The School of Education Assessment and Accountability course is designed to provide students with opportunities for professional growth and enrichment on accountability and assessment in education. Educators will be given an opportunity to gather ideas, strategies, technology skills, assessment tools, and best practices that create a classroom environment that is accountable to student learning.
Note: Click on the comments link to engage in the required class forums.
NOTE: Click on the comments link to engage in the various required class forums. Points will be deducted for each day that you fail to post your entries as scheduled.
You may post your entries if you have any of the following accounts: Gmail, LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, AIM, or OpenID. If you do not have any of these e-mail accounts, then you will have to sign up for one of them in order to complete the course requirements necessary for you to pass the course.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
November 2, 2010 - Feedback Session on Strategies Implemented #1 - PRESENTATION
Meet at the SOE Rm. 203, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. Be prepared to present and discuss the strategies you've implemented.
DUE: Submit your Practicum Paper.
SNAPSHOTS OF TONIGHT'S PRACTICUM PRESENTATIONS
Click on the image below to get a better view of the snapshots.
I haven't decided what to bring to the party -- but I will bring something.
As a wrap up, our Luchan District Professional Development was a great success at the Marriott. It was so great to get together with the elementary, middle, and high school faculty and administrators who collectively play a significant roll in our students' education. The most significant thing I got out of this PD was that it is a wonderful thing to have the schools within our district finally get together so that we can meet the people who prepare the students before they promote up.
I strongly suggest that all school areas on island plan school district PDs. Given that we 1) share the same students and each play a hand in their education, 2)share the same stuggles and 3) can find solutions to prepare students with the essential skills needed to succeed all the way to post secondary -- I do not know why this has not been done before.
I really look forward to our Febr. PD where we will meet again as a Luchan District.
OK, then, today is the day! Presentations, party, maybe certificates? I have not picked up mine yet. What a busy day for Guam ..big things happening today, yes I already did the "thing" this morning at the field house and I really hope education is the big winner in all this. Teachers really need the resources in so many ways to do better than a excellent job, they want to do outstanding!I know its been a little of a mountain to climb but we are almost there. Let's "get'er done".
I agree with Florence on the District Professional Development at the Marriott. Talking with other teachers from other schools as well as administrators revealed the common goals everyone was trying to achieve. I see the significant need for professional development. When guiding professional development through assessments will help the teachers become more tuned to the different learning styles and needs our students have. The challenge to teach a diverse and multicultural society here on Guam is going to be a major task which will draw on the experiences and expertise of all our teachers in the system. I also see the power in collaborative discussion and corporation. This course , conference and professional development has renewed my focus on assessment and accountability. I have become more tuned in to the responses and questions my students and have taken their thought to heart.
November 2. Teachers should be held accountable for what is happening in the classroom by being asked to submit their instructional objectives and assessment data on how students are doing in the instructor’s content area. These two components make up what we describe as an effective teacher. I’d like to thank you Dr. Rivera for this course --- I’ve learned so much from it. What I like about this course is the fact that it’s a hybrid of an online course. I also gained a lot from the research work that I did that I know my classroom will never be the same again.
I am finally trying to catch up on the practicum part of our class. I adopted a science class to work on the "Write A Letter to a Friend Task" and will be working and reading the feedback from the classes. This will be quite interesting as I love Dr. Ellerton's presentation about this task, "the aim is to find out the depth of their understanding in mathematics."
I used a science class as this is my practicum to just find out their depth of science. Hope to get this done.
See you in class -- love my new classmates and teacher. Plus the yummy food!
Hafa Adai, si Donna. I will bring the paper products and am bringing Mangolian (veg. w/no meat). I want to thank Dr. Cyrus, Ferrer and Riveria for all their great work for this conference/course. It was certainly a different approach but very well worth every second. Teachers must check and balance all facets of their work of which I see is quite a task. I will share with you all, as a non career educator, I can safely and confidently say I now will not be without any skill a teacher should have. I am now very enthusiastice test, assess and test and assess and tis not far off. Thank God. I thank all the professors again for a better and substantive challenge in my work career. I do want to become a teacher of excellence, for my student first and finished resolve for myself. Good luck and many blessings to all the teachers, our mentors, your families, students, superiors and co workers. si Donna
Just got home and I enjoyed hearing from you all on your practicum -- I liked the work of your hands-on science lessons with your ELL students. Ice cream, yum yum. The pictures of your class being engaged looked like the scientists of the future.
Flo or Florence, loved your presentation on the skills assessment. By now, all schools are adopting this, the issues I see are the formulas on percentage of gains. Thank you for sharing your powerpoint and your excel files with us.
