53 Search Results for "calgary"

• The 2 Most Important Skills Ev The 2 Most Important Skills Every Teacher Needs

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    Over the past nine years I have had the pleasure of hiring (and the displeasure of firing) new hires into their teaching careers.  In watching teachers come into the profession some just "have it."  Some seem to be innately programmed to be teachers.  For others, it is a much more difficult road to travel.  Additionally, there has been much awareness brought up about "teacher burn-out" and teachers not being able to survive this profession.

    It has taken nine years of watching, listening, and observing to come to understand that there are two distinct differences between teachers that excel and love the profession, and those that do not excel and are prone to burn-out.

    1.  Reflective Practice

    The power of a reflective teacher is unstoppable.  What I have noticed about reflective teachers is through their abilities to analyze, clarify, pinpoint and adjust their practice they move into a distinct zone of improvement.  The improvement becomes noticeable each week.

    The reflective teacher knows how to:

    • Create lessons designed for specific purposes and to meet specific outcomes;
    • Adjust these lessons to the needs of different students;
    • Observe students;
    • Talk about and share successful and unsuccessful features of the lesson;
    • Create a better lesson based on this information;

    When a teacher is able to get into this reflective flow, they become intellectually engaged and oriented to supporting the learning of their students.  With this engagement their practice becomes energizing, goal oriented, and challenging.

    2.  Coachability

    Hand in hand with reflective practice is coachability.  Coachability speaks to the teachers capacity to:

    • hear feedback;
    • analyze and understand the feedback;
    • implement the feedback into their teaching.

    Without this, it is unlikely a teacher will be successful in growing and learning themselves. They become closed and rigid to ideas and suggestions and feel there is no other way to do things; what they do now is good because they have always done it.  Unfortunately, a teacher who is not reflective or coachable has difficulty adjusting their practice to the needs of different learners.  This leads to frustration with their students, and often a mindset of changing others rather than changing themselves.  We all know changing others is a futile task, and here comes teacher burn-out.

    (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    What can I do now?

    The good part is it can be easy to develop the skills of reflectiveness and coachability if you don't already have them.

    • Be open-minded; you need to learn something new everyday;
    • Listen;
    • Take notes; what are you doing and what are others doing that is successful or unsuccessful (we learn from our mistakes);
    • Work with colleagues; in all ways - open up your practice;
    • Ask questions.

    We know that teaching is a demanding, busy, spontaneous profession.  Thriving in it is possible when we understand that those who thrive are reflective and coachable.

     

    Lori also blogs at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com  Click on the link for more great information.

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  • 2 months ago
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• Dear Mrs. Cullen Dear Mrs. Cullen

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    

    So many things happen at school around Christmas time.  We are busy with concerts, activities, food drives, helping families with gift baskets and gift cards, making presents for parents and learning Christmas traditions.  We get all wound up with all this business and typically its a race against the clock to get everything done.

    This year, a Christmas card showed up in mailbox.  It was from a grade 5 student who had come to our school last year from a different city.  He had had a rocky school history, battling with behavioral and attentional issues.  There had been good days and bad, but here is what the card said,

    Dear Mrs. Cullen,

    Thank you for taking care of our school and helping this school to be an awesome place.  I think you run this school really good.  Thank you for helping me when I am angry and supporting me and encouraging me to do awesome.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

    After I read the card a few times, I really started thinking about his message and the things he had taken the time to mention.  I want all students in the school this way so maybe if I focus on:

    • “this school”  –  having a whole school presence. Being around the school and visible every day and in all aspects of school life.  Dropping in to classrooms, clubs, and intramurals.  Being visible during entry and exit both inside and out.
    • “helping me when I am angry” - let’s face it, I’m here to help.  In the good times and the bad.  When students are having a bad moment, when they are angry, or frustrated, or mad I am here to help students cope with those emotions, not punish them for having these emotions.  The best part about each new day is that it is a new day.  Everyone gets to start over without yesterday hanging over them.
    • “supporting and encouraging me to do awesome” - all kids, all the time.  What can I do to create the conditions where children are successful?  How can I manipulate or change the conditions or routines to support children?

     

    Ending the year with this message that reminded me of my true work as a school principal was a delightful gift.  Funny how our students are able to identify what is important to them and for school leaders.

     

    Visit my personal blog At the Principal's Office for more great reading!

     

     

     

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  • 5 months ago
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• I’m So Looking Forward to Pare I’m So Looking Forward to Parent Interviews #saideveryteachereverywhere

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

      

     

    

    Parent/Teacher/Child Interview (Photo credit: Kathy Cassidy)

    Parent teacher interviews can often be a time of extreme stress for teachers and parents.  Teachers are often concerned about what they will say to parents, how they will say it and how parents will respond.  Parents often dread hearing news from teachers that their children are not perforning well or about a myriad of other problems linked to their children.  Parent-teacher interviews are short (usually 15 minutes) and can leave both teachers and parents feeling a little stressed.

