Continued - Discuss the progress you've made in applying the strategies/techniques in the classroom.
DUE: Submit your Lit. Review Summary Report #1 that discusses assessment practices and strategies and how they can be implemented in instruction to promote accountability.
Meet at the SOE Rm. 203, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Again, I do not actually have a classroom of my own and I totally forgot it was parent teacher conference in the elementary schools, so I had to scramble this morning to find a school. I ended up at a middle school and was given an opportunity to work with an 8th grade class during a block of time known as TEAM TIME. During this time, it is focused on a Character Education curriculum and revolved around goal setting. Since I was orginally going to do the science lesson presented by one of the break out sessions, I had to scramble for a new lesson (one of the benefits of being a teacher is the ability to completely change a lesson on a minutes notice) then I remembered Dr. Underwoods opening remarks about using STATS. I had 30 minutes to do the lesson and I talked to the students about how in baseball (same referece Dr. Underwood made) you are able to recall a ballplayer stats and make assessments based on those stats that he's a good ball player and thus helps that player to earn the big bucks. After that introduction, I had the students partner up and exchange information about each other. After about 15 minutes they had about 2-5 minutes each to present the "stats" on eachother. One example of the presentation was this is John Cruz (not his real name to protect the identity of the child as I did not get a release from parents to share with you all) who is 14 years old, has not one but two referrals for not wearing his uniforme correctly and averages about a 3.2 gpa. Doesnt play sports but skateboards 5 days a week at the skarepark. It was a really good activity with these middle school kids. Unfortunately, we did not finish on time as the bell rang so not all the students got to finish presenting. They do however want to continue this on Thursday as Parent Teacher Conference is tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAs a counselor, assessment and evaluations are very important at my school. I work closely with my administrator and classroom teachers. As a team we look at SAT 10 data, Quarterly skills data, Test Prep data, etc. After analyzing the data from different angles, I work with first grade teachers to create Strategic and Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reasult-base and Time-bound (SMART) goals. Data "drives" acadmic planning and our destination is "student achievement"
ReplyDeletetoday i introduced the "letter to a friend" activity to my 2nd class. half of that class was new to the school, so they wrote a letter about the language arts class they took at their homeschool. i'm still looking over the papers, but many of them seem to have a grasp of the concepts they learned in my class, as well as their class at their homeschool. my students actually enjoyed writing the letter. so much so that they wanted to create illustrations and write other letters about their other subjects. i found that it's an engaging activity for the students.
ReplyDeleteSince one of the underlying themes of the conference was accountability, I want to share what I already do with my students as a way to keep them accountable not only to me, but to their parents and themselves. Everyday in my classroom, we do lessons/problem sets from the Hake and Saxon math curriculum, and the students really enjoy it. In fact, I let them move on their own pace, so my classroom is filled with a heterogeneous level of learning abilities. Thus, to keep them accountable, I use a template created by one of the math teachers, to help them keep track of their progress and help them determine if they have made any improvements. At the end of a certain lesson, I have the students let their parents sign the form, so that they are aware of what their child is doing in the class as well. I found that letting the students work at their own pace, and allowing them to keep track of their progress helps them be more accountable when doing their seatwork in the classroom. In fact, although some students are on lesson thirty and a couple are still on lesson 10, the dynamics work great together. This is so because students motivate themselves in trying to complete themselves, but I do not rush them, because I'm more for mastery than trying to teach them something that they will probably forget anyway. Though not the district's adopted textbook, the Hake and Saxon textbook and curriculum is one that I recommend to other teachers of mathematics. It really helps in ASSESSING students' math skills, and keeps them ACCOUNTABLE in reaching a certain goal.
ReplyDeleteJust like Lynnette mentioned in an earlier post, we use SMART Goals at FB Leon Guerrero Middle School as well. We create such goals by interdisciplinary teams and by department as well. For myself and my math department, we created 3 SMART Goals to keep ourselves accountable, especially since it's an accreditation year for us this time around. So far, I've been keeping track of our Department binder and filling it up with evidence from all necessary things the math teachers do as professionals to reach the goals.
