It's Our Anniversary! Come Celebrate Our Free Members Site

FOUR years ago we started our free membership site! Our goals were simple. We wanted to support educators to understand the power of assessment for learning to support ALL students. We wanted to make it more possible for more people to learn about these ideas no matter where they lived. There is a collection of resources for you to access and enjoy. Many of these are available because of the many educators who have learned along side us over the years and welcomed us into their schools and classrooms.

Here we are! Four years later we’ve gone from a few members the first few months to now having more than 5900 people accessing these resources regularly. While most members are from Canada, we also have members from around the world. Joining is easy! Just choose a user name and password. We've reorganized the content around postings to READ and postings to VIEW. We will be adding postings to LISTEN and to DO in the upcoming months. We usually add regularly but with our new revamped members site we will be making additions monthly. We have changed this structure to deliberately mimic our site for University graduate and undergraduate students (and professors).

We get lots of requests from people for permission to share the materials in other forms and for other audiences. We also see lots of sharing of links from individuals to their entire networks. We love seeing the spread of the blog views via twitter and the e-newsletter move from country to country around the globe. We are pleased to be able to continue this service for one more year.

This free service was made possible because people volunteered their time and expertise and Building Connections Publishing gave a percentage of their profits to support this work.
One unintended consequence of sharing free resources is some people see to think that all the resources should be shared freely. We wish that was possible. One day perhaps it will be if an organization chooses to fund this important work. In the meantime, it is the paid resources that fund the free resources. If the paid resources are pirated, used without permission, plagiarized, or passwords shared beyond the purchaser, even with great enthusiasm for sharing the work, the result can be fewer resources to fund the free members site.

You can contribute to this important work in three ways:

1.     You can help us by sharing links to the free materials and letting people know where they can go and sign up for themselves.

2.     You can contribute by commenting on the blogs, sharing your ideas, and sending in your questions.

3.     Lastly, you can contribute by purchasing resources that you need that are not on the member’s site and by using them according to copyright and legal permissions.

In the coming months we look forward to an even more fabulous FIFTH year of support. We have plans to share more practical ideas, more video clips, more research, and more responses to emerging questions.

We are also excited as we put together the final details in preparation for the launch a brand new membership site designed for universities - graduate and undergraduate courses - so that pre-service and graduate students can have access to the latest information and ideas.

We look forward to continuing this amazing conversation. Please keep in touch!

With our best wishes,

Anne

Planning for Evaluation - Step Two of Getting Ready for the BEST Year Ever

For the past few days we’ve been working with more than 90 educators to build assessment plans. There have been very powerful conversations. Sandra Herbst, Brenda Augusta and I have commented on how great it is to eavesdrop on thoughtful interaction between participants as they deconstruct their curriculum in one subject area and think through how to express it in student-friendly ways in order to prepare for evaluation.

If you weren't able to be here for the past few days, you might also want to think about planning to evaluate.  Here is Step Two as you get ready for the best year yet!

Now we are working with more than 120 educators in two and half days of learning here in Canmore, Alberta focused on involving every student in the assessment process. 

Whether working in high school, middle school, elementary or in a leadership position in schools and districts, the commitment to learning is obvious. As the two and half day session ended yesterday and as the two institutes in Fredericton ended, educators expressed excitement as they anticipating beginning the new school year. Isn’t it amazing?

 

Every year, in spite of knowing all the challenges that face us as we work to support each learner, we get excited. And yet, it isn’t surprising at all really. We’re in this job to make a difference and every single year we get a whole new opportunity to do it even better. I am so proud to be a member of this profession!

All my best,

Anne

PS I haven't been able to paint very much with all the teaching I have been doing but I can think about painting:- ) Here is one of my earlier paintings.... the first one is from 1999 and the second from 2011.... I am doing an "I used to but now I..." reflection as I look at them:- )

Getting Ready for the New Year - Step One

Sandra Herbst, Brenda Augusta and I have been having a wonderful learning time with August. Last week in Fredericton, NB and this week in Canmore, Alberta we have been surrounded by the most amazing, dedicated groups of educators. The four institutes are all different but the enthusiasm is the same.

We have been working on a variety of topics related to classroom assessment. This work has reminded me to share a powerful set of steps to Get Ready for the School Year. This is Step One!

All my best,
Anne


PS Here is a painting I did on the way from Fredericton, NB to Calgary, AB. Painting calms my mind. What do you do to calm your mind and bring into the present moment?

When It's Time - A Gift for You

I hope you are enjoying these special times. It is a gift to take time to do whatever brings joy; there is nothing more rejuvenating. In addition to my family, one of the things that brings me joy is painting and listening to music.

