Still buzzing with excitement after our initial meeting with the #scdsbTTOG assessment inquiry group. It is hard to believe only a few months ago at the Sheraton Parkway Hotel, Lisa and I dreamed up a plan to make changes to assessment practices in Simcoe County. We had lengthy discussions into the night and during our breaks at the Fall SIM session about how to make changes to an education system in desperate need of modernization.
Today, I had the hounour of sharing a room with a group of educators all interested in helping to improve the quality of learning for our students. We want to shift the focus from simply earning grades to valuing learning and growth. Great discourse, questioning, and challenging conversations!
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| 1960's? What are we doing differently? |
Stay tuned as this adventure unfolds.
So much for the old adage "What happens at SIM stays at SIM". Can't wait to see where this goes!
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued to see this happening in scdsb. I provide what I hope is quality feedback to my students (written and oral) and find it an easy task to provide this feedback on a regular basis. But I cringe when it's time for me to assign grades to work. As I'm assigning grades, I often picture in my head the"deflation" (of self-esteem, motivation, etc.) of those students who will receive lower grades from me than what they expect/want/their parents are rewarding them for (!). And then I see the actual deflation when I hand graded student work back (and don't we all see this every time we hand out report cards?). I'd love to see a system where we are truly moving students forward at their own comfortable pace and where they can feel good about what they've accomplished (or are on the road to accomplishing) each day. That doesn't happen now for a lot of my students and I'd say the assignment of grades to their work is the number one culprit. As a parent of kids in their late teens and early twenties too, I don't even want to get started on what I think about grades as motivators (read "demotivators") and a a gating factor to post-secondary education opportunities. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining the conversation Lisa! I really like your insights about self-esteem & motivation. One of the issues that keeps coming up is that many students feel they need a grade to know where they "rank"....how do we shift this mindset?
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