Grace, I just enjoyed hearing about your 12th grade English students and the data you collected. I have been keeping track of your blogs and you summarized it all today with your data.
To my classmates, good food with great presenters!
Wow! So many presentations! My head is spinning! It was definitely interesting to listen to the variety of assessments and notice the various capacities we all serve GDOE. What struck me the most tonight was the use of the letter to a friend as an assessment tool. I counted seven of us who chose to implement it. Thank you, Dr. Ellerton! I liked the way some people, like Vicky, used it as part of their lesson or Ma who has students write a letter to report a problem/issue they are facing for counseling purposes. This doesn’t discount the way I used it. In fact I found this assessment tool very refreshing and useful. I was impressed by Sana’s use of portfolios with her first-graders at LBJ. That makes me want to go back to portfolio again! I’m contemplating it very seriously and can’t even remember why in the world I stopped that requirement for my students to begin with. Kudos to those who are no longer in the classroom but braved it, like Rose and Bobby, and did part of their practicum by borrowing someone else’s class. Thanks for the food to you all! What a spread!
Overall I enjoyed everyone's means of assesments and great "hands-on" learning activities to ensure the academic succes of students. It demonstratres that educators are focusing on the 21st Century skills of the 4R's "Rigor, Relevance,Relationships, and Results." This is what assessments and accountability is all about! Great job everyone!
Exciting! The presentators today were all just wonderful. I've enjoy all the presentation and believe we all can make a difference... We all find an assessment that can make our class work with our students. We can pat ourselves on the back and continue to excel in our course... Go Educators!!!!!
I would commend everyone for the awesome food and the information shared this evening. Again, this is just another example of how we network together as educators. I agree with Beverly, about the 4 R's, we should model what we teach to ensure learning activities for the success of students. Anyway, what really caught my attention was Ms. Janice's presentation about her Arizona teaching experience. She did mentioned something about the "teacher performance pay" that teachers recieved on top of their salary if their students scored high on distrcit assessment or performed above the expectation of the school district. Well, I was reflecting on this on my way home and I believe that this could be a good incentive for teachers. But on the other hand, is this something that would work in Guam? I'm not really sure if GFT would be agreeable with this. But then again, this is something that the district might consider. Again, thanks everyone for sharing the wonderful food and information. Have a nice evening!
This conference was more fun than i anticipated and i had a great time today. But nothing beats PIBBA last year. I am not just saying that because my mother ran it. She was cooking fish in the ground!!! They had more interesting speakers, not just Kallingal.
Today's presentations were great. Grace has a lovely accent. Team AJMS were realistic. I feel their pain. The teachers from alternative have their work cut out for them. We need that school to take all the dummies. Donna Cruz is the best. She knows her stuff- FBLG honor and pride.
I enjoyed being with the class today. Everyone did great in their practicum and presentations and also enjoyed the foods (the best part of living in GUAM). I will be voting for what Grace had mentioned regarding the widely used of “letters to a friend” technique among us who learned it from the conference. Many of us have seen the various effects of such technique in the different areas of education. I believe that this is one of the great techniques that I’ve ever learn and I will make sure to use it more often and also share it with others who are willing to learn. I was nice meeting all of you in person!
Although 5 minutes did not seem enough to get a clear point across, it was nice to hear how everyone's implementation went last week. I liked Ms. Ceria's presentation of that excel template, actually. Though it may seem tedious, I think it's worthwhile to get a sense of what skills students are struggling in. That excel program makes it easier, I think, for teachers to draw conclusions about their students' learning, and their style of teaching as well.
Overall, it seemed that everyone was excited about learning new strategies and methods, and to be quite honest, it's very motivating. This profession that we're in may not bring a lot extrinsically, but it's the intrinsic rewards that really make it worthwhile. And, no matter what press the media says about Guam DOE or what not, it's also good to know that there are teachers who are very passionate about what they do.
I was very impressed with everyone's presentation. It was very interesting to learn the interesting ways that the teachers used the Letter to A Friend Activity. Overall, wonderful night!! Kuddos to everyone!!
Thanks everyone! It didn’t seem to have enough time to fulfill the requirements of the course but Dr. Rivera gives each one a consideration not to lose points. The presentations from everyone were informative. I missed a few in the beginning but I’m pretty sure they were all good.
I don’t know about you guys but I am way behind my Lit. /Practicum
After tonight’s presentations, Beverly’s plan on increasing ESL parental involvement is an admirable one. It demonstrates her genuine concern and interest in reaching those students. If I return to administrator, this is one area I would like to work on as well.
