All Formative

Sechelt Indian Band & District of Sechelt Fireworks 2013

Boom… it just dawned on me about FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT.  It’s a hot topic amongst educators.  What is it?  How does it differ from summative assessment?  What is the difference between descriptive feedback versus judgmental feedback?  I think the best way to think about formative assessment or “Assessment for Learning” (AFL) is tutoring.  After a 16 year teaching career, I’ve been tutoring secondary mathematics for the last 3 years while I spend time with my daughter and work on my dissertation.  Truthfully, tutoring has honed my teaching practice beyond my expectations.  Not only do I have to teach on the fly and quickly learn what the student needs, but I am constantly giving formative feedback.  It’s not evaluative.  It’s not worth marks.  It’s all about the learning.  As a tutor,  my job is to establish what is, identify what needs to be, and suggest ways to move forward.  So maybe a way to look at formative assessment is to pretend to be the students’ tutor.  #somethingtoconsider

Sechelt Innovations Ltd.

Sheer excitement… Sechelt Innovations Ltd. Launch Party on October 30, 2013 opened my eyes to all the possibilities Sechelt, my hometown, has to offer.  It is focused on viable economic development to create jobs in Sechelt.  Their motto: “Sechelt is Open for Business.”  At the launch party, standing room only at the Seaside Centre, six new businesses were introduced:

1. Sunshine Coast Winery (Selma Park)
2. Vanta Pacific (West Porpoise Bay)
3. Target Marine (Tuwanek)
4. East Porpoise Bay Hotel
5. Coast Gravity Park (nr. East Porpoise Bay)
6. Telus Fibre Optic (Sechelt & Sunshine Coast)

As I mingled around the room, seeing familiar faces, and connecting with those who are truly invested in the District of Sechelt, I was awestruck by their optimism, genuine excitement, and imagination of what Sechelt can be.  This excites me.  As someone who could be a commuter to the Lower Mainland, has commuted part-time for schooling, and often considers moving elsewhere in search for employment, Sechelt Innovations has brought a bright light to young families like mine.  Thank you to the Sechelt Innovations Ltd. volunteer board, staff, and the District of Sechelt for making this happen.  Moving forward.

Breakdown The Silos

Vancouver College, CISVA Professional Development

Unbelievable. What an incredible professional (PD) development session with CISVA at Vancouver College.  Thank you CISVA for inviting me.  I feel truly honoured and blessed to continue our edu-relationship with a common vision for our students: Assessment for Learning (AFL).  This PD session was about AFL, professional learning communities, and the new BC curriculum.  It was an excellent opportunity to be the learner, connect with like-minded people, and enhance my understanding of the new BC curriculum.  I had 3 aha’s at this session: (1) There are other people out in the field of education continuing to promote and advocate for AFL.  This warms my heart.  AFL is more than just giving formative feedback.  It’s informal, ongoing, reciprocated, non-evaluative, and informative feedback.  The uncanny part about this session is that it had the same message as the PD workshop I recently presented at the BCAMT Fall Conference titled, “Formative Assessment for Teachers.”  This is comforting.  I felt validated as a math teacher practitioner and educational consultant.  (2) The introduction to John Hattie’s research, Visible Learning, opened my eyes to effect size with respect to improving student achievement.  I saw his name hashtagged awhile ago as I scrolled through Twitter on the Provincial Professional Development Day and liked what I had read.  #hattie was brought back to my attention at this CISVA PD session.  Two things resonated with me with Hattie’s work: teacher content knowledge and finding “the story” within the data.  Best of all, I won a copy of Hattie’s book as a door prize.  Needless to say, the brief exposure to his research has profoundly influenced some of my thinking with respect to my dissertation and focus of my research.  Last point, (3) we all learn at different rates.  Although I found myself agreeing with many of the ideas presented, others in the room did not necessary share the same feelings.  For instance, some at my table continued to wrestle with differentiating formative and summative assessment.  Change is slow.  Assessment is complex.  I am completely aligned with the idea that professional learning communities are a necessary good for teachers’ sense making with respect to AFL.  Not assigning zeros and no marks for homework only scratches the surface of what AFL is and intends to achieve.  There is no question in my mind, the adoption of AFL in K-12 classrooms will require time to shift.  As mentioned in this session, AFL is a moral imperative.  It is the underpinning of how we teach and how students learn.  The presentation ends with one of the CISVA principals approaching me to say I transformed his practice 3 years ago with an AFL workshop I facilitated with CISVA secondary mathematics teachers as an educational consultant.  He kindly referred back to my workshop and said, “You were 6 years ahead of your time Christine.”  Wow.  You don’t hear that everyday.  Gratitude for CISVA is mutual.  They inspire me with their PD sessions and I inspired with my AFL workshop.  There is so much to learn and share about AFL.  I encourage BC teachers to form a professional learning community (PLC) as we move forward with Transforming BC Curriculum to establish a shared understanding of what AFL is, how it looks in the classroom, and why we are doing it.  BREAKDOWN THE SILOS.  Go visit other classrooms, schools, or districts.  We’re all in it together.  #kidsareworthit