ReplyDeleteToday was a continuation of the use of Dr. Ellerton’s assessment tools, as I highlighted it in yesterday's blog. I finished gathering data by using them with my fourth and fifth period students. Although I already see patterns, I haven’t completed the compilation and analysis of the data I collected. It’s going to take a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteI’ve also started working on the second part of my practicum which deals with our tutoring time. The first 30 minutes of each day, with the exception of Wednesdays, students report to one of their teachers for help, re-teaching, or re-taking of tests and quizzes. The instrument I am using was generated by our school administration. It asks teachers to report the number of students who availed themselves of this tutoring opportunity as well as analyze first-quarter grades to see if there is a correlation between student participation in GWii and grade improvement. This report is due on Friday.
I reviewed the following article, as referenced here below in APA style:
ReplyDeleteEdwards, P., Turner, J., & Mokhtari, K. (2008). Balancing the Assessment "of" Learning and "for" Learning in Support of Student Literacy Achievement. Reading Teacher, 61(8), 682- 684. Retrieved from ERIC database.
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ReplyDeleteToday is a busy day for me. As I have mentioned yesterday. I voluntered to be the test coordinator for IMS (Inarajan Middle) in the GDOE Content Standards Assessment Project. So, the first thing I did this morning was to meet with my principal and discussed our plan and decided which classes the test would be administer to. Right after our meeting, I scheduled a training/briefing for the teachers t on Thursday (10/28/2010) since tommorrow is PTC. For now, I had already prepared the materials that I needed for the training like my powerpoint presentation as well as the test materials including the pencil.
ReplyDeletetesting my picture for extra credit
ReplyDeleteThis weeks lesson is on order of operations. Yesterday i gave a worksheet involving PEMDAS, a pneumonic. Today i gave a variant lesson using the formal text material. Both went well but the class i did this in is well behaved. You still have to monitor for behavior in any class, though. The students did well and enjoyed it because of the 100% turn in rate, which could be another form of assessment.
ReplyDeleteHere is a variant for Ellerton's letter assignment. After every lesson on exponents, i.e. powers, i ask the students to write what powers they could have if they were superhuman. They always like doing this. Most, if not all, turn it in.
I decided to use the strategies from the lecture on assessing administrators’ performances, and consider some of the standards for my role as an ESL coordinator. I think that the first standard of visionary leadership is extremely important. A lot of times, administrators lose sight of the major goal or intention. If they noted and focused on a clear vision, they would understand that the pathways the obstacles should not detract them from their goal.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I used a smart goal to map out what I wanted accomplished during my team meeting with the teachers. I made sure that I wrote down what product, which in my case was a transfer proposal for several students in our program. No matter how much conflict and noise occurred, I made sure that we were going to produce that product in that given amount of time. This was essential, because in order to have visionary leadership, I need to meet my timelines and realize that they string into the major vision of having a compliant ESL program. I reverted those teachers who fell off track, and I made sure that the changes that we were making in scheduling, fit our original intention of grouping our non-speakers.
Mrs. Griffin. Sorry, its difficult for me to call you Grace, since you were my AP teacher. I like what you are doing with your tutoring program. I think that if teachers extended their services beyond the designated classroom time, it would give students the perception that we care for them. I have seen the very opposite where teachers ignore students outside the classroom. I think this is in line with Dr. Kallingal's lecture about focusing our efforts on the students as people, and not necessarily barraging them with content. Perhaps I will pilot a tutoring program at my school.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is a test for my photo.
ReplyDeleteIn my second practicum I will continue to follow-up on the students on their digital photography project. As I go around the classroom to assess how far each working group has come on their project, I continually commend them for their ingenuity and creativity. In areas of their projects where improvement could be made, I would ask them specific questions to guide them in making an effective analysis on where they can add improvements. I require that each team work together and that everyone in the team must help each other out and share ideas. I also believe if students feel that your concern over them is genuine it make all the difference in the world on how they perform in class. My reason for having them make this training video on rules and policies to make them understand the reasoning behind the policy. This is in line with community involvement. The kids have even gone as far as writing scripts to explain the reasoning of policy and regulation.
ReplyDeleteEducation must enhance these functional components in our students and maintain them in a state of alertness and readiness so that the student can call on them anytime in the future. This education must grow in all the systems in the student that is needed to achieve successful and efficient living.
josep
ReplyDeleteI share your thought on math. Many of the student who are very weak in math have no idea what PEMDAS is or what it means. I have found out that when they are thaught it as a skill the student are able to perform the required functions. This follows the thought on what Dr. Kallingal was trying to say in his presentation.
