really should be thought of in the lens of discovery learning or problem-based learning. The goal, in the end, is to get students learning/asking questions in the context of the learning so that it has more meaning and leads to better retention. For instance, the teacher can introduce students to a basic idea (i.e. factoring trinomials) and then use problems for students to work through so that they can start to identify patterns or methods that work. In this model the teacher (who I now prefer to call the coach) can answer questions, connect groups of students, do mini-lessons, or stop the whole class to discuss something.

Our assignment had asked us to submit an inquiry-activity. Going through the above process helped me to realize that I am doing more inquiry-learning than I had realized and then forced me to think through an activity more thoroughly. I now feel like I am better equipped to answer the question "but what does this mean in math?" and to be an instructional-leader in this area.

The assignment was to outline an activity, describe the assessment process(es) involved, and to describe how we would share the resulting data with others.

Here is the activity that I submitted for this assignment:

Inquiry-Based Activity

The idea behind inquiry-based learning is that students use an activity as a learning opportunity (to discover or uncover new learning). In many classes this might involve a topic that is introduced (or an open-ended question) where students come up with a question to investigate. In mathematics there is not necessarily a chance to come up with big issues to get students interested in the learning but we can use problems to get them to investigate a main idea and learn the details of that idea from the problems.

Activity

Prior Knowledge: Students have already learned what a function is and they have reviewed characteristics of 5 main functions (such as asymptotes, vertexes, etc).

1.      Review characteristics of 5 functions, address any concerns or questions.

2.      Get students onto student.desmos.com to complete Domain and Range activity. Most slides in the activity have students submit work and then they will see the responses of 3 peers (so they can self-assess immediately) and teacher can see all responses to monitor class progress (so the whole class can be paused if needed or teacher can go to discuss with specific students). The activity progresses as follows:

                           i.          Graph is given and domain and range are described in words. Student is asked to describe what they think domain and range mean.

                          ii.          A graph is given with description in words. Students identify whether they agree or not.

                         iii.          Graph is given. Students are asked to describe domain and then range in words.

                         iv.          Graph is given and “select all” list using algebraic description of domain and range.

                          v.          Graph is given with algebraic description for domain. Students have to correct the domain.

                         vi.          Graph is given. Students submit algebraic description of domain and then range.

                       vii.          Algebraic domain and range is given. Students create a graph that fits description. ( x 3 )

                      viii.          Graph is given with MC question asking for which algebraic statement is false.

3.      Teacher leads a discussion to consolidate learning of domain and range and add full notation and review function vs relation.

4.      Students add domain and range to characteristics in chart from previous class.

5.      Students pair up to check each others domain & range and to give feedback.

Plan for Sharing Successes, Challenges and Next Steps

This particular inquiry will help to determine the preparedness of the grade 11s to discuss functions (based on introduction of domain and range briefly in grade 10) and on student preparedness to complete investigations (which is an important thinking skill in mathematics and ties directly into the math processes of reflection and connection and this particular task ties into representing). In addition it will help inform the grade 11 team for readiness to move onto the next lesson (immediate next lesson is an activity to practice using the domain/range vocab and we will do some algebraic lessons before coming back to characteristics of functions).

I will share the above with the current grade 10 team so they can make informed decisions about introducing domain/range and with the rest of the grade 11 team to get a conversation started about next steps for investigative thinking. If admin want to know how we are looking at skills continuum in mathematics I will also share this information with them. 

Portfolio: Leading in a Group: Courageous Conversations

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Leading in a Group where we looked at how adults learn, the importance of having difficult conversations to give people real feedback, mentorship (the NTIP program), considering cross-curricular lesson planning and coming up with staff meeting agenda.

In this assignment we were asked to collaborate to develop a dialogue around a courageous conversation. My partner and I chose to make a dialogue between a teacher (who had not made necessary changes to assessment practices and was still relying on quizzes and tests) and an instructional coach. Creating this dialogue forces us to think about ways to have a courageous conversation in a way that made the teacher's experience valuable while finding out what they needed so that we could gauge how to move forward. We tried to phrase things in a way that asked for the teacher's input instead of making assumptions about what they needed to move forward in their practice.

I chose this assignment for my portfolio because I believe that having difficult conversations - confronting uncomfortable things - is the skill that needs the greatest improvement. It is something I have often avoided throughout my life, but I am working on it and felt that this portion of the course helped me to reflect on it in a more concrete way.

