Joel Zehring

Bill Ferritter is hosting an online discussion with Rick and Becky DuFour, the creators of the Professional Learning Community model. It’s definitely helped me to develop a more balanced view of PLCs in schools and how they might function to improve student achievement. While I don’t yet consider myself a PLC fanboy, I do agree that breaking down the isolators between educators in the same building remains the single best way to improve student achievement. Look for the Wiimote avatar to view my text comments.

As for Voicethread, I’m not sold. It feels a little clunky, but I definitely see the benefit of audio and text intermingling for conversation. I posted all my comments as text because my son was sleeping, and I think overall, I prefer the speed of reading to the fidelty of audio. I’m happy to interact with Voicethread, but I’m not itching to use it for my own projects or use it in my classroom yet.

VoiceThread - Revisiting PLCs at Work

Bill Ferriter got me thinking about standardized tests in a recent post. What are we expecting to glean from the resulting data of a student’s multiple choice work?

Perhaps a different question: What cannot be learned from standardized assessment data?

• Creativity: Given a blank canvas, what can this student develop?
• Process: How did this student arrive at her responses?
• Expansive thinking: Given a problem, how many unique solutions can this student generate?
• Articulated thinking: Can this student explain why one answer is better than another?
• Learning style: How can an educator best help this student to master the concepts in which she is deficient?

At best, we might look to standardized assessments to provide clues. Responses that demonstrate mastery of knowledge really only provide clues of mastery. Perhaps the student just learned the concept yesterday, and the learning will fade by next week. Perhaps the student guessed correctly. Perhaps the student is simply really good at taking multiple choice tests.

I don’t think the standardized test debate should be a pro/con argument. I think the discussion should move to values, costs and benefits. Does this type of assessment reflect our educational values? Is our investment in multiple choice assessment yielding sufficient educational benefit? Perhaps the job that we hire standardized tests to complete is better completed by a different assessment, or set of assessments.

The new podcast Conversations kicked off this weekend with a discussion about praise for students. Positive words from a teacher are some of the most impactful communication a person can receive. The cliche goes that teachers shape lives. Stated another way, a teacher defines a student through verbal praise.

Nowhere is this more evident than in my experience as a freshman at Scottsdale Community College. My English teacher, Harry Hude, was instrumental in igniting my love for learning and defining me as a writer. I identify myself as a writer because Mr. Hude told me that I was good at writing. He shared my writing (anonymously) with the class. He communicated to me that I had ideas worth sharing, and I was good at stating those ideas clearly.

Specific praise shapes a student’s image of himself. We develop identities based partly on how other people describe us. I know that I excel in skateboarding because I enjoy it, I feel myself get better as I practice, and other people tell me that I’m good. If I enjoyed skateboarding and felt like I was getting better, but no one ever mentioned anything, I might not pursue excellence as intensely. Imagine how my attitude would shift if I only heard about the things I did wrong on a skateboard. I’d probably quit.

Fortunately, most people are shaped slowly, and they generally bounce back from negative comments. And, praise can be a powerful agent of healing in the life of a bruised student. Teachers have daily opportunities to speak success and confidence into the lives of their students. Maria Knee and Lisa Parisi gave me a great reminder of these opportunities in the upcoming school year.

Make sure to check out the recording of their show: EdTechTalk.

“Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s important.”

Seth’s Blog: Who vs. how many