Good Student

This is not a posed picture.  It’s a math class in BC public schools with students engaged in their learning.  Teachers create this kind of learning environment.  However, how do you know which ones are good students?  What makes a good student?  Define good.  As their math teacher, I always assumed that they were all good students, they all wanted to learn math, and they all could learn math.  With these assumptions, we learned math.  Asking critical questions, challenging the teacher, and sense-making through dialogue made a noisy classroom, but also a dynamic learning environment.  Pretending to be a good student, doing what the teacher says just because, and being just like everyone else were not valued.  Risk-taking, personal relevance, and inquiry were more important.  I’m excited about the new Math K-9 Curriculum in BC.  Less learning outcomes, cross-curricular competencies, and personalized learning make sense to me. #studentlearning 

BCAMT Fall Conference 2013

Steveston-London Secondary School

Regardless of my current occupation (or preoccupation), I am a mathematics teacher at heart.  I truly believe that everyone can learn mathematics and learning mathematics is fun.  Today, I had the privilege of presenting at this year’s BCAMT (BC Association of Mathematics Teachers) Fall Conference.  I presented an afternoon session titled, “Formative Assessment for Teachers.”  In hindsight, I should have called it “Assessment for Learning (AFL) for Teachers.”  Nor here or there, but I like the idea of learning from formative assessment.  I loved creating this learning environment for students when I was a classroom teacher.  Now, I am promoting it as a way of being for teachers with their professional learning.  As I attempted to connect AFL to my literature review from my doctoral thesis proposal and the new BC curriculum, I shared a few personal experiences that transformed my practice: (1) mentorship, (2) Instructional Skills Workshop, and (3) Twitter chats.  I much enjoyed presenting today along with connecting with other mathematics teachers and the BCAMT Executive Committee Members.  It’s nice being connected with like-minded individuals who are passionate about mathematics education.  What I love about presenting is not the delivery of the content itself or the participation of the audience as they concur with my message.  It’s the subtle thank you’s and acknowledgements.  I loved how teachers at the conference recognized me from past workshops, Twitter, or this edu-blog.  Moreover, I realized today that I have an AFL following.   During my presentation today, I saw several familiar faces in the audience (aka. keen mathematics teachers passionate about AFL and the subject area who’ve attended previous AFL workshops with me).  At the end of the session, one teacher who was a Teacher-On-Call (TOC) spoke with me to say “thank you” and that the AFL workshop I offered last school year at the BCAMT New Teachers’ Conference about AFL in Secondary Mathematics transformed her practice.  She told me that attending that session dramatically changed her practicum, changed her ways of thinking about mathematics and assessment, and she wrote her final paper based on the contents of that workshop.  Even her friend said to me, “I need that workshop too.”  Hello?  Is that not the BEST formative feedback ever?  I say, YES. #makingadifference #mathematicseducation #assessmentforlearning #newcurriculum

Try Something New

Pickled black walnuts, goat cheese, and rice crackers

I love going over to my friend’s house to mooch some food and edu-gab.  What was today’s surprise?  PICKLED BLACK WALNUTS.  Never had this before… but my friend assured me that it would be delicious.  Ugh.  It’s black and slimy.  It’s hard to believe that this could be delicious.  Furthermore, I was kind of avoiding dairy and wheat (don’t ask).  Anyway, it’s about trust, overlooking my preconceptions, and delving into the unknown.  Well, it was delicious.  Once you have one, you can’t stop.  It’s so good.  Would have been really good with a glass of wine, but it was midday.  Anyway, this reminds me of education.  When we are held back by our preconceptions, we are unlikely to try something new.  Without trying, you’ll never know.  Now I know.  It was worth taking a risk.  Worst case scenario, you don’t like it.  Best scenario, you’ll want more.  Thank you, my friend.  Loved it. #professionallearning #academicrisktaking #trysomethingnew