I believe providing transportation for parents to attend school events could make a great difference. I attended the FAST conference Beverly’s region held last month. I understand that PIRC provided transportation for parents to attend. Hopefully, she will be able to accomplish this goal. Providing interpreter or translator for the non English speakers is an excellent idea.
Hi everyone, tonights' presentations were very interesting and full of information. Paul, as per teacher bonuses/incentives on Guam, I remember five years ago while Juan Flores was Superintendant he tried to re-implement the "teacher bonus" program. When he left office it faded away. One of the criterias had something to do with increasing benchmark percentages in the critial subject areas. Maybe the program still exists. Yes, teacher bonuses are very motivating, not to mention much needed. Many teachers across the island have been working extra hard for many years and their teacher bonuses are long overdue. Guam needs a clear, stable criteria for teacher bonuses and funds must be readily available to pay teachers once they have met all criterias.
Thank you all for a great session, this assessment and accountability conference/credit course is very worth while. I'm glad I participated in it.
GOOD EVENING EVERYONE=) YES....IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE TO LISTEN TO A VARIETY OF EDUCATORS IN CLASS! Yes...Grace..there is a lot of information that was presented today! Sometimes..I feel it's "Information Overload!" But, it's important resources and strategies we need as educators inside and outside of class.
I really enjoyed listening to the various presenters this evening. It's an excellent opportunity for teachers, counselors, and administrators to share their implementation of what they have learned from the Conference or share what's best practice. Everyone's presentation was a true reflection of what they have obtained from the two day Conference, and ofcourse, we all enjoyed Dr. Ellerton and Dr. Kallingal's presentation as well; they were very interesting and informative in the area of education.
Well, enjoy the rest of the evening and don't forget to excercise your right to vote. Adios!
YES...JOSEPH..WE AT THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL...DO HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US! It's a challenge everyday to help the students, but it can also be awarding at the end, especially when they improve in academics and also trying their best not to come back to the Alternative School!
Today's meeting was fun and very informative. I enjoyed listening to everyone's presentation. I love how all were so creative in implementing what they learned from the conference. Janice's presentation was an eye-opener for me, because I have actually contemplated leaving island, and realize that teachers are held accountable for student success, and this weighs heavily on whether they will remain employed the following school year. They are, however, compensated for their accomplishments, which I feel is a great incentive and would drive more teachers to perform. Grace's presentation was very interesting and I liked that she shared input from her students.
Many people chose to utilize the "letter to a friend" activity. The results varied, but I think that it is a great exercise, and perhaps like Ma, I will also attempt to use this when asking students to write incident reports. All in all, it was a wonderful class session. It ended as scheduled and I was able to make it in time to cast my vote!
I meant..."It's a challenge everyday to help the students, but it can also be rewarding at the end, especially when they improve in academics and also trying their best not to come back to the Alternative School!"
i was impressed with the diversity amongst the educators in our class. it was great to hear about the various environments we work in, and the ability of my classmates to adapt new techniques to their specific classrooms. just plain great: grace's 12 pg. summary, lbj's portfolio, the garlic bread, a judge getting arrested in hawaii, ice cream science, counselors teaching in the classroom (which i thought was pretty cool). someone mentioned giving away clothes as a way to increase parental involvement. good idea. we do that at pace as well. just did it for parent teacher conference. didn't have any clothes to give away by the end of the day. i, too, found it interesting that several of us used the letters to a friend idea. seriously, i thought it was one of the best things i got out of the keynote speech. maybe it was the one thing i understood. :) thank you all for providing insight into your educational lives. it was most informative, impressive, enlightening, humbling, and definitely fun to listen to what you had to say. good luck to everyone this school year. and if you ever walk into my class and see me using a technique you talked about tonight, well, that's because i like to steal stuff! :) whoever made the chorizo shots; that was good stuff!
Grace, My head was spinning as well! It was all very interesting. I was also impressed by how many of us used the "write a letter to a friend" asessment technique. I think this is a modification of write a letter to the author or to a character in a book assessment techniqueh in reading instruction. I was favorably impressed by Donna's presentation. I am going to have to go back to my original philosophy of teaching and find a way to bring "discovery learning" back as a instructional strategy.
I'm sorry i didn't attend the class. Had parent teacher conference for my son's private school today, they didn't observe the All Soul's Day holiday.
I too attended the Luchan region professional development day at the Marriott, in fact i was on the panel of presenters for DATA.