    To support teachers and parents, one way around the traditional ” how is my child doing?, why are their marks low?, and they aren’t like this at home” interview is to plan and structure the conversation around the learning beliefs and practices of the school.

    For example, one of the main focus areas over the past year in our school has been goal setting.  We have adopted goal setting as an effective learning strategy based on research.  With the shift over the past several years to including formative assessment, student goal setting has been found to be highly effective in supporting students in academic achievement.  In  his book Visible Learning (p. 164) John Hattie summarizes that the right kind of student goal setting can have a positive affect on student learning;

    “… goals inform individuals as to what type or level of performance is to be attained so that they can direct and evaluate their actions and efforts accordingly.” pp.164

    Student goal setting works best when the parent, the teacher and the student work together to develop goals.  Thought is given as to:

    • where the student is currently functioning;
    • what level of achievement would challenge the student;
    • who would support the student in what way;
    • when progress toward the goal would be tracked or monitored.

    As Goal Setting has been a significant part of our daily work, structuring our parent teacher interview around goal setting seemed a perfect fit.

    Together, with the amazing staff and collegiality at Erin Woods School, our discussions around using parent teacher interviews to support our work on student goals developed.  We created a protocol for the interview, for teachers to follow, to focus the interview around the critical essence of our goal setting focus.

    Parent / Teacher Interview

    Name:                                                                                   Date:

     

    Purpose: The purpose of this Parent Teacher interview is to look at the term ahead and consider goals and areas of growth for the student.  Additionally, teachers and parents will define and articulate their planto support the learner.

     

    IRIS

             Right now in IRIS you have set the goal of :

    How are you doing with that goal?

    What is helping you to achieve that goal?

    Are you still working on that goal or should we adjust or change it in any way?

     

    TYPE NEW GOAL IN IRIS

     

    How can parents help you?

    How can teachers help you?

    How can you help yourself?

     

    RC OR IPP

               I have also identified this area of growth for you (on your report card or IPP):

    I will be helping you by:

    What ways will you be working on this goal?

     

    With a structured conversation for the Parent Teacher Interview the following results are expected:

    • Teachers can plan and prepare for the conversation based on the purpose and the outline;
    • Students can be prepared to share the necessary information with their parents (no surprises);
    • Parents become partners in our work, rather than stand bys who we report to causing everyone to be focussing on our beliefs and direction;
    • In this particular protcol, the focus is forward looking, “here is what your child will be doing and here is how I will help.” Leaving parents with a sense of hope and achievement for the next term.
    • We have clear documentation of each parent teacher interview.

     With this process, we are noticing teachers looking forward to their parent interviews,  There is no ambiguity or surprises,  thus leaving teachers confident and prepared, and parents hopeful and happy with things to come.

    Read more great blog post on Lori's Personal Blog At the Principal's Office
     

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  • 5 months ago
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• Evidence of Teaching, Evidence Evidence of Teaching, Evidence of Learning

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    As the school year began, I ordered two books with the intent of learning and implementing practices designed to Enhance Professional Practice.  Charlotte Danielson has written a couple of editions of The Handbook for Enhancing Professional Practice and these were the books I would guide my learning with.

    

    Cover via Amazon

    As I started into the the first book, it began with Evidence of Teaching.  Danielson believes three sources of information comprise evidence of teaching: observation, conversation, and artifacts.  She goes on to describe each of these sources and how they contribute to evidence of teaching,

    As I read the chapter, I could not help but think about using this framework in a different way;

    … as EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

    Over the past year, as a school staff we have worked to understand Formative Assessment.  We have looked at the components and values and worked on ways to use Formative Assessment in the classroom.

    Using the framework created by Danielson, it was clear that evidence of teaching, could also be used to describe evidence of learning through formative assessment.

    That is,

    Evidence of Learning is comprised of Observation, Conversation, and Artifacts.

    Together with the amazing staff at Erin Woods School and AISI Learning Leader Angie F., we then worked to understand each of these sources.  We sat together as a staff and talked about each of these sources of evidence and what they looked like in the elementary classroom.

    OBSERVATION – while observing students engaged in meaningful tasks, look for:

    • Are they staying on topic?
    • Is re-teaching required?
    • Do you often re-direct?
    • Can they extend further? Or in a different way?
    • Should you provide resources?
    • Are they using prev. learned skills? Or personal connections?
    • Do they demonstrate understanding?

    CONVERSATION – as you talk to students about there learning, listen for:

    • Do they use specific content vocabulary?
    • Are the students asking relevant questions?
    • Can they explain why?
    • Expressions/language demonstrates understanding.
    • Can they express connections to previous or

    personal knowledge?

    • Are they expressing additional interests or viewpoints

    about the topic?

    ARTIFACTS – as you collect documents or student work, look for:

    • Compare to rubrics.
    • Did they know and meet criteria?
    • Demonstrate understanding
    • Is re-teaching required? for who? for what?
    • Did they edit/fix up based on feedback?

    To support our thinking, a visual was created with the above information.

    

    As we developed our understanding of the three sources of data, it became evident that in order to make a thorough, well-rounded assessment of a students progress all three sources or data are required.  Simply using one or two of the sources is not truly sufficient to fully understand the learner and assess progress.