Today, I met with my Common Assessment /RTI teammates again to continue our planning for the upcoming professional development day which will be a combination of elementary, middle, and high school teachers. As we were organizing our presentation, we realized that it is difficult to find assessment planning instruments that will suit all content areas and grade levels. As pointed out by the presenters, assessment is very dependent on what the overall outcome expected and should generally be based on the end product. Needless to say, we were unable to come to a consensus today on the activity we will use to assist the faculty in formulating common assessments or to develop meaningful assessments. I will be spending tomorrow looking through the articles and references of Dr. Ellerton to see if I can find something that will work. Developing assessment tools that can be used to plan common assessments is more challenging than I thought it would be now that I have a better understanding of authentic assessments.
ReplyDeleteThe article gave information that is useful in our process of improving academic growth. Thus, I am recommending this article to my administrators at school. This is an article that can make a change. Further, this article reflects Drs. Elleraton and Kallingal presentation in achieving success through changes and nurturing academic growth. The article presents: “it’s teaching that matter; systemic improvement does not move in a straight line; external assistance is crucial; external resources need to be adapted to local circumstance; and creating ownership and common language is critical.” Drs. Elleraton and Kallingal echoed the same throughout their presentation.
ReplyDeleteI did it -- it just took me 2 tries! Now the article that I read, "Can Assessment for Accountability Complement Assessment for Improvement? by Trudy Banta, agreed with Dr. Nerida Ellerton's presentation. The multiple perspectives is when one uses a variety of assessment instruments. Both Banta and Ellerton agreed that an important aspect of assessment is to assist each learner to grow both cognitively and affectively.
ReplyDeleteAlso, through the assessments, teachers become aware of the curriculum. All day at work, a teacher presented to the content teachers the skills of a subject and the SAT10 item analysis. He explained how to focus on necessary skills and when to re-teach. I really enjoyed the presentation from a seasoned teacher who shared his successes and failures.
I love reading posts from my fellow classmates as I learn from their perspective how they are using the methods from our presenter. Grace's blogs are interesting and I learn or review from her. She is amazing!
Roger and I were in the Administrator's Standards and Accountability by Lou San Nicolas's students. Administrators need standards and accountability too. Just like teachers, we need training on our standards.
Today, I used Dr. Ellerton's IMPACT instrumet on my SPED Reading and SPED Math classes. I presented the 4 question format of response sheet A for each class and jsut changed the subject name for each. This instrument allowed for insight into the level of content retention or lack there of for most students. I still am looking at the data but it is showing good retention for some classes and less than good for others althought I presented the same material for each. It is a very interesting insight into how much information my students retained or care to express.
ReplyDeleteToday, I informed my class that "it's teaching that matter" and I will teach each and everyone of my student the process of achieving academic growth. I will nurture their minds and make them express their desire in reaching academic growth with hands on and subject they feel comfortable to work for in the field of Earth Science. I will encourage alternative resources to accomplish their task.
ReplyDeleteThus, I will be adopting the five major systems that Dr. Kallingal presented are: 1) intra-personal system; 2) inter-personal system; 3) spiritual system; 4) contextual system; and 5) meta-cognitive system as part of my practicum.
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ReplyDeleteLike Jose, I actually carried out the "Write a Letter to a Friend Task" activity. It was quite interesting. The students were actually engaged in the writing process. In fact, they were quite excited about writing to a real friend. I had to modify some parts, and for the students that still do not quite grasp the writing process, I allowed them to just illustrate what they can explain to a friend. For these students in particular, I was indeed impressed. Although there was a language barrier, their understanding was indeed measured in their illustration. I did review the others, and while some did quite well, there are some areas in my delivery that I need to improve on. I now know, that I still need to try and speak a little slower so everyone can follow along with better understanding..
ReplyDeleteMr Acosta, your experience sounds interesting, Why do you think it is that presented the same material that one class is retaining more than that of the other. Funny huh, Im assuming that both classes have students with specific learning disabilites but is one higher functioning than the other? Very interesting though...
ReplyDeletejust checking the picure showed up..I want the extra points...
