Janice McDonald 
​Wolf Creek Public Schools, AB
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Assessment Practices

7/4/2018

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Assessment Practices:
How do you typically assess your students? your teaching? other learners (e.g. teachers)? How have your assessment practices changed over the years? How have they changed in your school? district?

When I first started teaching, assessment was typically a test and written assignments.  There was also a mark based on if it was passed in on time, the look of it, and on effort.  I didn't reflect on my teaching like I do today either.  With experience, comes wisdom and the confidence to look critically at yourself.  Today, I use outcome base assessment with rubrics and flexible ways to show learning.  Now, I do not care in what method a students hows how they have mastered an outcome.  I start and end with the outcome.  Our school is all outcome based and we do a lot of common assessment and have common final exams across all classes and grades. 


What work do we still have to do as instructional leaders in this area to ensure that students are receiving the best assessment practices in our buildings/districts?

As an instructional leader, we have to model and lead by example. We embed time on PD days for teachers to meet and collaborate on assessment.  Time to reflect, alaylse and 
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How do you instruct?

7/2/2018

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How do you typically instruct your students? other learners (e.g. teachers)? Have your instructional practices changed over the years? Why or why not? And if so, in what ways?

My instruction style is a blend of modelling and hands on experimentation.  As a science teacher, there is much to discuss, learning, and discover.  We will often discuss through presentation of a problem or situation, or a "why?" question.  Once the basics of a concept are discovered, I like to move in to an experimental phase.  Through hands on activities, we look at ways to prove or discover more about the knowledge presented.  I am fortunate to teach science where there are so many opportunities to get ones hands dirty. 

Even when I am teaching teachers or adults, I like to explain what we are doing but always have the teacher do the task at hand.  As a technology leader in my school, this is often where I am teaching others.  Probably 95% of the time, teachers are happy to let me swoop in and just fix the problem while they watch.  I rarely do that.  I have them sit down as I walk them through the process while reassuring them that their problem is not "stupid" or "embarrassing".  One learns best by doing and I love being able to give people the tools to walk them through a problem with my supporting them by their side.

Over the years my practices have changed quite a lot.  I am much more patient and able to skillfully use quiet/wait time to allow for processing, to build anticipation, and as a management tool.  I plan more transitions and switch up my activities more frequently to better suit the attention needs of adolescents and I am always looking fro new and creative ways to incorporate technology into my lessons.


What research do you use to support your instructional practices? What evidence do you have that indicates that your instructional practices help students achieve and be successful?

​Using pre-assessment and post assessment, I can judge the efficacy of different teaching strategies that are based on many research bases such as, Marzano, Stauffer, and Hattie.  

What work do we have to do as instructional leaders in this area to ensure that students are receiving the best instructional practices in our buildings/districts?

Reflect. Reflect. Modify.  Always ask questions about what I did. How did it go? what worked well, and why?  What didn't work well, and why?  Did I get to the objectives?  How do I know if the students "got it"?  How could this lesson be better? 


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    Intent behind this Blog

    This blog is intended to support my City University Master's Degree.
    -EEA 532: Instructional Leadership: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment with Brent Galloway.

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