    As we move along in our professional development in this area remains:

    What will we do with all of this data we have collected?

    What do you do with all the data you collect?

    Check out my blog!  www.attheprincipalsoffice.com

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• Interviewing Teachers - Show M Interviewing Teachers - Show Me, Don't Tell Me

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    For the past several years, springtime has brought about the opportunity to interview teachers for the upcoming school year.  Interviewing is a skill and an art that I was never taught,  In fact, my only experience with it before I became a principal, was the experiences I had myself when I was interviewed for a job,  This in no way made me an expert, or even slightly qualified for that matter.

    As usual, whenever it was time to interview a candidate, I would go to the Internet to google possible interview questions.  Sometimes I would sit together with other teachers from the school and think about our current practices and what types of things we would want new hires to be versed on.

    Often times the questions looked something like this:

    • What types of assessments do you use to determine the reading proficiency of your students?
    • Tell me what a typical science lesson would look like in your classroom.
    • You have a student who speaks very little English, how would you support that student?
    • How do you work with team members?
    • You notice two students fighting during a soccer game at recess, what would you do?

    Although good, these types of questions never really seemed to get down to what I really wanted to know.  In fact, all these questions really demonstrated was the interviewees ability to answer the questions.  It reminded me of taking a written test to see how good of a driver you are.  Really, I knew nothing about how effective the teacher was following these types of interviews.  What it would come down to was who answered the questions in the way I thought they should be answered.  It was simply a chance for a teacher to show what they had memorized or what they knew; not what they did.

    This year, I wanted to do better.  Somehow I had to get better at choosing the best candidate for the job!  As I was discussing this on twitter one day, Todd Whitaker pointed me towards his book Six Types of Teachers.  In chapters 9 and 10 of the book, Todd brought up some great points and got me thinking.

    How can a teacher demonstrate their teaching skills, during an interview?

    With this in mind, my trusted colleague and I set about constructing a different type of interview question.  In the end, we came up with the following three questions:

    1. How would you impact the academic achievement of your students?
    2. How would you impact the community and belonging in your classroom?
    3. How would you impact the culture and climate of the whole school?

    Being very open-ended we were very curious to see how interviewees would respond to these questions.  We deliberately used the word “would” as in “How would you…” because we wanted to see if the interviewee could put themselves in a classroom in our school.  Had they taken the time to find out about this place, our students, our goals and how they would fit in here.  We didn’t necessarily want to know “How do you….” we want to know “How would you…”

    In order to fully answer the questions, candidates were notified of the questions before the interview.  They were asked to bring to the interview an artifact or evidence showing how they would make the impacts we identified.

    

    English: Children and their teacher at the Mount Nathan State School, ca. 1913 Several schoolchildren standing beside a timber one-room school in the Gold Coast hinterland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    During the interview, we had a very specific and purposeful job of probing or asking more questions.  We wanted to get down to the nitty gritty.  Once a candidate explained for example, how they would impact the academic achievement we would ask three main questions:

    • What is the purpose?…. the purpose behind the task, of doing it in this way etc.
    • What are you teaching (by doing this big project or unit)?
    • What did your students learn?  How did you know they learning it? What did you do if they didn’t learn it?

    Following the interview, we were able to have a very rich discussion about the artifacts and examples the candidates brought forward.  None of the questions we asked led them into our way of being, and none of the questions gave right or wrong answers.  Presumably the candidates showcased their very best which gave us the opportunity to visualize their fit at our school.  We knew that if a teacher featured differentiation, personalization, engaging students in different ways or assessment it was a part of who they are and what they do.  If they didn’t even bring it up, probably it does not mean much to them.

    For now we are going to stay with these three interview questions and work on honing our skills of listening and visioning.  I am most interested to hear about interviews you are conducting.  How do you find the just right teacher?

    For more blog posts, visit Lori's personal blog at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com
  • Blog post
  • 11 months ago
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• Meeting Student Needs With the Meeting Student Needs With the Touchstone

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    Over the years I have come to understand that pure school “discipline” does nothing to support a student in changing undesirable behaviours.  Discipline takes a tedious amount of time, energy and unpleasantness and in many cases does nothing to support the student.  Additionally, discipline is reactionary.  Wait until something goes wrong and everyone is in an uproar, then do something about it.  After my first couple of years as an Assistant Principal dealing with the discipline end of things, I wondered if there was a different way, a better way.

    THE TOUCHSTONE

    Around the time I was searching for a different and better way there was a grade 3 student in our school that had been diagnosed with a severe emotional/behavioural disability.  Needless to say, he found it difficult to cope in a classroom.  I don’t really know how it started but we decided to have one of our Education Assistants take him out of class for a short while and just talk to him.  See what was up.  To our surprise, he enjoyed it!  So, we did it again the next day and the next day and the next.  I would see them together at times walking around the school, out in the garden having a chat, sitting in the hall just being together.  Before we knew it, the student started to demonstrate a noticeable decrease in behavioural incidences.