ReplyDeleteThis is my second day of practicum. Today, some of my students came prepared for the Mock Legislative Hearing. Others gave excuses, but have until Thursday, October 28, 2010 to present as our session resumes. I was very pleased with the outcome today because of the student's participation in the hearing. They gave different viewpoints (pros/Cons) about the issues given to them the day before. A few students felt uncomfortable about speaking in front of class. Welcome to public speaking 101. A gave them a few minutes to come their nerves while others are presenting. It's an entirely new approach and hearing students articulate their thoughts and ideas is quite refreshing. Have a nice evening everyone.
ReplyDeleteLike Jose, I actually carried out the "Write a Letter to a Friend Task" activity by Dr. Ellerton. It was quite interesting. The students were actually engaged in the writing process. In fact, they were quite excited about writing to a real friend. I had to modify some parts, and for the students that still do not quite grasp the writing process, I allowed them to just illustrate what they can explain to a friend. For these students in particular, I was indeed impressed. Although there was a language barrier, their understanding was indeed measured in their illustration. I did review the others, and while some did quite well, there are some areas in my delivery that I need to improve on. I now know, that I still need to try and speak a little slower so everyone can follow along with better understanding..
ReplyDeleteThank you, Grace, for posting the APA style reference. It's been quite a while since I last had a need for it. You surely saved me a lot of time. :)
ReplyDeletestill working on the photo thing -- finally!!
ReplyDeleteToday was Parent Conference for the elementary schools. The ESL teachers in collaboration with PIRC and the Parent Community Outreach Program conducted an informal meeting to interact with ESL parents. Based on the survey given prior to all ESL parents, discussions ocurred to address their concerns:
ReplyDelete1. Purposes of the ESL program
2. ESL Parental and student rights
3. Communicating with Teachers and parents
4. Monitoring and assisting with homework and
checking academic progress
5. Providing assistance with Chamorro assignments
and projects
The ESL teachers will assess and address academic skills based on 1st Qtr. Pre/post tests.
They will review curriculum alignment for 2nd Qtr. skills and DI mastery levels for their ESL students using the 5R-Model. Realize, Review,Reflect,Revisit and Retain.
ESL Teachers needed to interact and develop a positive rapport with their parents to acquire support and assistance in monitoring the academic progress of their children.
The ESL goal is to continue meeting with parents
to increase 40% of parental involvement and support by the end of the academic school year.
As I work with the ESL teachers, I see the motivation and innovative ways to better understand the cultural and social needs of the ESL students.
Today was elementary PTC and so my plan is to continue the dialogue between all my three teachers that implemented the 3 aforementioned strategies. Although there was no classes today, we made email conversations regarding the outcomes of their strategies. So far, the mentorship is going well with the first year teacher. I am meeting with the teacher to have a post conference on the show off lesson tomorrow. Lastly, the second quarter pre test will be inputted in the next two days by the teacher and I had provided her the software. More feedback will be forthcoming on the overall impact on students.
ReplyDeletestill trying to post
ReplyDeleteOctober 26. For the last couple of meetings, my advanced culinary class has been learning about yeast dough. The lesson consisted of activities that include reading (the textbook), completing a worksheet, demonstration, and actual hands-on practice. The lesson’s objective is that at the end of the lesson, students should be able to articulate the procedures and be able to describe technical terms related to the production of yeast dough. The lesson is a prelude to individual production of different types of yeast bread which will take place next meeting. I continued using Dr. Ellerton’s “Write a Letter to A Friend” task today to assess how much they’ve learned the last couple of meetings. I plan on interpreting the results using data and analysis for my presentation.
ReplyDeleteBobbie, yes, well, I had a thought about that and it seems that the class which retained less informataion had a higher concentration of students that were more severe in their learning disabilites, generally less willing to perform unless intensly motivated and had a higher level of unauthorized classroom activity and movement,so by they way the picture looks good. I hope this explains it....Gil
ReplyDeleteToday, I used the "intro. survey method" presented by Dr. Jacki Cyrus. This method allows teachers to survey the prior knowledge of students on a particular subject before initiating a new lesson. For this assessment practicum I surveyed by English 11 Honors students. There are a total of 18 students.
ReplyDeleteI read students questions about a topic and they were to answer with "yes or No" only. I surveyed students on the topic of declamation speech.
Looking at the data students have not heard, seen, performed, or participated in any declamation performance. I look forward to teaching this oratorical lesson to them.
Patrick your assessment practicum sounds great. As I read the first-two sentences you sounded just like Dr. Kallingal. He is very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteLiterary Review - 1 down, 3 to go....
