   
Welcome to my Manila site!
 
Membership

Login

Discussion

Home

Christie's Thoughts

Notes

Philosophy

Engine Change

Interview

Reflective Journal

Meaningful Evaluation

cerfish@Yahoo.com

Criteria

To allow greater teacher flexibility in creating assessments that service a diverse student body.

Develop tools that helop learners become self-assessors.

Foster self-reflection, conscientiousness and support each other in ongoing learning.

In order to assess learning a teacher must collect data.

In order to improve assessment a teaher must analyze the collected data.

In order to improve the assessment technique a teacher must reconstruct the original assessment to meet the new needs.

To help students discover and receive recognition for their individual abilities and contributions.

Educational Insights
Posted by Christie Rizzo, 6/3/04 at 4:47:44 PM.
7/1          Change - Change - and More Change

The last six weeks have just flown by!   Having never used a labtop computer before this course has been mind boggeling! I'm still afraid everything on my website will mysteriously disappear leaving me without a trace of evidence that I even exist. I am a product of my generation - a baby boomer with few computer skillls. This never bothered me before this course because I have always been able to compensate with several of my other talents. I can draw anything I put my mind to and compose a song about anything in a moments notice. I make people laugh and can teach any subject in an entertaining way including human sexuality (which I did for four years at a prestigious private school in Montclair). Now I know how most students feel when they really don't understand what is being taught or they are learning disabled and totally lost. Great realization! There were classes like today when many things went wrong and the level of frustration was enormous. Enter here, another one of my strengths - even temperedness. I truly believe other students may have thrown in the towel but I perservered. Good for me!

So if a veteran teacher can learn computer skills in six weeks then I guess we can be hopeful about change. I started this class thinking it would be almost impossible for real change to occur across a district. I now believe that with enough dedicated, determined, knowledgeable, and collegial people working together for the betterment of the learning community it can happen. I am very pleased that I have been part of this action research learning team. It has inspired me to strive to awaken this enthusiam among my colleagues in my district. In my district we have educators of all ages and yet so many of them are over-burdened with what I affectionately call busy work. So many tests and so many hours of marking tests that are already obsolete.

Our engine of change, meaningful evaluation is one of the areas where change needs to occur immediately. My hope for our summer institute is that we can research this area in order to structure the foundation for this change to begin.   Alternate assessments, benchmarks, self and peer assessments, and group projects can all foster individualization of learning styles, multiple intelligences, and collaborative learning.   We can then help each and every student feel learning is enjoyable and cyclic and instill the desire to go on to become a life-long collegial learner.

I would like to thank all the my fellow classmates for all of their help in assisting me in trying to catch up with the computer skills I'm lacking. Your patience, guidance, and understanding was greatly appreciated.
Have a great week off and see you in July! (I thought it was September! Oh that was the song!)

6/27 Brain-Compatible Testing

Current educational literature speaks of brain-compatible curriculum. Research points out what teachers seem to know instinctively which is if learning is like real-life and linked to previous knowledge then connections are made and information is retained. The brain must filter all the incoming sensory data and store some of it in neural circuits. This is an overwhelming task to say the least. What should our brain keep and what should be trashed in an ongoing problem. New information has a better survival rate if it can be linked to similar data. So you ask, how can a teacher introduce new material and hope for it to survive? First he/she must find a connective link or let the students realize they have some knowledge of the subject at hand. Secondly, if the teacher can personalize the new topic or make the students part of the process then it is more interesting and more easily learned.

This is not an easy task and often the curriculum is so demanding teachers find it difficult to cover the required format. How can we as educators help our students make the necessary associations? If new neural networks are created through experience then we need to make learning meaningful. Authentic problems which our students must solve collaboratively is one answer. Community resources should be utilized. Interviews, simulations, field trips, school to career programs are several such meaningful experiences that can be utilized. "Analogies, metaphors, and similes are excellent ways to help the brain find links(Westwater, Wolfe,p. 52)."

Change is also necessary in the way we test our students. Brain-compatible testing is vital to the success of our new curriculum techniques. The cycle must be complete and congruent. If we are to meet the needs of individual students then our testing should reflect that.  Debates, portfolios, hands and minds-on labs, performances, rubrics, games, artwork, demonstrations, self assessment, exhibitions and journals can all be used to allow each student to self-reflect and evaluate their learning and improvement plan. This is an awesome task that we should strive to accomplish if change is to occur across the board.