Our readings/videos suggested these steps for having courageous conversations (for giving feedback to an employee in a business):
1. Prepare them
2. Get to the point
3. Link to business
4. Agree on action
and I felt that in starting this dialogue that we knew:
1. The teacher was prepared because of past conversations with department members/head and knew they were meeting with the instructional coach and why
2. To get to the point quickly
3. To relate the work to the teachers own goals and ideas and give choice
4. To come up with a plan for follow through

Here is the conversation we developed:

Issue or Problem:

Some possible ideas could include - despite multiple conversations a teacher is not making progress in terms of assessment practices (relying on quiz & test data and department/course team discussions have resulted in little change)

Roles: Teacher & Instructional Coach (dialogue is making the assumption that department head made connection between T and IC)

Dialogue:

IC: Hi T, my name is IC, I don’t think we have formally met yet.

T: Hello. It is nice to meet you. We can work in here.

IC: So my understanding is that your department head has put us in touch. Can you tell me a little bit about what you would like to work on?

T: Well, department head seems to feel that I need to review how I give tests in my classes, I guess I’m not supposed to be giving so many tests. The problem is that I am never sure with other assignment types how I know they’re not just copying from each other or sharing the workload.

IC: Ok great, that’s a very helpful starting point. Maybe we can start by taking a look at your course outline so that you can walk me through your units of study and the assessments you’ve planned

T: Sure, well, you can see here that we have 6 units throughout the year and each has a mid point quiz and an end of unit test.  You can also see that the year end exam is the culminating task so it is worth 30% of the overall mark.

IC: OK, are you aware of what the course team is currently doing? Or are you on this course alone?

T: This semester I am the only teacher on this course.

IC: You mentioned that you are concerned about students copying. Is there a type of assessment you have in mind that you would like to try to work through?

T: Well I know that I should be doing some problem-based stuff.

IC: How do you feel about collecting triangulated data?

T: I am willing to try something new but am not really sure what you mean by triangulated data?

IC: Triangulated data means that you’re looking for 3 opportunities to assess student knowledge and understanding and that you’re gathering this data through three different lenses - products, observations and conversation. You are probably doing all of them already but not necessarily making use of them as evidence for individual students.

T: Can they be Assessment for and as learning as well as a summative Assessment of Learning?

IC: Absolutely. Providing students with a formative opportunity to work with the new knowledge allows them the opportunity to test their learning and also helps you to adjust your teaching plans to address areas in which students may be challenged. For example, if you were to use a problem based scenario such as a case study, you can give students the opportunity to work through a case study in class in small groups before they tackle a summative Assessment of Learning case study.  While they are working on the formative case study, you can observe and ask questions as they work through the case study and can jot down some observational notes on how they are using the concepts and skills from the unit. You might also use a quiz as a AoL check in before the AoL case study to check on their knowledge of the key concepts they will need to apply in the case study.

T: OK, so I would take observations of individual students so that I would know what  they know individually? How do you get to every student and how do you actually track the evidence you have seen?

IC: Great question. There is not necessarily one right answer, but I would recommend starting with a learning goal and developing success criteria. That way the students will know what you are looking for and you will have a manageable way to look at the work the students are doing. You could target specific students if you are unsure about getting through the whole class, but every student needs to get the opportunity for feedback. Would you like to try planning something like this?

T: Sure. I think I have some case studies from a colleague who taught this last semester. Do I have to give every group the same case study or can they get different ones?

IC: They can definitely be different ones - as long as you think that you can assess the same learning goal for each one.

T: Ok, that seems manageable.  I would still like to use a quiz to get some reliable individual data on each student too. Is that too much?

IC: If you think a quiz is important, you might like to consider is what is on the quiz that’s different from the formative group work but that they might need in order to complete the Assessment of Learning task.  If a student performs poorly on the quiz but then reviews and works to learn the concepts and is able to apply them successfully on the Assessment of Learning case study, you can acknowledge their progress on the AoL Case Study.  

T: So when I determine their overall grade for the unit, do I average the quiz and AoL case study?

IC: You will continue to use the practice of most recent and consistent. The great thing about triangulating your results is that you are able to acknowledge the student’s overall learning. For example, If a student misses the mark on one part of the AoL case study but you have evidence from your observations and quiz results that they do understand a particular concept, you can acknowledge that in terms of the overall mark.

T: So I need to decide on a learning goal and success criteria, identify some case studies that will allow for those expectations to be met and then will need some kind of tracking mechanism to record my observations/conversations.

IC: Sounds like a great start. I can share some sample tracking sheets with you if you like and would be happy to work through those steps with you - or if you would like to have some time to work individually and then to do some feedback via email I can make that work too.

Portfolio: Classroom Leadership: Top 10 List

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Classroom Leadership where we looked at how experiential learning/community connections, school climate (safe and accepting schools policy), being a technology leader, empowering students to become leaders and how teacher leadership begins in the classroom with lesson planning.