ReplyDeleteYES...FINALLY..MY 19 year old son helped me post my picture and blog! Test...blog again!
ReplyDeleteprofile pic testing...how much extra credit is it anyway?
ReplyDeleteIt is very rewarding to have attended this assessment and accountability conference. It provides so much information about education and meta-cognition. Its made clear that leadership is necessary for the different system to function in a intergrated manner. Children spend a significant amount of their formative years in school, if teachers provide opportunities for children to grow in all these five systems such as the intra-personal system(intellectual functions-IQ), inter-personal system (emotional functions-EQ), Spiritual systems(core values orientation-VQ), Contextual systems(personality functions-PQ), Meta-cognitive systems(biological functions-BQ). Research indicated that children with adequate growth in these systems tend to do well in life.
ReplyDeleteSTARTING OVER FOR THE 4TH TIME TRYING TO BLOG!
ReplyDeleteGood Evening Everyone!
This morning I had an oral review of what we had read yesterday about "A Story of Ancient Greece." Some students volunteered by answering the questions I asked, while others are hesitant to answer questions. So, students that didn't answer the questions, I called on them to answer questions with a little hint to help them come up with the correct response. Then, I asked for volunteers to read aloud. Those that didn't read, I had to call on them to read because I wanted to give them a chance to read. Of course, asking questions along the way about their reading. After completing the reading, we went over some of the questions at the end of the chapter for students to complete. The students completed the workbooks at the end of the chapter. One student had a problem answering the questions, so I asked another student to help the student with difficulites. The student that had difficulties accepted the help!
Tomorrow is our conference...so, when I'm not having conferences with the parents, I will like to go over the completed workbook assignments to see if the students did well on their workbook assignment!
Yes..I agree with E...Grace, thank you for posting an example of APA Style!
The School Administrator Standards & Accountability presentation at the conference reported that Guam DOE school administrators are evaluated with 7 board adopted standards. These standards offer a method to ensure accountability for results and reinforce the importance of strong leadership practices.
ReplyDeleteStandard 2: Instructional Leadership is my focus to fulfill my practicum requirements for the course. As an instructional leader, I facilitated teacher meetings to plan on creating units based on learning standards. It was through detailed step by step planning and professional development that the teachers were able to connect data with instruction.
The road toward open communication and better understanding of how assessments impact our student learner outcomes was a long and difficult one. The seasoned teachers were set in their ways and extremely uncomfortable making any changes to the way they taught. The novice teachers were easily persuaded and willing to learn and try new things. Within the varying teacher experiences, it had taken time to finally make the long term changes in our curriculum.
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ReplyDeleteFor October 25, 2010 Post. My progress for implementing the strategies/techniques for the classroom will be to chart them upon assessing them from the conference sessions I attended: 10/22/10. Teaching Statistics with Excel: Resolving Dilemma by Dr. Ning Li, UOG. A first action, will be to review and select some of the many statistical types that can be best, easiest and appropriate to use in a remedial LOTE/mainstream classroom of a middle school. Hence, Dr. Li’s presentation of certain is useful for math, science and outcome for surveys or polls.
ReplyDelete10/22/10. Work Activities in Ecology by Mrs. C.G. Alava of Bukidnon StateUniversity, Philippines. She was able to give a cursory demo of a series of ecological activities for class use, having her time taken up by the previous presenter, but intend to review and use in my classroom. My basis to my students will be the ‘Green’ movement of course. Ecology also falls under many topics of earth science of which is my area of expertise to date.
10/22/10. Reforestation by UOG Students: R. Chaco, D. Lujan, P. Quitugua, and M. Perez. I am grateful for the many sciences made available in the conference --that the introductory on reforestation will prove helpful in considering it in the sciences and impressed to its inclusion and will be very happy to merge in my curriculum. This could be a good time to have students make a booklet or pamphlet. If you haven’t heard, FBLG students seem to take to the jungles jumping gate in full swing has minimize somewhat, could be a good time to have them appreciate what is in our jungles letting them engage in it as an activity charting, reporting and journalizing on it and at the same time also turn around a dilemma into a legit educational victory. Yay!!!!