It was a great collaborative professional dev day for the educators in the luchan district. I feel that was the highlight as well to have a joint conference with elem./middle/high school since we rarely intermingle with our secondary counterparts in education. Alot of planning and preparation but well worth the effort.
Kudos to the Principal's who planned it, and the presenters who made it all happen for the teachers. Hopefully everyone walked away with more knowledge they can apply in their classroom with their students. Yeah, data, assessment, technology and sharing of best practices.
Sorry I couldn't be there...it's obvious that I missed out. However, I did my practicum during our Professional Staff Development. Our focus was mainly on our Accreditation Midterm visit coming up on April 2011. We used the entire day in analyzing our SAT 10 data/results, each grade level's SMART goals, hearing from each Focus Groups' status report on Key Issues, Action Taken, Future Planning, and their Action Plan objectives. In other words it was more like a working session throughout the day. Each Focus Group was in charge of their section of the report. Our goal is to turn in our report to the chairman of the visiting committee by December 2010. Each Focus Group emailed me their finish product. Based on the submission, they were able to get a lot done. My Leadership Team and I will be reviewing it and provide feedback as needed. Now we have to gather all the evidences...students' work, student data, assessments, assessment spreadsheets, lesson plans, parental involvement data, workshops/trainings data, etc...basically whatever we have on our report, we should be able to validate through evidences.
Im with Grace, Neeti and the rest on watching our presentations reveal our peer prowress of our trade. Amazing. I believe Grace took the lead in the paper mandate of the course representative of her expertise was good to observe hoping to add down the line in our own repetoire of skills and adeptness especially on the job. Very well don Grace. :) I must admit, I wasnt sure how to format this presentation and as everyone gave theirs, they gave me a good chunk of an idea how to put on paper. I also had wished that I could have shared my students assessments outcome having found a guaranteed method to teach our LEP clientile. So thank you all. And thank you Joseph and Neeti for your kind words which have gone a long way. Both of you contributed on target assessments evidence you've found complex areas to overcome doing so successfully. Oftentimes, we question authority on their calls, but I want to share, we need not worry about them if we put down our suspicions but rather tackle the assignments that can be challenging (pull out of us our abilities) and finding, dag nab it, we met it! I am a fretter, and sometimes takes me time to adjust to development, competition and outcome of their tasks. I pray alot too so the Holy Spirit is and has become a good friend. Amen and thank you again the guest speakers challenge and to our professors of this course towards teacher development. Yes there were some vexations, but we didnt let them prevail. Yay.....
I really learned a lot from this class. The presentations brought forth new strategies in teaching. I enjoyed listening to all our presenters, administrators, counselors and teachers as we all shared how we each implemented what we have learned from the conference. Thank you Dr. Rivera...I learned a lot from all the researching and your "Blogging Site" tops it all. I really enjoyed this class.
The presentations were informative as far as the benefits/outcomes of each of the strategies. It seems that many of the presenters implemented the strategy from Dr. Ellerton of writing to a friend. It was a bit rushed but to the point :)I also enjoyed the movie maker presentation. Thank you everyone for the food and sharing your experiences.
It sounds like I missed some awesome presentations and good food.
Beverly has a great plan that will definitely increase parental involvement. Many years ago, we conducted a parent orientation at the beginning of the school year and a SAT 10 information session in the spring for our ESL parents. We used our social worker and outreach program. Our social worker Nelda, provided a micronesian interpreter and the fliers were in several languages as well. It was successful for quite a few years but then there was no money to pay the interpreter.
Thanks for sharing and thank you Dr. Rivera for updating me.
November 3. This is a delayed posting Dr. Rivera. I normally do my SOE work at night when I am done with all my responsibilities as a teacher, a mom, a housewife, and after my workout. Unfortunately, the power went out last night and I just couldn’t wait for it to come back on. Thank you for the productive session last Tuesday. I’ve learned so much just from listening from the different presenters and how they’ve use assessment and accountability in their field of work. It’s very interesting to note how some teachers took Dr. Kallingal’s lecture literally. There was a lot to learn from Tuesday’s session and a lot of information to process from all the readings and writing I did that my head is still spinning right now….
From reading everyone's feedback on the presentations, I'm glad it was a success. I wasn't able to attend and present due to prior commitments...but it's obvious that the department has outstanding educators. I commend everyone for a job well done!
Since my practicum focused on my presentation during Professional Staff Development, just wanted to share with everyone that too was a great success. It was very productive and I'm thankful that my faculty and staff remained focused on the objectives of the workshop.
Hello everyone! I will bring drinks for the potluck...later!
ReplyDeleteI haven't decided what to bring to the party -- but I will bring something.
