What does a Morning Walk Through Reveal about our School

Most mornings, I do my best like - many principals - to do a quick walk through classrooms. I like to see the great teaching going on in our school. My focus in the past has alway been what is it that the teacher is teaching. Over the past year or so I have changed my focus to look more closely at what is it that students are learning.
As a school we have had the opportunity over the past two years to work closely with the Alberta Assessment Consortium. We have focused our staff development on assessment. Our goal is to improve student learning.

Here are  types of assessment we have focused on:

Types of Assessment

Assessments occur before, during and after learning. Assessment is not the same as testing, although tests may be a part of assessment.

Assessment for learning - Before, during and after learning, teachers and students gather information that helps determine next steps for skill development towards the learner outcome.

Assessment as learning - Both during and after learning, the teacher encourages students to build knowledge of themselves as learners. This process of being aware of and evaluating their own thinking processes is called meta-cognition. It is a core skill for a self-directed learner.

Assessment of learning - Assessment of learning is the summation of all the learning evidence. It may come at the end of the learning or at regular points during learning. Teachers ensure students have a range of opportunities and a variety of ways to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes that confirm progress toward the learner outcome. Teachers balance this evidence in their assessment.

Information taken from: http://www.rockyview.ab.ca/home/21stC/assessing

With that said: Here are some examples of the student learning that I found. 

In a math class students using iPads and a verity of tools to demonstrate, learning, practice and to accommodate for learning needs.

In the Physical Education classroom students self assess their current fitness levels and setting goals for improvement throughout the year.

In the Home Ec. classroom students prepare to put together material to for completion of a project.

In the Language Arts classroom, student have the opportunity to research a topic that they are interested in. The topics ranged from the "life of a gladiator" to "school uniforms" and " the effect of steroids on the body". Students were provided an outline, guide, and a rubric to follow. This allows, once more, for students to self assess the work they are going to turn in. Students in the class know and understand learning goals and Targets.

As I walked into this Science class I was excited, to see students exploring the properties of light. Students were free to explore how light bends, reflects, and is divided.

 Each group of student tried on their own to see what they could do with light.

Without  strict direction, the students explored and reached their own understanding of light.

The second math class I visit, students were giving a set of problems. Once completed, a new set of problems were provided to the group. Students received feedback from group members and help teach each other. This allowed for the teacher to spend individual time with students and groups.

Great instruction, teaching, and learning takes place in many schools. Cardston Junior High is a school that is learning and growing each day. Dedicated teachers are asking themselves each day these questions:

1. What will happen during the lesson to help students understand what success looks like?
2. How and when will I check in with students to find out whether or not they're "getting it"? 
3 How and when will students receive feedback on their progress? Who will provide the feedback? 

Thank you for spending a morning with us, at the world famous Cardston Junior High School.  

21st Century Learning and Balanced Assessment

For most of my life I have worked with young horses. About three years ago I started recording each ride and what I had accomplished with each horse. As I wrote down what I had done and whether or not I had reached the same point on each horse, it made it easier to set goals and know the destination that I hoped to reach with each horse. I have come to understand that learners need to understand goals, destinations and targets. When learners understand this, learning increases. Join with me as I share my learning related gathering evidence that reflects what students know.

Students learn best when students and teachers share a clear understanding of the desired learning outcome. Over the past two years, the staff at Cardston Junior High Teachers have worked to develop what we would call the essential outcomes. Essential outcomes provide a target that students can focus on and understand what it takes to reach that outcome. Teachers work to help build understanding by providing students with examples that show mastery level learning. When students know targets they understand how to reach the target.

Gathering of Evidence:

Assessment in the the 21st century requires that teachers build a strong body of evidence. Individual piece of evidence of learning may not reflect the true learning of a student. Appropriate assessment requires teachers to have a balanced collection of student work. This may come from a variety of methods. This then provides a more fair, reliable and valid assessment of the student.

Assessment data can by collected in these three ways:

Conversation - Conversations happen everyday in a classroom. Conversation allows teachers to ask questions and students to respond. Teachers are then able to understand the level of learning of the students. Teachers know by these conversations if students have been able to grasp the key concepts.

Observation - I have spent hours in observation of student learning. This may be one of the most powerful ways to determine student learning. Teachers are looking daily to see if students are showing growth in a given area. They look to see how students apply learned information in the real-world. Observation is a key to student learning.

The Products of Learning - The products of student learning may come in many forms. Students may communicate learning through products they created for a class. Products may include stories, or essays, for a language arts class. Presentations in a social studies class. Performances that take place in band, drama, or even our pop and rock class, or finished art products worked on in class are all examples of products used to determine learning.

Using each of these methods of evidence allows us to have a full picture of student learning. This is often referred to as triangluation of data. 

I hope this also represents our growth as a teaching staff and is reflective in how we are trying to report student learning to our parents.

The following video links provide information about student self assessment and its use in a holistic assessment strategy.

http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/videos/expertspeakers/selfandpeerassessmentdylanwiliam.asp

Part of the triangulation requires teachers to use formative assessment. Dylan Wiliam talks about how teachers use formative assessment to improve student learning.