10/22/10. Standards and Accountability by UOG Students: C. Johnston, K. Quiambao, R. San Nicolas and J. Salas. This session turned out to be very interesting since administrators and other key leaders as well as the public and stakeholders observe them in action at their abilities and prowess challenged by the order of the day in our present locale of Guam, USA. What stands out to me is the call to collaborate among all stakeholders and to, most importantly, be in cohesion with one another. While simple and complex at the onset, it seems that everyone step up to the plate and pull up towards a viable and flexible everyday solutions and contribute whole heartedly that which is fitting and long term. My observation is that when we minus giving of ourselves having the solutions, we bear many problems that await its relief. Amen!
For October 25, 2010 Post. My progress for implementing the strategies/techniques for the classroom will be to chart them upon assessing them from the conference sessions I attended: 10/22/10. Teaching Statistics with Excel: Resolving Dilemma by Dr. Ning Li, UOG. A first action, will be to review and select some of the many statistical types that can be best, easiest and appropriate to use in a remedial LOTE/mainstream classroom of a middle school. Hence, Dr. Li’s presentation of certain is useful for math, science and outcome for surveys or polls.
ReplyDelete10/22/10. Work Activities in Ecology by Mrs. C.G. Alava of Bukidnon StateUniversity, Philippines. She was able to give a cursory demo of a series of ecological activities for class use, having her time taken up by the previous presenter, but intend to review and use in my classroom. My basis to my students will be the ‘Green’ movement of course. Ecology also falls under many topics of earth science of which is my area of expertise to date.
10/22/10. Reforestation by UOG Students: R. Chaco, D. Lujan, P. Quitugua, and M. Perez. I am grateful for the many sciences made available in the conference --that the introductory on reforestation will prove helpful in considering it in the sciences and impressed to its inclusion and will be very happy to merge in my curriculum. This could be a good time to have students make a booklet or pamphlet. If you haven’t heard, FBLG students seem to take to the jungles jumping gate in full swing has minimize somewhat, could be a good time to have them appreciate what is in our jungles letting them engage in it as an activity charting, reporting and journalizing on it and at the same time also turn around a dilemma into a legit educational victory. Yay!!!!
10/22/10. Standards and Accountability by UOG Students: C. Johnston, K. Quiambao, R. San Nicolas and J. Salas. This session turned out to be very interesting since administrators and other key leaders as well as the public and stakeholders observe them in action at their abilities and prowess challenged by the order of the day in our present locale of Guam, USA. What stands out to me is the call to collaborate among all stakeholders and to, most importantly, be in cohesion with one another. While simple and complex at the onset, it seems that everyone step up to the plate and pull up towards a viable and flexible everyday solutions and contribute whole heartedly that which is fitting and long term. My observation is that when we minus giving of ourselves having the solutions, we bear many problems that await its relief. Amen!
I have the same goal like Grace in using the IMPACT Program. I wanted to know my effectiveness as a librarian/teacher. I also modified the text or wording of the assessment tool based on the learning skills. I should have some feedback Thursday afternoon; as Grace mentioned it's a two-day process.
ReplyDeleteI am torn between Digital Storytelling and Assessing Children's Difficulties with Fraction for my next strategy/technique.
Accountability is the key word at my work experienced today. Many students came in to ask about their grad stats. They want to know how much they earned and what credits they are lacking. As counselors, it is our duty to keep track of every student’s records, especially the credits that they earned so that we can properly guide them in meeting the graduation requirements. We assist them in planning for their high school years and in making sure that they are taking the classes that would help them meet the requirements. We also assist them in looking ahead at their future by discussing their interest in life.
ReplyDeleteActually, accountability is very important in everything and particularly in counseling. Our daily job is practically based on accountability. We make sure that we document what we encounter to help us keep track of the events that took place. We record any issues and incidents that are presented to us. We document almost everything, from the time that we called out students up to phone calls that we made to parents. I think it is safe to say that accountability is a very big part of counseling.
Today I implemented assessment and accountability through reviewing graduation status reports with a few of my students. As a counselor, I am responsible for monitoring these reports, which indicate what is needed for students to meet graduation requirements. I am working with seniors this school year, so it is crucial that these reports are reviewed and monitored after each semester. It is also important that student schedules are accurate and students are taking courses needed to fulfill credits based on their chosen path (college or vocational).