     

    WHY IT WORKS

    After some period of time, I was reading an article and came across some information that went something like this:

    The single most important factor in a child’s success is their relationship with a caring adult.

    

    Kyrgyz student (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    In this case, a caring adult at school provides a sense of worth, belonging, importance, priority, and friendship.  That is why it works.  When children have a strong sense of these traits, their self-esteem, self-image and confidence goes up allowing them to make more positive choices and decisions.  Because the caring adult is part of the school community, behaviours improve at school.

     

    This work is pro-active not re-active.  If we are going to take the time to talk to a student one-on-one each day, why not make it productive, interesting, student selected conversation?

    KEY POINTS WE HAVE LEARNED

    • The Touchstone (caring adult) cannot be a teacher, principal or other person of authority.  It works best to have someone that does not work in the class with other students.  The key is to find a person just to be with the identified student.
    • The Touchstone just talks; with the child, to the child and about the child.
    • The Touchstone just listens: to the child and about the child.
    • The Touchstone is genuinely caring.
    • The Touchstone sees the student for about 10 minutes each and everyday.
    • The student is a priority, the Touchstone gives the student their full attention.
    • The Touchstone believes in the worth and potential of the student and genuinely conveys that message.
    • The Touchstone carries an attitude and message of hope and great things to come.

    We continue to have amazing results with our Touchstone program.  Over the years, without fail, our students with the most severe behaviour and emotional issues are able to effectively operate in the regular classroom.  This is not exclusively because of the Touchstone, however, it is a mandatory component of a successful behaviour support program.

    Visit my complete personal blog at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com for more great reading!

    Related articles

    • Six Key Principles to Changing Behaviour (attheprincipalsoffice.com)
    • Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? One Trick to Change Off-Task Behaviour(attheprincipalsoffice.com)
    • Are You In the Club? (attheprincipalsoffice.com)
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Six Key Principles to Changing Six Key Principles to Changing Behaviour

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    

    Six Key Principles to Changing Behaviour 

    from www.attheprincipalsoffice.com

    Leadership, Learning, Teaching

    
    by Lori Cullen March 6, 2012

     (0 Users)

    Academic learning and behavioural development go hand in hand in schools.  Both areas are attended to and everyone knows that it is very tricky to have one without the other.  Teachers spend much of their own educations and time at school focusing on academic learning.  That is what school is for!  However, behavioural learning is something we cannot ignore.  Navigating the social world and developing skills and understandings about appropriate behavioural choices is often more difficult than learning how to read.  And, although teachers may prefer that students come to school already proficient with social and behavioural skills, many do not.  In this case, we must teach them!

    The teaching of social skills and appropriate behaviours can become quite a mystery for many educators.  Just how do we teach them to behave?  For many years we used punishment and rewards and this method still goes on today and can be appropriate in some situations.  However, what about those behaviours that really need to change, that we really want to change.  We often try using consequences for months and years and seem surprised that children have not learned new behaviours.  They have not learned new behaviours, because we have not taught them…. yet!

    There are many forms and variations of behaviour modification programs.  Hopefully, each one is tailored for each specific child and each specific target behaviour.  That’s a lot of work!  So if we are going to do the work, if we are going to do the teaching, if we are going to give the problem our attention, why not make sure you incorporate these Six Key Principles to Changing Behaviour?

    1.  WRITE IT DOWN

    The simple act of writing down information about old and new behaviours will result in improvement.  It makes the data visible and supports the student in self monitoring.  In most cases, the student is able to write it down themselves.  Keeping track for themselves and recording their own information is most valuable.  A simple tallying chart or check mark system works best as it is quick and easy.  Being quick and easy is the best way to make sure the system is used and maintained.

    

    A student keeps track of his own behaviour.

    2.  BE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE

    This is a key component.  When working on changing challenging behaviours, parents especially and any other significant people ie. teacher, relative etc should hold the student accountable.  What is great about “Write It Down” is that it can then be as simple as “take it home”.  Once at home, I find that parents reinforcing the positive behaviour is what is needed.  Sometimes it can be attached to a reward like staying up later, or 15 extra minutes of TV as we all know that being acknowledged for our hard work is always nice.

    

    A student takes this home each day to show his parents the strategies he used.

    3.  WHAT IS THE NEED?

    in most cases inappropriate behaviours occur when a child is attempting to meet one of their basic needs.  A student who is always up wandering around the class talking to friends is demonstrating a need for friendship and belonging.  A child that is constantly interrupting and shouting answers may have a need for approval.  A student who makes silly faces and noises during class often has the need for fun and freedom.  Find out what need the student is trying to meet with their behaviours then find other ways to have the need met.

     

     

    4.  FIND OTHER WAYS

    In most cases of inappropriate behaviour we can scare children into abstaining from the behaviour for awhile but this will not result in truly changing the behaviour.  Stopping the behaviour does not stop the need.  In this case we must find other ways to meet needs.  Students who seek friendship and belonging could have a designated time in the day to work with or talk to a friend, they could join school clubs, they could be given the opportunity to introduce each student to a new member of the class.  The ways of meeting needs are endless, but if we don’t give students a way, they will simply take a way which will most likely be an inappropriate way.