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/mp4/lal/formativeassessmentdylanwiliam.mp4

Please Continue learning with us as we share our journey to improve student learning. 

21st Century Learning

Teaching and Learning in the 21^st century, has always been something that others did. I now find myself engaged in the conversation and asking the question, “What are the most important skills for our students to know as they face a world that will be different from the one that many of us have grown up in?” 

Over the past three years, I have tried to understand what the 21^st century teacher would be like. More importantly, what is the 21^st century leaner like? I have come to this conclusion, we must do more then we are now doing. We need to look at all systems around the world and realize that we all need to increase our capacity to meet the needs of our students. This link to Alberta Education's information page on Curriculum Redesign is helpful.

Alberta is committed to the development of 21^st Century Learners. A great quote by Dr. Richard Moniuszko rings true to me, “We need to prepare kids for their future and not our past”. Inspiring Education is a document that has been created from a dialogue with Albertans. This document outlines the direction of education in Alberta and helps define what the educated Albertan of 2030 looks like.

Inspiring Education, a document written in 2010, is the collection of input through conversations with Albertans. Those conversations led to the development of three E’s of education for the 21^st Century. The Three E’s are:

•  Engaged Thinker
•  Ethical Citizen
•  Entrepreneurial Spirit

I would encourage parents to become familiar with this document. You can find the PDF version at this link.

At Cardston Junior High School, we are working to increase our capacity and meet the needs of our 21^st century learners. Our focus in the past three years has been to develop our skills in the areas of high yield teaching strategies, student engagement and assessment.

The teaching staff at Cardston Junior High School have worked closely with other professionals in the area of assessment. For the past two years we have worked closely with the Alberta Assessment Consortium to develop and improve our understanding of assessment. One area of focus for our staff is providing the best assessment of student learning and reporting of that learning to parents and students. We want our reporting to reflect the growth of our students. Cardston Junior High is in the process of building a report card that provides an adequate reflection of student learning.

I invite you to join with us on our journey as we work to develop our capacity as teachers and better understand student learning to produce productive citizen for the 21^st century.

Additional video clips from some of the experts:

The staff at CJHS has received a copy of Dylan Wiliam's book, "Embedded Formative Assessment". As a researcher, his work is extremely impacting. As previously mentioned, we are working closely with the Alberta Assessment Consortium and that work is centred around Dylan Wiliam's Five Key Strategies. This clip is Dylan Wiliam explaining the book.

Damian Cooper is a leader in assessment and grading. His work spans across Canada, the United States, and internationally. His new book, "Redefining Fair: How to Plan, Assess, and Grade for Excellence in Mixed-Ability Classrooms" was also shared for with the staff at CJHS. Here is a clip of Damian Cooper explaining some of his ideas on 21st Century Learning.

Damian Cooper, "Our Mission in the 21st Century"

Team is Larger Than Me

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to work with and coach and an amazing group of young ladies. I am not sure who designed the tee shirt our team that year, but the message on it had the word TEAM in large print. Just below the word TEAM was the word me. The meaning of the two words: TEAM is larger than me.  This group of young ladies believed strongly in the TEAM. For them it wasn't about how they did, it was't about individual stats, or playing time, for them it was about how they did has a TEAM.

Three years ago I arrived at Cardston Junior High School and became part of a TEAM. Under the direction of our central office we began the work of Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). All of our staff as had the opportunity to see Rick Defour and his team present on Professional Learning Communities. We have worked to improve our understanding of PLC's. We are not perfect in our execution of  PLC's - however our teachers are working in a collaborative environment to improve practice, impact teaching and learning.

As we have spent time working and sharing as a staff we have witnessed our own growth and have discovered that we as a collaborative group can have a powerful impact on learning.  We invite you to be part of our journey as we explore, understand, and develop as a staff.

Like the young ladies I had the opportunity to coach, who understood TEAM, as a school leader I hope to lead a staff and school who know TEAM is larger than me.

The Courage to Fail

Recently I have been encouraged to start a blog as a tool to educate the community about our school  and the progress we are making to improve, change and become better at the job we are doing. As a first post, I thought it appropriate to start with a video I recently viewed titled, Courage to Fail.

In writing this blog and sharing information about myself and our school's growth, I am concerned that my failures will reflect poorly on our great school. I have failed a number of times in my life. I have a fear of failure. I fear exposing weakness in public. So, I need to let you know up front that any errors in this blog I claim as mine, and mine alone. The title of this blog comes partly from my failures and weaknesses.

Early in my elementary school years I was removed from the regular classroom setting because I was not learning like other students. Later in my school career it was decided that I had a learning disability known as Dyslexia. So, when it comes to failing I know all about it. As the title also indicates, I have a deep passion for horses and the work of a cowboy. I know this may seem strange to share but has you follow my blog this will help you understand some of my thinking and who I am. Please enjoy the learning process as I share my thinking and own learning. I hope that you grow and we all lose the fear of failure . Enjoy the following video.