Saturday, December 17, 2016
Assessments
Moving from my previous position to my cyber position, I went from teaching classes to solely doing remediation. Since I work with special education students, I quite often did informal formative assessments to guide where I took my students in their lessons each week. I looked at what they did from day to day, week to week and used that to guide what I did in class and when I scheduled my tests. I took the summative assessments with a grain of salt because I saw the terror in their eyes when they walked into class on those days - much a like a prisoner that knew they were about to be tortured by information. I personally dreaded those days for everything except the number on my FitBit as I ran around like a nut guiding and clueing, easing fears and pointing fingers to the number that i knew that they missed the first time they read through or the choice that if eliminated led to a lightbulb moment.
I now find myself teaching a group of 10-25 students (depending on who chooses to grace me with their presence 2 days a week). Although they are non-arbitrarily placed into their group by ability, there are only so many ways that you can split a 3 caseloads of students in 2 groups. I say that the students are placed non-arbitrarily because they are placed based on their scores on Aimsweb prompts. I enjoy these prompts, because I love math and a challenge BUT many of the students can't stand these bi-weekly prompts that we give them. Today's students are given calculators from a very early age - especially learning support students who have placed into their IEPs that they are able to use calculators on assessments (except when prohibitied by the assessment) THIS is the prohibition moment. These tests go even further against what we have ingrained in this particular group of students because they are - DUN-DUN-DUN - TIMED! Forget that extended time SDI as well - because depending on the time and level they will have 8-10 minutes to complete this task.
Assessments have been particularly on my mind for the last 2 weeks because I have been assessed by the fabulous Danielson Framework and informally by my Instructional Coach. They both had the same thing to say - That I am doing to much in my lesson, that I need to simplify them and "dumb" them down. My response to them was that I find it extremely difficult to know where to take my twice-a-week lessons with these students because I only administer the AIMSweb prompts to my students - so, two-thirds of my students I only see in my remediation class and I never have access to the rest's results to see how/what/when they are missing on their prompts. I could go into these Assessments that are given to our profession, and the tears that I was left in after two of my supervisors gave me their 'constructive criticism' that served only to deconstruct my self esteem for the past 2 weeks. I was proficient on both of them - but when we bust our behinds daily having someone come in and tell us everything we are doing wrong to them isn't helpful - ESPECIALLY when some of what they told me contradicted each other. To many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup and to many critics in the classroom spoil the teaching and learning that is taking place.
So, although I do firmly believe that assessments can drive instruction to be better and address students weaknesses - it does not currently apply well to my teaching situation either for my students or myself. Let me rephrase that, it is not currently APPLIED well in my teaching situation. Richard DuFour's video discusses using formative assessments to guide the education that is done in these 'group tutoring' sessions. The 'group tutoring' phrase makes me laugh because I have been told for years that I am not an Assistant or a tutor - I am a certified teacher. In the end, it doesn't matter to me how I am used in a classroom ( as long as it isn't dehumanizing to me) as long as the STUDENTS are benefiting and getting what they need from their time the classroom. Yes, occasionally leaving one teacher in the classroom while the other runs and makes copies (the job of an assistant) would in the long run benefits the students and the teachers best. But, I digress to my personal frustration again. I teach high school students and apparently the end game of my time with my students is to raise their test scores - to check the boxes on their IEP to say they advanced from a 5th grade level to a 6th grade level on a test that is biased by their test anxiety and faults that have 10 years to internalize in them. In my ideal world, in my current position, I would find it most beneficial to myself to know the exact places that they need remediation. Yes, I can look at those timed tests and see that yes, they struggle with powers or word problems or area or regrouping OR I could best benefit them and their learning by having formative assessments in front of me from what they are currently doing in Math Foundations or Algebra or Geometry and guiding my instruction from there. BUT, alas, I am a lowly teacher not a instructional coach or an assistant director or a Director and I must tow the line that is put in front of me and snag the teachable moments that I can - when a student asks for my help - to work my real magic.