    5.  SEEK SELF UNDERSTANDING

    As we grow and come to understand ourselves we develop positive coping skills.  We can support children in also developing these coping skills.  Adults have a broad range of skills such as deep breathing, taking a short walk, self-talk, reading a book, removing themselves from the area, squeezing a stress ball and countless others.  In order to change inappropriate behaviour, we have to recognize the feelings associated with the behaviours (ex: I feel mad, my ears are hot, my neck is stiff).

    

    Seek to Inderstand and Use Coping Strategies

    Once these feelings are identified, then we need to cope!  Go for a walk, get a drink of water, read a book – whatever works for us.  If we don’t cope, chances are the feelings will grow until we hit or tantrum or express ourselves in some inappropriate way.  The key here is to work with the student to identify feelings and coping strategies.

    6.   LEAN ON OTHERS

    It is important that anyone who tries to change their behaviours has a support system.  In school we find it is important that friends and classmates are aware that a child is working hard to learn new things.  It is also helpful when classmates can be supportive of these behaviour changes.  During morning meetings students can express the changes they are making and the goals they have set.  In classrooms where all children have goals; setting, working towards, and being supportive of simply becomes part of the culture.

    OUR RESULTS

    When looking at changing student behaviours we have definitely found that being able to use ALL of these strategies produces the greatest results.  In the case that all cannot be used, some is better than none.  We have found that these strategies truly constitute teaching children appropriate behaviours and life long awareness of self.  We have found that if we are going to take the time to do this work, why not do it the right way?  The way that gets us the results we are looking for.

    Visit my blog at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com for more great reading!

     

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    • I Call it Accountability (attheprincipalsoffice.com)
    • So What is Visible Learning Anyway? (attheprincipalsoffice.com)
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  • 1 year ago
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• Four Ideal Student Assessments Four Ideal Student Assessments

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

     

    Four Ideal Student Assessments from www.Attheprincipalsoffice.com

    Leadership, Learning, Teaching

    (Edit Post)

    March 4, 2012

    by Lori Cullen

     (0 Users)

    For the past 2 years, the Calgary Board of Education has been working hard to actualize Personalized Learning.  At the Board, we believe Personalized Learning begins with engagement, is active and effortful, is assessment rich, is meta-cognitive and transformative.

    As a Principal in the Board, my role is to develop understanding of each of these points, and put them into action.  As such, we have been working at our school to systematically do so.  Previously I posted ideas from our work on student engagement as much of our work this year has been focussed in this area.  It is impossible however to focus on one point, in exclusion of the others.  That is how student engagement has led us to assessment.

    On the surface, an assessment rich learning environment seems simple enough.  However, what we are coming to understand about learning and the effects different types of assessment have on student learning are making things more complex.  We are now charged with using multiple forms of assessment, including Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment and Specialized Assessment.  The key we are finding is that one type of assessment cannot give us all we need.

    “Assessment that works in the interests of children will enhance their ability to see and understand their learning for themselves, to judge it for themselves, and to act on their judgments.”

     -  Mary Jane Drummond

    We must know what we want to assess, and have a tool-bag of assessment tools ready to use.  We must know which assessment tool, is most effective and will give us the information we are seeking.  We must know the ideal method and other possible methods.

    

    Adapted by the Calgary Board of Education 

    When it comes to assessment there is no one size fits all but there are assessment tools that are better than others.

    1.  Teacher Made Tests; ideal method for finding out what item knowledge a student holds.  I prefer to suggest this tool be used as  a pre-lesson or pre-unit.  Before a teacher starts planning or teaching, find out what knowledge the student holds.  Of course, a test of any kind only illicits the information it asks for.  What if the student holds knowledge about a topic but has nowhere to explain or demonstrate on a teacher made test?  That is where the combination of tools becomes critical.  One way gives on piece of information.  Although researchers feel Teacher Made Tests are the ideal method to assess student knowledge, I would counter that all the methods listed in this chart are necessary in order to find out all a student knows.

    2.  Performance Tasks; ideal method for assessing understanding.  Understanding is what we are all about.  Not what does the student know, but how can they demonstrate their understanding?  Don’t tell me, show me!  Performance tasks are often under-utilized by teachers because they don’t know how to grade a play or a debate or a demonstration.  This is where knowing your outcomes and  your success indicators are necessary.

    3.  Observation; the ideal method for assessing processing skills.  Finally, observation of students us being backed in a strong way.  The key here is for teachers to record what they see, record how students are processing and interacting with knowledge.

    4. Self Assessment; ideal for assessing attitudes.  Ideal for asking students what they want to learn, how they want to learn it – what works for them, and how they will know if they have learned.  Self assessment enables students to understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to achieve.

    A note about Feedback: as you can see, feedback is a strong assessment method in every area we assess.  It makes sense that if you are going to work to improve one area of your assessment practices, feedback would be it as you can use it repeatedly and across all forms of student learning.  What is effective feedback?  Read my previous post Feedback vs Feedforward to find out.