One of the assignments was to create a top 10 list of ways you can encourage students to take on leadership roles. I liked that this assignment forced me to think about leadership in a different way - how I can be a leader in my classroom and co-curriculars in a way that will empower others to develop leadership skills? This forced me to think more about how my decisions can impact things beyond curriculum content and put the context of myself as a leader back into the classroom (which is really where I envision myself staying for awhile - and it is instructional leadership that interests me the most).

When creating my list I tried to think about the things that I do every day in my classroom as well as ways that you can empower student leadership outside of the classroom. I also considered the article I had used when researching qualities/skills that made an effective leader and used that to make sure my list was relevant.

My top 10 list ended up as:

1. Provide opportunities for collaboration and rotate roles in the group (promotes communication skills, commitment, and will help students to learn to take different approaches to tasks with different personalities)
2. Use vertical non-permanent surfaces with a rule that the student with the idea cannot be the student with the marker (promotes communication skills, risk-taking, honesty, delegation and approach)
3. Give senior students on sports teams a chance to plan and run practices (promotes delegation, communication confidence, commitment, positive attitude, creativity, intuition and inspiration)
4. Empower student executives of clubs to run the club (be hands-off) (promotes honesty, delegation, communication, confidence, commitment, positive attitude, and creativity)
5. Give feedback about student communication skills (promotes self-awareness)
6. Explicitly teach students to reflect/self-assess (promotes honesty, confidence, intuition and commitment)
7. Give opportunity to give peer feedback (promotes communication, honestly, positive attitude, intuition and approach)
8. Give opportunities for social advocacy (promotes delegation, commitment, positive attitude, creativity, and inspiration)
9. Create a culture of risk-taking in your classroom - growth mindset, model risk-taking (promotes honesty, confidence, positive attitude, and intuition)
10. Celebrate successes to build confidence (promotes positive attitude and intuition)

Portfolio: Leading with a Plan: Are Leaders Born or Made?

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Leading with a Plan where we looked at the importance of planning, learning preference and multiple intelligences, how to use data to inform classroom practice, leadership development opportunities, and debating whether a leader is born or made.

The assignment that I felt was most beneficial to me was our debate on whether a leader is born or made. For this assignment we had to do some research and form an argument for one of the sides of the debate. This forced me to think about leadership in a different light by having me reflect on what kind of environment a person needs to become an effective leader. I realized that it was because other people recognized what they believed were "natural" leadership skills and gave me opportunities to use them. I have never been one to decide for myself that I wanted to pursue particular opportunities - but I have obviously taken advantage of ones that were given to me. I plan to continue with the philosophy that I should seek to make myself a more effective educator, and if long the way I find suggestions to pursue other things then I will consider them. I just want to be the best me I can be.

Here is the argument that I formed for leaders being made, not born:

According to Forbes’ Tanya Prive, there are 10 qualities that make a great leader: Honesty, delegation, communication, confidence, commitment, positive attitude, creativity, intuition, inspiration, and approach.

While you may argue that honesty and positive attitude are more innate qualities I believe that they are actually developed over time as you are raised through your experiences. If you grow up with honest, positive role models than you are likely to take on those characteristics.

The ability to delegate, communicate, be creative, rely on your intuition and to take different approaches with different people are definitely things that are learned over time. These are things that usually require intentional practice and awareness/reflection to improve. Some people may seem to be better natural communicators, but we can learn to be better at it by practicing. Others may naturally tend toward a controlling manner, but can learn to rely on others (and therefore delegate work) as they become better at reading situations/people and balancing their own life. Relying on intuition comes with experiencing a variety of situations throughout a persons personal and professional life and can be enhanced by focusing on observational skills.

Confidence can be developed over time by mentor leaders. This requires you to be given opportunities in situations with other leaders who can help you recognize your strengths and who will give you opportunities to practice leading.

Finally, the ability to inspire comes from thoughtful planning – who will help you? What will be the focus? How does the investment help them? – and using your energy productively. My sister is a head coach of a college sports team and also a team captain for team Canada. She will also be the first person to admit that she is an introvert. Personality tests reveal fascinating things about her natural tendencies compared to her beliefs – when she is coaching or with Team Canada she goes to bed exhausted every night because she has learned to be an effective leader. Leadership did not come naturally to her.

Portfolio: Theoretical Foundations: Standards & Ethics Plan

I am taking the Teacher Leadership Part 1 AQ. Our culminating task involves creating a leadership portfolio by choosing items from each module of the course to share and reflecting on its contribution to my growth as a leader. I have chosen to share my portfolio as part of my blog.

This entry is from the module entitled Theoretical Foundations where we looked at the importance of a first impression, theories of leadership, the OCT standards, transformational leadership, and the Teacher Leadership and Learning Program.

I am including my plan for leading staff through professional learning around the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) Standards and Ethical Standards. I think the ideal audience for a plan like this would be an NTIP group (new teachers and their mentors) but could also be used for a school wide professional learning.