6/19 Testing is what is taught

What is taught often doesn't match what is tested. How can we justify that? As educators don't we owe it to our students to properly assess them on what they've learned? Aligning the curriculum to the testing is the only way we can use the data we collect to assess learning and use that data to continue the cycle of learning. Our students need to learn deeply and critically, analyzing and dissecting information and then applying that knowledge creatively to face the social, economic, and environment challenges of their lives.

By offering a collage of assessments, that are individualized as much as possible, we as educators can give each student the best opportunities to prove their expertise, improve, and build their own self worth. Students should be allowed to collaborate, share, and mingle on projects, experiments, portfolios, essays, reports and speeches. Teachers as coaches confer with students constantly collecting data to document progress and reflect on their own learning. According to Arter, humans learn best from things that are meaningful, useful, and relevant, linking it to preexisting knowledge and understanding. This reminds me of a brain spider web constantly being woven on to. Performance tests parallel how pupils learn and should be taught as stated by Audrey Noble and Mary Lee Smith. They go on to say in performance tests a student creats an answer. Doesn't that sound better than a student regurgitates an answer? (to spit back out vs. to construct or invent)

In 1992 Grant Wiggins stated "authentic" assessments mimic real life tasks. Isn't that what we want as educators? Students who can solve real life problems in order to lead productive lives. Arter concludes that assessment and teaching is a seamless web woven invisibly into instruction. WOW! Think of the possibilities.

6/17 They Speak

"Students are extraordinary teachers. They speak. They constantly tell us how our expectations, objectives, curriculums and instructional strategies affect them.  We need to look to our students to tell us why learning takes place and why it doesn't. Our students are key sources for helping us identify what needs to be done...Often we forget to ask them and we forget to listen to the important message they bring (Brown, 1999)."

They speak. But do we listen or even ask them? So many of us are so caught up in completing the task at hand that we yes or shhh.. every question that interfers with our current purpose. If we as educators do not listen to our students then how can we adjust and readjust to their input or feedback? If we are to be coaches or guides then we need to step back and take a look at what we are really teaching. As it states in our daVinci book education rewards and understands left brained thinkers but often classifies right brained thinkers who then think their way of thinking is faulty or not as good when it is different, creative, and often inspirational.

I was one of these right brained students who was not listened to or appreciated by my teachers because I followed two left brained sisters who were quiet, well behaved, and good test takers. I sympathize with all my students and wish we were more whole brained in our assessment of our students. Porfolios, journals, exhibitions, artifacts, graphic organizers, and peer assessment would have been a welcome relief from standard book tests when I was a kid. My peers loved me and I am very artistic, musical, talkative, and funny; all of which I was penalized for as a kid. We are finally realizing that all children have different learning styles, strengths, and abilities and should be assessed and evaluated individually. Thank you John Dewey and Howard Gardner for researching and believing in what I always thought was right!

6/16 Evaluating Supervisors

This week we were asked to evaluate our supervisors which included our superintendent, our principal, vice-principal and board administrator. All four people used the same evaluation scale which was a forced response questionnaire. I found the form very difficult to complete because the scale of opposite terms were ranked very, quite, slightly and then slightly, quite, and very and contained terms like friendly and unapproachable. I felt I wanted to discuss and explain my answers and of course we were not allowed to do so.  I'm still not sure whether my responses truly indicated my feelings. I would have likely to write comments about serveral of the categories.

Interestly enough, I had the same difficulty with helping one of my classified students complete his take home science test. It was a multiple choice test with two answers that could be considered correct. When I questioned his science teacher she said that she never thought of that aspect before and that I was correct. This made me remember a worksheet my older son had to complete in first grade. He had a big x on his phonics letter "c" page because he had not circled the picture of the camel. When I questioned why he didn't circle the camel he stated that it was a dromedary camel and that starts with the letter d! So you see he was smarter than the worksheet and he was being punished for being more knowledgeable than required.