I now find myself teaching a group of 10-25 students (depending on who chooses to grace me with their presence 2 days a week). Although they are non-arbitrarily placed into their group by ability, there are only so many ways that you can split a 3 caseloads of students in 2 groups. I say that the students are placed non-arbitrarily because they are placed based on their scores on Aimsweb prompts. I enjoy these prompts, because I love math and a challenge BUT many of the students can't stand these bi-weekly prompts that we give them. Today's students are given calculators from a very early age - especially learning support students who have placed into their IEPs that they are able to use calculators on assessments (except when prohibitied by the assessment) THIS is the prohibition moment. These tests go even further against what we have ingrained in this particular group of students because they are - DUN-DUN-DUN - TIMED! Forget that extended time SDI as well - because depending on the time and level they will have 8-10 minutes to complete this task.
Assessments have been particularly on my mind for the last 2 weeks because I have been assessed by the fabulous Danielson Framework and informally by my Instructional Coach. They both had the same thing to say - That I am doing to much in my lesson, that I need to simplify them and "dumb" them down. My response to them was that I find it extremely difficult to know where to take my twice-a-week lessons with these students because I only administer the AIMSweb prompts to my students - so, two-thirds of my students I only see in my remediation class and I never have access to the rest's results to see how/what/when they are missing on their prompts. I could go into these Assessments that are given to our profession, and the tears that I was left in after two of my supervisors gave me their 'constructive criticism' that served only to deconstruct my self esteem for the past 2 weeks. I was proficient on both of them - but when we bust our behinds daily having someone come in and tell us everything we are doing wrong to them isn't helpful - ESPECIALLY when some of what they told me contradicted each other. To many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup and to many critics in the classroom spoil the teaching and learning that is taking place.
So, although I do firmly believe that assessments can drive instruction to be better and address students weaknesses - it does not currently apply well to my teaching situation either for my students or myself. Let me rephrase that, it is not currently APPLIED well in my teaching situation. Richard DuFour's video discusses using formative assessments to guide the education that is done in these 'group tutoring' sessions. The 'group tutoring' phrase makes me laugh because I have been told for years that I am not an Assistant or a tutor - I am a certified teacher. In the end, it doesn't matter to me how I am used in a classroom ( as long as it isn't dehumanizing to me) as long as the STUDENTS are benefiting and getting what they need from their time the classroom. Yes, occasionally leaving one teacher in the classroom while the other runs and makes copies (the job of an assistant) would in the long run benefits the students and the teachers best. But, I digress to my personal frustration again. I teach high school students and apparently the end game of my time with my students is to raise their test scores - to check the boxes on their IEP to say they advanced from a 5th grade level to a 6th grade level on a test that is biased by their test anxiety and faults that have 10 years to internalize in them. In my ideal world, in my current position, I would find it most beneficial to myself to know the exact places that they need remediation. Yes, I can look at those timed tests and see that yes, they struggle with powers or word problems or area or regrouping OR I could best benefit them and their learning by having formative assessments in front of me from what they are currently doing in Math Foundations or Algebra or Geometry and guiding my instruction from there. BUT, alas, I am a lowly teacher not a instructional coach or an assistant director or a Director and I must tow the line that is put in front of me and snag the teachable moments that I can - when a student asks for my help - to work my real magic.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
How my view on teaching has changed in the last 8 months
Pittsburgh is beautiful - The skylines, the bridges, the people.
Pittsburgh looks even more beautiful with a little enhancement.
#teacherIaspiretobe
For 4 years, I taught learning support in a brick and mortar school. I used technology in my classroom but for a variety of limiting factors, it wasn't always in the best possible way. I now work for a completely online school in a totally different role. Four days a week I reinforce math subjects that might have been forgotten or need to be refreshed. I also spend time each day helping students with work that they are doing in their core classes. By doing this, I see such a wide variety of methods and utilization materials at hand. Although I am not directly in their classroom, I can see the different ways (both positively and negatively) that teachers implement the same system. I have the freedom of addressing the math topics that I want, in an order that I choose. Ultimately, I want to have a classroom that works in groups - or breakout rooms as we call them. Generally, as I am getting to learn the Blackboard technology and the other tools that I have available to me, my lesson is presented in whole group and then often they move to breakout rooms so that they can work on their own and i can jump around and assist as needed. Ultimately, I would like to be able to have 4 or 5 rooms, where the students work in groups on activities that address the topic at hand. Much like stations in an elementary room, some would be teacher led while others were self/group guided to allow students to take ownership of their learning.
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