    My challenge to teachers:

    What I like about this chart is that it clearly lays out 12 assessment tools every teacher needs in their tool bag.  No matter how we do it, whether I test you, observe you, ask you to show me or ask you to self-assess, decide what tools you have, what tools are broken and need to be fixed, and what tools you don’t have at all.  Make it your purpose to know and use each one of these assessment tools.

    Read more great posts on my personal blog at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com

     

    Related Articles:

    Feedback vs FeedForward (www.attheprincipalsoffice.com)

    Rethinking High Stakes Exams (www.attheprincipalsoffice.com)

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? One Trick to Change Off-Task Behaviour

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

     

    For many years as I taught grade school then transitioned into school administration we always seemed to talk about on and off task behaviour.  In fact, I can remember people coming into my classroom with a stop watch and timing the amount of on and off task behaviour a student displayed over a half hour period of time.  To this day, when students are off task they often get check marks, they lose privileges or get phone calls home.  It was always about the student, and what was wrong with the students and how we could use coercive and persuasive techniques to increase on-task behaviour.

    It hasn’t been until now, that a number of pieces of information, a few different books I have read, and the latest Professional Development I have been involved in did it become apparent to me that on or off task behaviour was not necessarily the fault of the child.  In fact, off task behaviour in most cases falls directly on the shoulders of teachers.  We as teachers cannot make a student be more on task, but we can design tasks that result in an increase in student engagement.  In fact, in most cases, when tasks consists of elements that engage students, guess what?  Students are engaged.

    But why should we hold teachers responsible for designing tasks that result in student engagement?  Shouldn’t students be required to complete the work assigned to them?  This visual clearly speaks to the role of the teacher and the requirement for effective teaching.  I realize there are many qualities that meld together to create a “high-performing” teacher but there is definitely no argument that one of the key qualities is the ability to design tasks that result in student engagement.

    

    So just what are tasks that result in high levels of student engagement?  What are the attributes, components of these tasks? To answer these questions, I will include the information the staff at Erin Woods School recently compiled. In a two-hour work session, our staff came together to think, discuss, and synthesize the following information.

    Here is the trick to changing off-task behaviour:

    Lessons that are designed to engage students do just that!  Listed here are the attributes of tasks that result in differing levels of engagement.

    Low Level of Engagement	Medium Level of Engagement	High Level of Engagement
    Listening Teacher telling Watching the teacher do Copying Individual tasks Memorizing Not challenging – student finishes quickly and easily (low-level thinking) The task is not easily differentiated (except by making less work or more work) All students have the same task (no student choice) Is teacher made (or made by a publisher) Has right or wrong answers Not linked to personal interest Examples: Work sheets – pre-made Yes/no tasks (one right answer) Drills Coloring Fill in the missing word Write  a word 5 times Word Search	Combination of two learning modalities (ex: visual and tactile) Looking for information Partner work Students doing Some self or peer assessment Increased use of visuals Combining some personal knowledge to the new information Examples: Mad Minute Personal Dictionary KWL Charts Any searching, finding, looking for answer Making Words Work with more than one right answer	Linking to prior knowledge Student generated/student created Game-like Meaningful or related to the student’s life or interests Working together with peers Results in a piece of work the student is proud of Challenges the student but is attainable Considers learning styles Allows for student choice – completed work looks different Can be extended or broadened into further learning More than one right answer Examples: Games or challenges Hands on or multi-modal Solves real life problems (math, social studies) Experiments (with a hypothesis and solution)

    What this information tells us is task design is the key to on-task, high engagement behaviour from students.  In the end, it is not the student who is at fault.  When those students so many years ago were timed for on or off task behaviour I don’t think we even considered whether or not the task they were being asked to do was appropriate for the learner or had the attributes of a task that often results in engaging behaviour.  As educator Phil Schlechty says, There is a 0% chance that children will learn from work they do not do.”  And we know they will not do boring, un-engaging, un-related, senseless tasks, would you?

    Related articles

    • What Your Rules Say About You (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com)
    • Do Your Rules Lead to Student Engagement and Meaningful Learning? Nine guidelines… (kidsconsortium.org)
    • Effective Techniques for Classroom Teaching (podiumproapp.wordpress.com)

     Visit my personal blog www.attheprincipalsoffice.com for more great reading!

     
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Osarennoman_Ojo-Aromokudu

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• What Your Rules Say About You What Your Rules Say About You

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

     

    Rules, rules, rules, everyone knows the key to success in school is to follow the rules.

    Unfortunately, this belief persists in many of todays classrooms and schools.  Next time you are in a classroom take a look at the posted rules.  Are they rules such as “no talking while the teacher is talking, stay in your desk during work time, raise your hand if you need help?”  If so, I think these rules say a lot about the teacher, the work environment and the level of meaningful engaging tasks.  They imply that the teacher is the only one who holds the knowledge, the teacher will give you great wisdom and knowledge if only you will listen and the work you undertake will be solitary and designed to measure how well you listen.