Here is a photo of one of quick watercolour sketches I've enjoyed painting while listening and enjoying our local music festivals here on Vancouver Island.

Like you, I am beginning to think about THINKING ABOUT the upcoming school year. I'll think about thinking about it for another week or so while I enjoy some more family time. 

I did pull out my suitcase in preparation for the August sessions in Fredericton and Canmore. And doing that got me thinking about you so here I am watching a Mary Tyler Moore rerun and doing this blog post:-). 

When you are ready to start preparing for the coming year, download your very own copy of this popular classroom assessment planning guide. I prepared this resource to help teachers plan for the upcoming school year. It gets rave reviews so I am happy to share it again. Please feel free to send this link to your friends and colleagues. 

After all, we all know that taking time now can save us so much time later.

All my best,

Anne

PS At this point our August events in Canmore, Alberta and Fredericton, New Brunswick are almost sold out! If you want to claim one of the few remaining seats, call our office now 1 800 603 9888.

PPS If you want to do some 'refresher' reading consider revisiting some of the fabulous documents prepared by the Assessment Reform Group.

Humans crave purpose and meaning. We need choice.

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As humans we crave purpose and meaning. We need to understand the why of something. We also need to have choice. If you want to learn about powerful ways to teach self-regulation, you might want to read an article that Sandra and I wrote for Education Canada magazine available online. It is titled, Co-constructing Success Criteria:  Assessment in the Service of Learning. In this article we write about why. Instead of telling the learners what is important or what needs to be done or what ‘should’ be happening – instead of training them – we need support their learning. To do that we need to engage and involve them using assessment in support of learning – their own learning and the learning of those around them. There are examples from high school, primary and leadership perspectives.

I’d like to close by sharing a favourite quote by Brian Andreas, “Everything changed the day he figured out that there was exactly enough time for the important things in life.’ You might want to check out his amazing art and writing.

I hope you are finding exactly enough time for the important things in your life.

All my best,

Anne

Slowing Down to the Speed of Life and Learning

 

Sandra Herbst and I are in New Zealand. We spent a Mother’s Day Sunday in Wellington, which is the capital and has about 500,000 people. The pace of life here and in other communities in New Zealand is remarkable. We spent time at the waterfront market and walked to the parliament buildings. We took the cable car up to the botanical gardens where we enjoyed lunch at their café. There were families everywhere with lots of children. The pace seemed to slow down to us. It was the speed of life and learning. 

Schools are a reflection of society and its values. And there are differences between New Zealand and Canada in terms of the number of children living in poverty, the violence in schools, literacy rates, and overall student success. It makes me wonder.

I wonder about the decisions in Canada that promote educational choice for all when it is really only choice for some.

I wonder about banning testing on animals but increasing testing for children.

I wonder about schools having to teach more and more as we try to stem the tide against obesity, violence, and crime yet we don’t have enough time to teach literacy and numeracy any longer.

I wonder whether Canadians have lost more than we’ve gained in our race for more mobile devices, faster connection speeds, and pursuing our ‘online lives.’ 

Was it just a coincidence that we didn’t hear a cross word spoken to a child or to an adult all day? Or, are people gentler and kinder when time is accepted as the gift it is?

All my best,

Anne

PS Sandra and I have been planning our August events. We are SO EXCITED! There are lots of interesting people coming to both the Canmore, Alberta events and the Fredericton, New Brunswick events. And, with the recent assessment news in Alberta, across Canada, and in the United States, the promise of classroom assessment is outstanding! We are happy to be working in these interesting times.

Transforming Assessment - Focusing on Feedback

Are you interested in Transforming Assessment? So are New Zealand educators.

Today I presented to almost 200 New Zealand educators via the web as an introductory session prior to Sandra Herbst and I presenting in Wellington, New Zealand next month. Participants asked interesting questions regarding rubrics and determining quality.

One participant wrote, "Thanks so much for this morning – it really got me thinking and I was very interested in your ideas about rubrics. I think you are correct re the language, although I’ve never thought about it in that way before."

Another participant wrote, "Rubrics are an interest of mine, but unfortunately much of what I see are almost punitive, except at the very top, and I think of Dweck and fixed mindsets. So I very much appreciated your answer as it fitted my prior knowledge."
 
With thanks to the Learning Network and their generosity, you are invited to view the recording of this 45 minute presentation for a limited time. Click here for access. If you want to register for our session in Wellington, contact the Learning Network. If New Zealand is a little far then think about registering for our institutes in Canmore, Alberta or Fredericton, New Brunswick this August.

To read more about the ideas shared in this presentation, consider reading Chapter 2 in Making Classroom Assessment Work (3nd Ed) and Setting and Using Criteria (2nd Ed) by Kathleen Gregory, Caren Cameron and me, Anne Davies.