ReplyDeleteAs a wrap up, our Luchan District Professional Development was a great success at the Marriott. It was so great to get together with the elementary, middle, and high school faculty and administrators who collectively play a significant roll in our students' education. The most significant thing I got out of this PD was that it is a wonderful thing to have the schools within our district finally get together so that we can meet the people who prepare the students before they promote up.
I strongly suggest that all school areas on island plan school district PDs. Given that we 1) share the same students and each play a hand in their education, 2)share the same stuggles and 3) can find solutions to prepare students with the essential skills needed to succeed all the way to post secondary -- I do not know why this has not been done before.
I really look forward to our Febr. PD where we will meet again as a Luchan District.
OK, then, today is the day! Presentations, party, maybe certificates? I have not picked up mine yet. What a busy day for Guam ..big things happening today, yes I already did the "thing" this morning at the field house and I really hope education is the big winner in all this. Teachers really need the resources in so many ways to do better than a excellent job, they want to do outstanding!I know its been a little of a mountain to climb but we are almost there. Let's "get'er done".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Florence on the District Professional Development at the Marriott. Talking with other teachers from other schools as well as administrators revealed the common goals everyone was trying to achieve. I see the significant need for professional development. When guiding professional development through assessments will help the teachers become more tuned to the different learning styles and needs our students have. The challenge to teach a diverse and multicultural society here on Guam is going to be a major task which will draw on the experiences and expertise of all our teachers in the system. I also see the power in collaborative discussion and corporation. This course , conference and professional development has renewed my focus on assessment and accountability. I have become more tuned in to the responses and questions my students and have taken their thought to heart.
ReplyDeleteDr. Matilda:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the format of today's session. Are we supposed to present results of our practicum in front of the class???
November 2. Teachers should be held accountable for what is happening in the classroom by being asked to submit their instructional objectives and assessment data on how students are doing in the instructor’s content area. These two components make up what we describe as an effective teacher. I’d like to thank you Dr. Rivera for this course --- I’ve learned so much from it. What I like about this course is the fact that it’s a hybrid of an online course. I also gained a lot from the research work that I did that I know my classroom will never be the same again.
ReplyDeleteI am finally trying to catch up on the practicum part of our class. I adopted a science class to work on the "Write A Letter to a Friend Task" and will be working and reading the feedback from the classes. This will be quite interesting as I love Dr. Ellerton's presentation about this task, "the aim is to find out the depth of their understanding in mathematics."
ReplyDeleteI used a science class as this is my practicum to just find out their depth of science. Hope to get this done.
See you in class -- love my new classmates and teacher. Plus the yummy food!
Hafa Adai, si Donna. I will bring the paper products and am bringing Mangolian (veg. w/no meat). I want to thank Dr. Cyrus, Ferrer and Riveria for all their great work for this conference/course. It was certainly a different approach but very well worth every second. Teachers must check and balance all facets of their work of which I see is quite a task. I will share with you all, as a non career educator, I can safely and confidently say I now will not be without any skill a teacher should have. I am now very enthusiastice test, assess and test and assess and tis not far off. Thank God. I thank all the professors again for a better and substantive challenge in my work career. I do want to become a teacher of excellence, for my student first and finished resolve for myself. Good luck and many blessings to all the teachers, our mentors, your families, students, superiors and co workers. si Donna
ReplyDeletecorrection. I amn now very enthusiastic to test...
ReplyDeleteJust got home and I enjoyed hearing from you all on your practicum -- I liked the work of your hands-on science lessons with your ELL students. Ice cream, yum yum. The pictures of your class being engaged looked like the scientists of the future.
ReplyDeleteFlo or Florence, loved your presentation on the skills assessment. By now, all schools are adopting this, the issues I see are the formulas on percentage of gains. Thank you for sharing your powerpoint and your excel files with us.
Grace, I just enjoyed hearing about your 12th grade English students and the data you collected. I have been keeping track of your blogs and you summarized it all today with your data.
To my classmates, good food with great presenters!
Wow! So many presentations! My head is spinning! It was definitely interesting to listen to the variety of assessments and notice the various capacities we all serve GDOE.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me the most tonight was the use of the letter to a friend as an assessment tool. I counted seven of us who chose to implement it. Thank you, Dr. Ellerton! I liked the way some people, like Vicky, used it as part of their lesson or Ma who has students write a letter to report a problem/issue they are facing for counseling purposes. This doesn’t discount the way I used it. In fact I found this assessment tool very refreshing and useful.