Overarching Question

I get totally consumed by EDUCATION.  I’m beginning to think that it might be affecting my marriage… hmm… might be another blog entry.  Nonetheless, I am obsessed about teaching and learning… in particular, assessment, evaluation, and student engagement.  Unfortunately, I think that my love for education is approaching a tipping point.  I am convinced that how we assess and evaluate students dictate how we teach and how they learn.  I do not claim to be a “perfect” teacher by any means but during my career I realized that marking homework for completion, deducting marks due to lateness, and quizzing students everyday did NOT promote student learning.  We are so influenced by how we were taught as students that we believe that this is how it should be as teachers.  WRONG.  Back to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”  How will you ever know that something really sucks?  Honestly, something has to go seriously wrong in education for a HUGE systemic change to occur.  I am optimistic.  There are people “out there” trying to make a difference with the new BC curriculum, PLN’s, or changing practice, for example.  But what about the UNreflective practitioner?  Lately I’ve been consumed by this overarching question, “What are we doing to support, promote, or encourage student learning?”  Think about it.  If it makes students feel discouraged, disheartened, or demoralized… DITCH IT.  #notworthit #assessmentforlearning #studentsfirst

One Thing At A Time

It’s already 7pm and I’m still on the go with “things to do.”  I could convince myself that I’m a multitasker, but I’d be lying.  When I think about all the things I need to accomplish, my brain freezes and nothing gets done.  Laundry, house cleaning, food shopping, making dinner, Twitter Chat preparation, PowerPoint revisions, reading, re-imagining my research methodology, and rewriting Chapter 3… house hold obligations and “work to do” seem relentless yet equally worthy.  What to do first?  It doesn’t matter.  Do something.  One thing at a time and my “things to do” list will shorten.  The laundry is done.  House cleaning is done.  Food shopping is done.  Dinner is done.  Twitter Chat prep is done.  PowerPoint is done.  Back to my dissertation.  Might as well blog first before jumping into my research methodology (again).  The dissertation is much the same.  Looking at the entire project is overwhelming and daunting.  One thing at a time, it will get done. 

Not Suppose To Be Easy

Granville Island 10K Turkey Trot 2013

I can say that I’ve successfully completed the 10K Turkey Trot Run this Thanksgiving.  I started training a few months ago with full intentions of running the full 10K…  I  ran 5K and walked 5K.  Was this a failure?  Hell no.  It’s not suppose to be easy.  Even though I had good intentions before the race, plans changed.  For the first 5K, I was OK with people passing me because I was running at my own pace.  I said to myself, “Everybody is different and you’re OK.  Keep going.”  After the 5K mark, I had to make a choice…. listen to my body or listen to my head.  Mid-race, I hit a wall.  The ego is a powerful beast… it said, “Keep running.  What will people think of you?”  The truth is, who cares.  It’s about being in the moment and being authentic to myself.  I opted to walk… briskly, of course.  It’s a Turkey run, walk, or stroll… and I accomplished all three modalities.  In 1.5 hours, I crossed the finished line.  I have a metal to prove it.  WINNER.  In the end, I think we are our toughest critic.  Meh… lighten up… it’s the journey that matters.  I had a great time.

The Tingles

The last time I mentioned “the tingles” was in a blog post in 2011 titled The Happiness Project.  The tingles is my intuition that “senses” something is good, awesome, or wonderful is happening.  At times, I wished I was more intuitive (like some people I know), but the tingles will have to suffice.  When I get the tingles it’s kind of random.  Usually I experience the tingles when I’m listening to someone’s story.  For example, a good friend of mine was telling me in private that she was applying for a new job.  Got the tingles and I knew that she would get the job.  And, she did.  Just recently a former student of mine was telling me about his academic studies and becoming a welder.  Got the tingles and I knew he was happy and living his life authentically.  Best of all, I thought of “my goal” the other day and got the tingles.  This is a good sign.  The tingles spook me out at times, but they do affirm that something good is going to happen. #cool