    

    Rules for Students Fall 2009-2 (Photo credit: mick62)

    Why is it that some classrooms need these types of rules and some do not?  For the teachers that do not post these types of rules what is the difference?  How can they manage without them?

    One answer to these questions is to take a look at the type of tasks the student is being asked to undertake.  To analyze the planning and preparation the teacher has given to design tasks which result in high levels of student engagement.

    Think of it this way, if a teacher designs tasks that engage the student in meaningful learning will the student be wandering around the classroom disrupting others, off task, doing any of the other million things teachers often complain about?

    But just what goes into meaningful learning and task design that results in high levels of student engagement?

    I would like to give credit to the amazing staff at Erin Wood School in Calgary AB who worked together yesterday to answer this question.  When analyzing student engagement, and tasks that result in high levels of student engagement we were able to effectively answer the question, “What are the attributes of tasks that result in meaningful learning and high(er) levels of student engagement?”

    Tasks resulting in higher levels of student engagement consist of these attributes:

    • Meaningful or related to the student’s life or interests;
    • Working together with peers;
    • Incorporates games;
    • Created by the student (authentic);
    • Result in a piece of work the student is proud of and wants to share;
    • Challenging (but not so challenging it is unattainable);
    • Considers learning styles;
    • Allows for student choice;
    • Can be extended by students;

    Tasks resulting in lower levels of student engagement consists of these attributes:

    • Easy and quick to complete (requires low levels of thinking);
    • Is teacher designed (such as a worksheet);
    • Has right or wrong answers;
    • Considers none or all of the attributes of high engaging tasks.

    When considering student engagement and the types of tasks students are asked to complete, I wonder if students who are given tasks designed to be highly meaningful and engaging do teachers really need to post rules such as “stay in your desk during work time?”  Do these such rules imply that you have just entered a classroom of low-engaging task design?  In my opinion, teachers who strive to design meaningful tasks that engage students are more likely to post “Work hard and do your best, or Respect yourself and others.” on the walls of their classroom.

     

    Read more at my personal blog https://attheprincipalsoffice.com

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Svetlana_Martin

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• Rethinking High Stakes Exams Rethinking High Stakes Exams

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    

    We Know Better…

    One has to ponder the question “why,” on many occasions.  A recent “why” has come to me this month as January is the mid-term point of the school year and most high schools are in the midst of exams that mark the end of term one.  “Finals” as they are called run for three weeks.  Three weeks of no classes, and no learning.  When we know better, why do we do this?  Why do we persist in this practice? 

    The ironic part is we know better.  We know that high stakes, final exams that provide no opportunity for feedback or further learning are not representative of a student’s knowledge or understanding, and do nothing to further a student’s knowledge or understanding which is arguably the point of school. 

    

    Image via Wikipedia

    An argument that is often launched for those who believe in and rely on final exams often goes something like this… “How will I know what they have learned, if I don’t give them an exam?  How will they prove that they have learned anything at all?”  To those, I offer up the following response:

    1.  Formative Evaluation – In his book Visible Learning by John Hattie, the effects of formative Evaluation were found to have a d = .90 or standard deviation of .90.  Hattie describes this effect size as, “…a 1.0 standard deviation increase is typically associated with advancing student children’s achievement by two to three years, improving the rate of learning by 50%…” (pp 7 of Visible Learning).  Thus, formative evaluation strategies in the classroom would not only give teachers information about what a student knows, but work to increase a student’s rate of learning by almost 50%.
    2. Self-reported Grades d=1.44 where Cohen argues, “…an effect size of d=1.0 should be regarded as a large, blatantly obvious, and grossly perceptible difference…” (pp 8 Visible Learning).  Hattie found that even without tests, “…high school students have a reasonably accurate understanding of their level of achievement… This should questions the necessity of so many tests when students appear to already have much of the information the tests supposedly provide…” (pp 44 Visible Learning).
    3. Feedback (d=.73).  “When teachers seek, or at least are open to feedback from students as to what a student knows, what they understand….then teaching and learning can be synchronized and powerful.” (pp 173 Visible Learning)

    When assuming the reason for a final exam is to find out what students know or best case what students have learned, my question back to a teacher would be “Why don’t you already know?”  I believe that if effective teaching and learning practices such as formative evaluation, self-reported grades and feedback are consistently and appropriately utilized by teachers, a final exam would simply provide them with a weak, irrelevant example of what they already know.

    Hattie, John, Visible Learning A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, Routledge, 2009.

    Related articles

    • So What is Visible Learning Anyway? (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com)

     

     
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 365

• Are You In the Club? Are You In the Club?

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    

    Are You In the Club?

    

    Image via Wikipedia

    As I continue to understand the work of  J. DOUGLAS WILLMS, SHARON FRIESEN, AND PENNY MILTON in their 2009 report What Did You Do in School Today? I am understanding more specifically the notion of Social Engagement.  For quite some time now, when we talked about engagement, we were all referring to academic or intellectual engagement.  Social Engagement; defined as “meaningful participation in the life of the school” in a lot of ways is the first requirement needed to influence the success of academic and intellectual engagement. 