Standardized tests often can't evaluate our divergent thinkers and I sometimes wonder how Leanardo daVinci or Albert Einstein would have scored. Without allowing students to explain the reasoning behind their thinking we pigeon hole many of them as less capable.  I took the Praxis Administrative Exam this past weekend and I would have liked to explain several of my own answers but of course that is not allowed. This prevasive testing technique will be difficult to remediate since verbal essay answers can be subjective depending on who scores them. I think we should have evolved farther than we have, knowing what we now know about test results and how some teachers teach to the test thereby inflating scores to make themselves and their schools look good. There are so many alternate forms of assessment available ranging from portfolios to peer assessment that all of us should be working on a better way to evaluate the children we service.

6/15/04 Community Centered Educational Change

Many years ago when I first started teaching I constantly involved the parents and relatives of my students and the community at large that surrounded our 100 year old school. We enjoyed multicultural cooking demonstrations, international festivals, holiday plays, senior citizen sing-alongs followed by penpal assignments, Grandparents' Day, town walks with business visitations, and several other community activities such as career day. These activities enriched our curriculum and allowed all the students to feel honored and involved. It is so interesting to read about these as current, state of the art techniques as if they have never been done before. I also find it interesting that entire schools should be built around this type of educational outreach program. How can we accomplish this when most town budgets are being defeated year after year in order to keep taxes down?

Back when I was in college I read a book by Kitty Weaver about nursery schools in Russia. The senior citizen housing projects there shared a common outdoor area and playground with the nursery schools so both age groups could mutually benefit from this interaction.  Seniors were not isolated or lonely and felt as if they had a purpose and toddlers benefitted from the stories, songs, and human contact that was lavished upon them while their parents were at work. What a wonderful idea! Yet we in the U.S. have been so slow to institute this type of meaningful change. Watching my 84 year old mother react to a small child or puppy could make anyone smile. Why haven't we learned? We spend millions of dollars isolating our seniors from all other age groups. No wonder they're so depressed.

The six design principles in the article we read this week included: enhance and accommmodate the needs of all learners; serve as a center of the community; involve all community interests; provide health, safety, and security; use available resources; and be flexible and adaptable. Maybe we should listen to some of the lessons Kitty Weaver shared with us in the 1970's. How can we forget our seniors? What a fantastic way to teach history through the stories of those that lived through it! WWII veterans, army and navy nurses, soldiers at Normandy can share their experiences and gain a wonderful feeling of self worth and appreciation for their lives of service. Seniors can also tutor in after school programs or serve as master craftsmen to teach a trade. Wake up America and make everyone a lifelong learner by utilizing one of our precious resources - our elderly. If we are building new schools as community centers then let's not forget to tap into an abundant, available natural resource- our senior citizens.

6/8 Discuss/Retain/Reflect

"There is no longer a hierarchy of who knows more than someone else, but the need for everyone to contribute." (Carmichael, p.393) How many of us feel free enough at faculty meetings to disagree with our administrator? If future leaders are to plant seeds as Sergiovanni encourages us to do then where is our voice? For new ideas to surface and emerge then true dialogue must take place first for the engine of change to get started. Educators must share their ideas through reflective dialogue in order to expand their horizons and learn from their mistakes. If everything and everyone are truly connected then why do we stay isolated in our rooms and secretively plan our agenda?

If educators feel their opinions don't matter then they remain powerless. If marking and recording grades takes over the largest part of their off time then schoolwork becomes busywork with little time to reflect on innovative techniques and new theories. If teachers are not allowed to be involved in the decision making of the school and curriculum then their job will not empower them to make changes and evolve.

Everyone in the school community must be committed to seeing that each and every child gets the very best education possible. The development of academics and character should be attended to simultaneously. Everyone should be respected and cared about creating an environment of intellectual growth, discovery, and awakening of potential.

6/6/04 INQUIRY

As the saying goes Inquiring Minds Want to Know and so it goes with education. Or does it? How many teachers continue questioning their techniques and strategies? How many blame their students or their students¡Ù parents, or the community, or society, or the system they work in? Do they ever really reflect on themselves when their students struggle or fail? If teachers journal daily their successes and failures then they can reflect on what works and what does not! With so much paperwork and on-going demands placed upon them they can barely keep their heads above water. But patterns become apparent when one takes valuable time to keep track of what occurs in their courses and classrooms. Inquiry should be everyone's job and the students should be part of this process.