I was impressed by Sana’s use of portfolios with her first-graders at LBJ. That makes me want to go back to portfolio again! I’m contemplating it very seriously and can’t even remember why in the world I stopped that requirement for my students to begin with.
Kudos to those who are no longer in the classroom but braved it, like Rose and Bobby, and did part of their practicum by borrowing someone else’s class.
Thanks for the food to you all! What a spread!
Overall I enjoyed everyone's means of assesments and great "hands-on" learning activities to ensure the academic succes of students. It demonstratres that educators are focusing on the 21st Century skills of the 4R's "Rigor, Relevance,Relationships, and Results." This is what assessments and accountability is all about! Great job everyone!
ReplyDeleteExciting! The presentators today were all just wonderful. I've enjoy all the presentation and believe we all can make a difference... We all find an assessment that can make our class work with our students. We can pat ourselves on the back and continue to excel in our course... Go Educators!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRose... Next time I won't let you use my students as an experiment...hahahaha (joking)....
ReplyDeleteHey Ray, I hope you will be feeling much better tomorrow... Take care bro.
ReplyDeleteI would commend everyone for the awesome food and the information shared this evening. Again, this is just another example of how we network together as educators. I agree with Beverly, about the 4 R's, we should model what we teach to ensure learning activities for the success of students. Anyway, what really caught my attention was Ms. Janice's presentation about her Arizona teaching experience. She did mentioned something about the "teacher performance pay" that teachers recieved on top of their salary if their students scored high on distrcit assessment or performed above the expectation of the school district. Well, I was reflecting on this on my way home and I believe that this could be a good incentive for teachers. But on the other hand, is this something that would work in Guam? I'm not really sure if GFT would be agreeable with this. But then again, this is something that the district might consider. Again, thanks everyone for sharing the wonderful food and information. Have a nice evening!
ReplyDeleteThis conference was more fun than i anticipated and i had a great time today. But nothing beats PIBBA last year. I am not just saying that because my mother ran it. She was cooking fish in the ground!!! They had more interesting speakers, not just Kallingal.
ReplyDeleteToday's presentations were great. Grace has a lovely accent. Team AJMS were realistic. I feel their pain. The teachers from alternative have their work cut out for them. We need that school to take all the dummies. Donna Cruz is the best. She knows her stuff- FBLG honor and pride.
I enjoyed being with the class today. Everyone did great in their practicum and presentations and also enjoyed the foods (the best part of living in GUAM). I will be voting for what Grace had mentioned regarding the widely used of “letters to a friend” technique among us who learned it from the conference. Many of us have seen the various effects of such technique in the different areas of education. I believe that this is one of the great techniques that I’ve ever learn and I will make sure to use it more often and also share it with others who are willing to learn. I was nice meeting all of you in person!
ReplyDeleteAlthough 5 minutes did not seem enough to get a clear point across, it was nice to hear how everyone's implementation went last week. I liked Ms. Ceria's presentation of that excel template, actually. Though it may seem tedious, I think it's worthwhile to get a sense of what skills students are struggling in. That excel program makes it easier, I think, for teachers to draw conclusions about their students' learning, and their style of teaching as well.
ReplyDeleteOverall, it seemed that everyone was excited about learning new strategies and methods, and to be quite honest, it's very motivating. This profession that we're in may not bring a lot extrinsically, but it's the intrinsic rewards that really make it worthwhile. And, no matter what press the media says about Guam DOE or what not, it's also good to know that there are teachers who are very passionate about what they do.
I was very impressed with everyone's presentation. It was very interesting to learn the interesting ways that the teachers used the Letter to A Friend Activity. Overall, wonderful night!! Kuddos to everyone!!
ReplyDeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! It didn’t seem to have enough time to fulfill the requirements of the course but Dr. Rivera gives each one a consideration not to lose points. The presentations from everyone were informative. I missed a few in the beginning but I’m pretty sure they were all good.
I don’t know about you guys but I am way behind my Lit. /Practicum
Thanks Grace for your assistance!
After tonight’s presentations, Beverly’s plan on increasing ESL parental involvement is an admirable one. It demonstrates her genuine concern and interest in reaching those students. If I return to administrator, this is one area I would like to work on as well.
ReplyDeleteI believe providing transportation for parents to attend school events could make a great difference. I attended the FAST conference Beverly’s region held last month. I understand that PIRC provided transportation for parents to attend. Hopefully, she will be able to accomplish this goal. Providing interpreter or translator for the non English speakers is an excellent idea.
Hi everyone, tonights' presentations were very interesting and full of information.