    The outcomes of social engagement defined as having: “Friendships, social networks, sense of belonging, self-confidence, and often enjoyment of school’” I believe are the key factors, the initial purposes and our first point of school.  It’s always interesting that we mostly know “what” to do in schools.  The trick is to know how!  How do we support students in developing friendships, building social networks, developing a sense of belonging, developing self-confidence and enjoying school?  Great questions!

    I think we have been working quite specifically and purposefully on the outcomes of Social engagement.  We participate in the Alberta Government Accountability Pillar to measure our growth and success.  I will probably forget a few things here, but here are some of the things we do:

    • Self-confidence:  set goals, work on them and review them.  Differentiation to support all students in being successful.  Understand learner profiles to properly support.  Develop report card comments that are strength based, rather than deficit based.  Use restitution, rather than punishment, whenever possible.
    • Friendships and social networks: keep some friends together in classes, encourage a variety of learning opportunities including small group and partner time, specific friendship groups/clubs focussed on social skills development during class time and at lunch, 27 minute unstructured play time at lunch, cross-grade activities in the school, buddy classes, “fun” noon-time clubs.
    • Sense of Belonging: monthly school assemblies, school tee-shirts, clubs, teams, student helpers, classroom meetings (morning meetings), Touchstone for specific students, culturally diverse celebrations and learning.
    • Enjoyment of school: know your student!  Have fun!  School wide activities such as pajama day, sports day, assemblies, new initiatives such as drum fit, recognition of personal successes.

    Perhaps if I think longer, I could add to the list.  But, more importantly, what can you add to the list?

    For more on the complete What Did You Do In School Today report by the Canadian Education Association click here http://www.cea-ace.ca/programs-initiatives/wdydist

     

     
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Lori_Blais

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• So What is Visible Learning An So What is Visible Learning Anyway?

  • From: Lori_Cullen
  • Description:

    So What is Visible Learning Anyway? Thoughts and Understandings From a School Principal

    As with most fall meetings, this fall started off with direction setting meetings, visions, missions and re-establishing what we are about.  It was during these meetings that the notion of Visible Learning, as described by John Hattie came across my radar.  What was this Visible Learning?

    So, I ordered the book Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement and cracked it open when it came. Wow, the book is not what I was expecting and not like I have ever seen before.  I find it is not a book you can read cover to cover, it is more like a reference book.  I gleamed information out of it and let it set until today when I participated in the Visible Learning webinar through The Leadership and Learning Center, facilitated by Douglas Reeves.

    Visible Learning is now beginning to take shape in my mind, I am beginning to understand new information and think about applying it in my own context.

    Lightbulb moment: Changes in teacher practice effect changes in student learning (Douglas Reeves).  Okay, maybe not a lightbulb moment but a critical thought none-the-less.  Even today, as we were working through some behaviour issues with elementary aged students, could it be that if the teacher changes the approach and the practice, perhaps the students behaviour would change as well?  Let’s focus on the teaching (and I mean teaching, not teacher), rather than on the behaviours.

    As stated by Douglas Reeves: Linking specific teaching strategies with specific student results is Visible Learning.  As mentioned in the example above, would there be a way to incorporate specific teaching strategies and measure specific results? I think so.  The key at our school is that I think we are very good at identifying what is wrong and what we need to be different.  I think we know what the preferred state would be.  I think we have many resources and teaching strategies (perhaps too many) but I DON’T think we know how to measure the effectiveness of specific strategies.

    In regards to the teaching strategies, our goal has been to focus on those high impact strategies.  I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new John Hattie book Visible Learning for Teachers to ensure our understanding and implementation of high impact strategies.  As a side note, feedback (d=.72 effect size) is a high impact strategy I previously blogged about (see Feedback or Feedforward).

    As mentioned in The Walk-About we have our observations in place – in other words, teachers are observing teachers each day.  We now need to make those observations systematic, objective, and precise (Douglas Reeves).  We need to observe for high impact strategies and the effect they are having on student achievement.  We need to gather specific data about specific practices.

    Our goals with Visible Learning are:

    1.  To raise awareness.  ex:”This is what feedback and engagement look like in our school and in your classroom.”

    2.  To set targets. ex:”Now that we have this information, what are we going to do with it?”

    3.  Practice. ex: “Last month my feedback to students consisted primarily of ______ and this month it consists of_____”

    4.  Measure the effects of our practice.  “This teaching practice, resulted in this improvement (or not)!

    5.  Keep what works, get rid of the rest!

    Perhaps through Visible Learning, our understanding of what quality teaching really is will become more specific, objective and precise resulting in a greater understanding of knowing why we are doing what we are doing in the art form called teaching.

    Related articles

    • Just Because I Said It, Doesn’t Mean They Learned It (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com)
    • Feedback or Feedforward (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com)
    • The Walk-About (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com)
    • Watching a master teacher (andrewbwatt.wordpress.com)
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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