It starts by asking questions and then finding evidence that can guide educators and the school's actions. The students can make up their own questions to research and contribute immensely with new perspectives. The cycle is endless; starting with a question that is related to the school's vision. The next step involves finding data to compare, reflect upon, and analyze. By studying the data new actions evolve and the cycle begins again. This action research, with everyone as workers and learners empowers and benefits all concerned.

Leonardo da Vinci questioned the accepted beliefs of his time and never stopped questioning, inspecting, analyzing and discovering. He was way ahead of his time and filled numerous pages with ideas, theories, and inventions. He realized learning occurs because of mistakes and he never stopped exploring and experimenting. This educational cycle of learning and inquiry should never stop either. Dr. Martin Seligman and others researched and found that the critical determinant of success in business and life is resilience in the face of adversity. Our present day educational system needs change. If experience is the heart of wisdom as Leonardo believed then the cycle of inquiry and action is essential.

6 /4 Wanting to learn

I have a very vivid memory of learning how to jump rope. I was five or six years old and determined to jump ten times in a row without missing. It was a hot and humid day and I was sweating profusely but when my mom called me to come in I told her I was not finished. Many years later my son was in our backyard kicking a football in the air and catching it. I called him in for supper but he said he couldn't come in until he repeated this new skill five times. When I asked him why he said: " because I want to." I had a major flashback to my own childhood remembering jumping rope and my own determination. Then when reading in our text I came across the words: "people excel and learn because they want to" I had an epiphany. Think about these two recollections. Both involve learning and determination. How can we get teachers, administrators, parents, and the community to learn because they want to learn? If we all wanted to learn we would continually learn. Why do so many of us only read what is demanded of us to read? Why are there so many mediocre teachers who put in the minimum amount of work to get by?

If we recreate ourselves through learning and real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human as our text states then all of us would be glad to stretch, excel, continually change and grow. We as a society constantly try to recreate ourselves through diets, exercise, plastic surgery or even Extreme Makeovers but few of us stretch academically. Instead we become lazy, critical, cynical, or burned out and leave the teaching profession altogether. How many of us are committed to our own lifelong learning? How many of us are open to the influence of others? When I first started teaching I shared my ideas with everyone on staff. I was shocked how some teachers never came out of their rooms except for their twenty-minute lunch period. Imagine a staff that truly shares thoughts, ideas or inspirations?

If our left- brained teachers worked closely with the right- brained teachers and truly collaborated we¨B¡Ùd have a whole -brained staff that could truly understand all the students or at least begin to make changes to benefit all the students. If our special education teachers were allowed to team-teach with the regular education teachers and there was respect and admiration for each other¨B¡Ùs expertise then the entire class would benefit. If all teachers stopped being competitive then we would be open to the influence of others. Metanoia or a shift of mind can only happen if we remain open minded and committed to continually learn new ways to reach our students.

We've Got The Power 6/2/04

In order to be empowered we as teachers need to conduct our own individual action research. We are the ones who know our own strengths and weaknesses and can assess where we want to improve. When teachers are allowed to feel they are part of the process of improvement and see true growth in their students this feedback will become cyclic and beneficial to all concerned. Nothing breeds success like success. If a teacher experiences success after experimenting with action research data this should be shared with collegues and serve as a springboard for faculty involvement in additional action research.

I worked in a school where the new assistent administrator was a former librarian who offered many suggestions of what should be done in the classroom. One of the new,young teachers stated that she would not listen to someone's advice who had never been in the classroom herself and had no experience. I remember feeling sorry for both of these educators since neither one was allowing the other to feel appreciated and no one was growing from the experiences of the other. I've been at faculty meetings where no one benefitted from what was discussed because everyone feel conflicted or imposed upon and the sharing/learning process just completely shut down. I think many educators feel threatened at first when others share their tried and true or new action based research techniques. The premise is the other person is saying I'm not doing something right so I must defend my way of thinking. Once teachers become defensive then they do not collaborate and grow. How do we get our teachers to come out of their classrooms and learn from sharing innovative ideas? We must start by building trust. So we ask, how do we build trust?

According to Richard Sagor the two most important factors are availability of data on performance and giving teachers the authority to use this data to improve. It sounds so easy and yet we know the attitudes towards and among teachers must change first and foremost. Teachers must be treated and respected as professionals and allowed to change and grow together so that schools function collegially and allow students to reach their full potential.