Prairie South School Division Conversations

There is always much discussion about the use of IM (Instant Messaging) Language in student writing. David Warlick makes an excellent arguement for the value and usefulness of the language. One of his points is that students need to be praised for the invention of a language. It suits the medium for which its used. Should it be used everywhere? No. But it does have a place. Listen to this 2 minute excerpt from a discussion he had recently with a group of Connecticut teachers.

Gary Stager also chimes in on the topic.

I was reading something the other day that said,

"...we must come to realize that as soon as we begin to feel comfortable and start to seek comfort at the expense of embracing new thought and ways of doing things that stretch us, we will have begun the journey to ineffectiveness."

I think it's a good reminder to us that we must always be open to new ways of improving practise. Assessment for learning is really about finding ways to empower and encourage students. Currently, I am in the process of developing some guiding principles for assessment in our division. Your thoughts and suggestions about what I have so far would be appreciated. Here they are:

-Assessment practices should include a balance of assessement for and of learning.
-Student involvement is essential.
-Descriptive feedback is used to inform students and others about progress.
-Assessment should focus on achievement and progress, not failure.
-Assessment is instruction.
-Outcomes are made clear to students and are appropriate

I would appreciate some feedback on:

-The number of principles - too few? too many?
-Are they are easily understood?
-Do they refelect what we understand to be important about assessment practises?

John Mayer's song Stop this Train made me think of change within our division....I know my obsession with analogies and metaphors is often overdone. Anyway almost all the other posts on this blog refer in some way to change. This song basically identifies the reality at the end.

I want to get out and go home again
I can't take this speed it's moving in
I know I can
cause now I see I'll never stop this train

So basically, most of what we need to do is stop trying to stop change and simply deal with it. While there are some things we do control and can choose, the world of information will never stop. Obviously this is nothing we haven't heard before but I need reminding that we need to spend more time learning how to manage change that spending time trying to stop it. That's what we need to be showing our students. How can we help them manage information and change? First I think we need to get a handle on this ourselves. How do you handle change? How do you handle the bombardment of information?

Here's what Will Richardson had to say recently about his frustration around teachers unwilling to accept change:

If you are an educator, I think you have little choice but to choose option 3 in the Marco Torres mantra: “You can complain, quit or innovate.” I know in many ways it stinks to have to be an educator at a moment in history when things are changing on a glacial scale. But what you signed up for is preparing kids for their futures. You have little choice but to deal.

Here's the John Mayer video if you're interested:
[youtube]5HwevhhNZnI[/youtube]

While attending the administrator's retreat in October we had some brief discussion around the rollout of initiatives and how that could be structured. There was a request that it be a similar process across the board.

This is something we as a curriculum team have been struggling with from the beginning - how do we effectively implement new initiatives and curricula for 45 schools??

We've been working on developing a process, but I think it's important to have some input from all stakeholders. So I ask you teachers and administrators out there - how would you like to see new initiatives rolled out?

One of the challenges of the curriculum team is, how do we provide teachers with opportunities to discover new ideas/research around teaching and learning?

Our intent this fall was to offer a variety of workshops that would serve to offer an overview of some of these ideas and then develop an ongoing plan of PD for those interested in further study. Attendance, however, has not been very good. I don't think it's because teachers aren't interested in new ideas/research, I think it's because they're lives are nuts! After school committments, be it extra-curricular or family related make it difficult, if not impossible to attend after school PD. Also, those having to travel to either Moose Jaw or Assiniboia have an extra challenge.

So what is the solution? Many teachers are not inclined to have a substitute in their room too often and also the cost of PD can be very expensive. We are exploring the use of video conferencing and also the development of online resources that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Yet there will still be a need to meet face to face to explore these ideas. Any thoughts or suggestions?