I feel that this assignment was the one that I benefited from the most because it forced me to think about how to make a seemingly dry topic into meaningful, relevant learning. These standards are what we agree to adhere to when we apply to be an Ontario Certified Teacher and the standards and ethics are the roots we should never forget as teachers.

I found that reviewing the standards and ethics also reminded me of Ontario's assessment policy document, Growing Success.

Here is the plan that I came up with:

Standards Plan (35 minutes)

Format	Action	Consolidation
Group (15 + 5 minutes)	Give an envelope with the 5 standards and their descriptions (separated). Groups have to pair the titles and descriptions. Clarify the standards for any groups that need it. Then groups choose from one of the following options: “Most Important to Least Important” protocol – try to prioritize the 5 principles from  most to least important. Share your thinking and try to agree on the order. Is it possible to rank them? OR “Name it, Explain it” protocol – give each principle a ONE word name explain why you think it is the best choice.	Groups work together to brainstorm ways that they use/show the standards in their daily practices (both in and out of the classroom).
Individual (10 + 5 minutes)	Staff reflection (supply a graphic organizer for anyone who would like) to analyze personal practices as ways that they think they best exemplify each standard and one area of their practice they could work on to better exemplify each standard.	Staff anonymously share one best and one are of improvement via a padlet (padlet.com) for whole group debrief.

Ethical Dilemma Plan (25 minutes)

(This plan could be used at the same professional learning session or at a future session)

Format	Action	Consolidation
Group (5 minutes)	Review the Ethical Standards via OCT website as a whole group.	Time to discuss points that are not clear.
Individual & Group (5 + 5 + 10 minutes)	Case studies – give each group an ethical dilemma (dilemmas collected from known education stories) – 1 copy per person. Have staff use the “3-2-1” protocol (identify 3 things you think are key to the situation, 2 things you want more information about, and 1 suggested solution you have). Present the following as a resource for ethical dilemmas: 1.      Refer to the Ethical Standards at http://www.oct.ca/public/professional-standards/ethical-standards to help determine which option fits within the standards 2.      Bounce ideas off of a colleague with reference to the Ethical Standards 3.      Consult your department head 4.      Discuss with your union Branch President 5.      Consult with your principal or vice-principal	Group discussion about solutions – can you agree on a solution? Which resources would you choose to use? Which would you skip? Why?

Links to Daily School Routines

The following will be released as a resource after the above activities are complete for staff reference.

Standard	Description and Links to Daily School Routines
Commitment to Students and Student Learning	Members are dedicated in their care and commitment to students. They treat students equitably and with respect and are sensitive to factors that influence individual student learning. Members facilitate the development of students as contributing citizens of Canadian society.
	-        Differentiated learning and assessment practices -        Recognition of the needs of different backgrounds (cultural, sexual orientation, etc) -        Student supervision -        Seating plans that attend to needs to students with IEPs or social needs -        Teaching character and embedding relevant Canadian and world issues into lessons where possible
Professional Knowledge	Members strive to be current in their professional knowledge and recognize its relationship to practice. They understand and reflect on student development, learning theory, pedagogy, curriculum, ethics, educational research and related policies and legislation to inform professional judgment in practice.
	-        Exploring new strategies, ideas and techniques (pedagogy, assessment practice, etc) through reading and/or professional networks -        Use student data, research, Growing Success, and related board assessment policy documents to guide and support decisions -        Reflect on personal practice when new ideas are presented
Professional Practice	Members apply professional knowledge and experience to promote student learning. They use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities. Members refine their professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection.
	-         Trying new strategies, ideas and techniques in the classroom -         Using student assessment data to plan future use of new techniques and/or make adjustments -         Using student assessment data to plan/reflect on lessons going forward -         Collaborate with course teams, department and other professional networks to make decisions, develop curriculum, and reflect on practices
Leadership in Learning Communities	Members promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities. They recognize their shared responsibilities and their leadership roles in order to facilitate student success. Members maintain and uphold the principles of the ethical standards in these learning communities.
	-         Arrange classrooms/learning environments to promote collaboration, safe spaces, and effective learning -         Promote learning and learning skills as primary focus (not grades) -         Be an example learner by sharing learning, trying new things, etc -         Deprivatize practice by sharing with colleagues and/or online
Ongoing Professional Learning	Members recognize that a commitment to ongoing professional learning is integral to effective practice and to student learning. Professional practice and self-directed learning are informed by experience, research, collaboration and knowledge.
	-        Participate in collaborative inquiries or do personal action research -        Attend workshops, lunch and learn opportunities, courses etc -        Read  blogs, books, tweets or other professional dialogues -        Reflect on own practices to identify personal areas of learning