ReplyDeletePaul, as per teacher bonuses/incentives on Guam, I remember five years ago while Juan Flores was Superintendant he tried to re-implement the "teacher bonus" program. When he left office it faded away. One of the criterias had something to do with increasing benchmark percentages in the critial subject areas. Maybe the program still exists.
Yes, teacher bonuses are very motivating, not to mention much needed. Many teachers across the island have been working extra hard for many years and their teacher bonuses are long overdue. Guam needs a clear, stable criteria for teacher bonuses and funds must be readily available to pay teachers once they have met all criterias.
Thank you all for a great session, this assessment and accountability conference/credit course is very worth while. I'm glad I participated in it.
GOOD EVENING EVERYONE=) YES....IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE TO LISTEN TO A VARIETY OF EDUCATORS IN CLASS! Yes...Grace..there is a lot of information that was presented today! Sometimes..I feel it's "Information Overload!" But, it's important resources and strategies we need as educators inside and outside of class.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to the various presenters this evening. It's an excellent opportunity for teachers, counselors, and administrators to share their implementation of what they have learned from the Conference or share what's best practice. Everyone's presentation was a true reflection of what they have obtained from the two day Conference, and ofcourse, we all enjoyed Dr. Ellerton and Dr. Kallingal's presentation as well; they were very interesting and informative in the area of education.
ReplyDeleteWell, enjoy the rest of the evening and don't forget to excercise your right to vote. Adios!
YES...JOSEPH..WE AT THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL...DO HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US! It's a challenge everyday to help the students, but it can also be awarding at the end, especially when they improve in academics and also trying their best not to come back to the Alternative School!
ReplyDeleteToday's meeting was fun and very informative. I enjoyed listening to everyone's presentation. I love how all were so creative in implementing what they learned from the conference. Janice's presentation was an eye-opener for me, because I have actually contemplated leaving island, and realize that teachers are held accountable for student success, and this weighs heavily on whether they will remain employed the following school year. They are, however, compensated for their accomplishments, which I feel is a great incentive and would drive more teachers to perform. Grace's presentation was very interesting and I liked that she shared input from her students.
ReplyDeleteMany people chose to utilize the "letter to a friend" activity. The results varied, but I think that it is a great exercise, and perhaps like Ma, I will also attempt to use this when asking students to write incident reports. All in all, it was a wonderful class session. It ended as scheduled and I was able to make it in time to cast my vote!
I meant..."It's a challenge everyday to help the students, but it can also be rewarding at the end, especially when they improve in academics and also trying their best not to come back to the Alternative School!"
ReplyDeletei was impressed with the diversity amongst the educators in our class. it was great to hear about the various environments we work in, and the ability of my classmates to adapt new techniques to their specific classrooms.
ReplyDeletejust plain great: grace's 12 pg. summary, lbj's portfolio, the garlic bread, a judge getting arrested in hawaii, ice cream science, counselors teaching in the classroom (which i thought was pretty cool).
someone mentioned giving away clothes as a way to increase parental involvement. good idea. we do that at pace as well. just did it for parent teacher conference. didn't have any clothes to give away by the end of the day.
i, too, found it interesting that several of us used the letters to a friend idea. seriously, i thought it was one of the best things i got out of the keynote speech. maybe it was the one thing i understood. :)
thank you all for providing insight into your educational lives. it was most informative, impressive, enlightening, humbling, and definitely fun to listen to what you had to say. good luck to everyone this school year. and if you ever walk into my class and see me using a technique you talked about tonight, well, that's because i like to steal stuff! :)
whoever made the chorizo shots; that was good stuff!
YES..JANICE...That's a great idea of having an interpretor at schools. We surely need interpreters for students at the Alternative School!
ReplyDeleteone more thing...BRING ON THOSE 200 STUDENTS!! but could you send just 10 every semester or so. you know, space availability and all...:)
ReplyDeleteGrace, My head was spinning as well! It was all very interesting. I was also impressed by how many of us used the "write a letter to a friend"
ReplyDeleteasessment technique. I think this is a modification of write a letter to the author or to a character in a book assessment techniqueh in reading instruction. I was favorably impressed by Donna's presentation. I am going to have to go back to my original philosophy of teaching and find a way to bring "discovery learning" back as a instructional strategy.
I'm sorry i didn't attend the class. Had parent teacher conference for my son's private school today, they didn't observe the All Soul's Day holiday.
ReplyDeleteI too attended the Luchan region professional development day at the Marriott, in fact i was on the panel of presenters for DATA.