ReplyDeleteThe graduation status report not only assesses a student's progress towards graduation, but also reflects accountability on the student's behalf (whether or not they have passed a class and earned credit). Furthermore, it reflects accountability on the counselor's behalf, because if a student is not on track, counseling should be provided to discuss options for making up credits and planning towards meeting the requirements. I am lucky that I have a colleague who is sharing half of the senior students with me, as it can become very tedious and time consuming, when evaluating 470+ students for graduation.
Alright Ma! We posted on the same thing! Can anyone tell that we work together?
ReplyDeleteI say go for it Ms. Donna! Something has to be done.
ReplyDeleteI commend Richard V for doing an incredible job as he always does for his students. You always find a way or many ways to help your students.
With the up-coming professional Development Day #1 on Nov. 1, 2010, I will be part of a group presentation to analyze SAT10 item-analysis data for one subject area per grade. This team of 4 assistant principals will facilitate a session for teachers on prioritizing 12 of the lowest skills performed in a selected grade level subject area. With this data, they will share best practices that are being used or can be used to teach these skills, so students can learn and improve their SAT10 scores to the proficient level.
ReplyDeleteAnnette...Me Too...I used Dr. Cyrus' tool of assessing prior knowledge of a subject before we began the lesson on "A Story About Ancient Greece!" Rightnow, my students just completed reading the Chapter on Ancient Greece. After the completion of the reading, the students answered independently the end of the chapter pages. One of the students had difficulties reading the questions, so I asked another students to help him read the questions (cooperative learning), so he can complete the workbook pages.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't had any progress with my practicum...now my leadership team and I are planning for our November 1st Professional Staff Development. I agree with Lynnette, as a team we look at SAT 10 data, Quarterly skills data, Test Prep data, etc. After analyzing the data from different angles, we would need to work with our teachers to create Strategic and Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reasult-base and Time-bound (SMART) goals. Data "drives" acadmic planning and our destination is "student achievement. So, these are the areas that we will be focusing on during our Staff Development, especially our Accreditation visit is scheduled for April 2011...and boy do they look at data!
ReplyDeleteRoger, I understand how you feel. I have been working with a former AP student for nearly 4 years and he still insists on calling me Mrs. Griffin...LOL. Anyway, the tutoring idea came out of a training on Professional Learning Communities I attended this summer in Boston. The rationale behind it is that instruction and FORMATIVE assessment must be student-centered. Interventions must be focused and timely. This is very much in line with another initiative called Response to Intervention, aka RTI. In fact, I just finished reviewing an article on it as my lit review #2. Ciao for now!
ReplyDeleteP.S.: Send my best to your sister ;)
Well! I enjoyed reading all these responses. Just like Lynette and Geraldine, I am the teacher in the classroom implementing the SMART goals, teaching the curriculum, doing D.I., implementing Scoring High, and Assessing. All these strategies we incorporate must be reflective of my teaching. I want to make learning fun. I have decided to have the students "Write a letter to a Friend" task. My class is decorated for halloween. The setting is perfect. They will write a letter to Mr. Scarecrow telling him everything that happened in class each day. Yesterday we carved a pumpkin and place a small LED light inside. With the lights out, I enjoyed hearing the excitment the kids had seeing the Jack-O-Lantern glowing. Our students need to be exposed to more hands on activities. They learned the step-by-step process, they touched, and smelled the pumpkin. Tomorrow we will continue our Social Studeis unit on Citizenship. Election is around the corner. It will be interesting to see how much information they know about the candidates. Scaffolding tomorrow. Voting on Friday for my class.
ReplyDeleteI like the presention by those 2 young ladies on oil spills. If anybody knows them give me their numbers!!! However, the catch phrases they said the kids produced were a little too clever for primary students. Come on: "You kill with oil spill." They could sell that.
ReplyDeleteKids can be clever, but are more innocent in elementary. In middle school, they are already scheming. Some girls could cause early retirement. I can only imagine high school. Teachers should always be cautious. With assessments, be careful of their laziness. Always be and have them on their toes.
Our Professional Staff Development #1 was scheduled for November 1st, I used that as my practicum since I will be the one faciitating the workshop/training. Our goal is by the end of SY 2012, we will increase the number of students in grades 2-5 performing at Proficient or Advanced level in the SAT 10 Reading, Language, and Math to follow in subsequent years by 5% each year. So, basically our plan is for teachers to align the newly adopted content standards, ESLRs,SAT 10, and SFA to our school curriculum. Teachers will also design/develop pre-tests and post-tests for each grade level in each subject area.
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