It was a great collaborative professional dev day for the educators in the luchan district. I feel that was the highlight as well to have a joint conference with elem./middle/high school since we rarely intermingle with our secondary counterparts in education. Alot of planning and preparation but well worth the effort.
Kudos to the Principal's who planned it, and the presenters who made it all happen for the teachers. Hopefully everyone walked away with more knowledge they can apply in their classroom with their students. Yeah, data, assessment, technology and sharing of best practices.
Sorry I couldn't be there...it's obvious that I missed out. However, I did my practicum during our Professional Staff Development. Our focus was mainly on our Accreditation Midterm visit coming up on April 2011. We used the entire day in analyzing our SAT 10 data/results, each grade level's SMART goals, hearing from each Focus Groups' status report on Key Issues, Action Taken, Future Planning, and their Action Plan objectives. In other words it was more like a working session throughout the day. Each Focus Group was in charge of their section of the report. Our goal is to turn in our report to the chairman of the visiting committee by December 2010. Each Focus Group emailed me their finish product. Based on the submission, they were able to get a lot done. My Leadership Team and I will be reviewing it and provide feedback as needed. Now we have to gather all the evidences...students' work, student data, assessments, assessment spreadsheets, lesson plans, parental involvement data, workshops/trainings data, etc...basically whatever we have on our report, we should be able to validate through evidences.
ReplyDeleteIm with Grace, Neeti and the rest on watching our presentations reveal our peer prowress of our trade. Amazing. I believe Grace took the lead in the paper mandate of the course representative of her expertise was good to observe hoping to add down the line in our own repetoire of skills and adeptness especially on the job. Very well don Grace. :)
ReplyDeleteI must admit, I wasnt sure how to format this presentation and as everyone gave theirs, they gave me a good chunk of an idea how to put on paper. I also had wished that I could have shared my students assessments outcome having found a guaranteed method to teach our LEP clientile. So thank you all. And thank you Joseph and Neeti for your kind words which have gone a long way. Both of you contributed on target assessments evidence you've found complex areas to overcome doing so successfully.
Oftentimes, we question authority on their calls, but I want to share, we need not worry about them if we put down our suspicions but rather tackle the assignments that can be challenging (pull out of us our abilities) and finding, dag nab it, we met it! I am a fretter, and sometimes takes me time to adjust to development, competition and outcome of their tasks. I pray alot too so the Holy Spirit is and has become a good friend. Amen and thank you again the guest speakers challenge and to our professors of this course towards teacher development. Yes there were some vexations, but we didnt let them prevail. Yay.....
I really learned a lot from this class. The presentations brought forth new strategies in teaching. I enjoyed listening to all our presenters, administrators, counselors and teachers as we all shared how we each implemented what we have learned from the conference. Thank you Dr. Rivera...I learned a lot from all the researching and your "Blogging Site" tops it all. I really enjoyed this class.
ReplyDeleteThe presentations were informative as far as the benefits/outcomes of each of the strategies. It seems that many of the presenters implemented the strategy from Dr. Ellerton of writing to a friend. It was a bit rushed but to the point :)I also enjoyed the movie maker presentation. Thank you everyone for the food and sharing your experiences.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like I missed some awesome presentations and good food.
ReplyDeleteBeverly has a great plan that will definitely increase parental involvement. Many years ago, we conducted a parent orientation at the beginning of the school year and a SAT 10 information session in the spring for our ESL parents. We used our social worker and outreach program. Our social worker Nelda, provided a micronesian interpreter and the fliers were in several languages as well. It was successful for quite a few years but then there was no money to pay the interpreter.
Thanks for sharing and thank you Dr. Rivera for updating me.
November 3. This is a delayed posting Dr. Rivera. I normally do my SOE work at night when I am done with all my responsibilities as a teacher, a mom, a housewife, and after my workout. Unfortunately, the power went out last night and I just couldn’t wait for it to come back on. Thank you for the productive session last Tuesday. I’ve learned so much just from listening from the different presenters and how they’ve use assessment and accountability in their field of work. It’s very interesting to note how some teachers took Dr. Kallingal’s lecture literally. There was a lot to learn from Tuesday’s session and a lot of information to process from all the readings and writing I did that my head is still spinning right now….
ReplyDeleteFrom reading everyone's feedback on the presentations, I'm glad it was a success. I wasn't able to attend and present due to prior commitments...but it's obvious that the department has outstanding educators. I commend everyone for a job well done!
ReplyDeleteSince my practicum focused on my presentation during Professional Staff Development, just wanted to share with everyone that too was a great success. It was very productive and I'm thankful that my faculty and staff remained focused on the objectives of the workshop.