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Public Domain PDF Writing Learning Stories
With thanks to Margaret Carr and Wendy Lee who created these gems, have the deepest ideas, and offer here the most comprehensive place to look.

A Learning Story engages listeners in an adventure of childhood-enlivened with our own humanity-while offering an opportunity to reflect upon what we can do for young children.

The storyteller shares a tale of emergence, speaking to the child, to the child's family, to guests, and to ourselves as observers and educators. A Learning Story builds upon the tradition of stories told around a campfire. There is no "right way" to tell a story, but a story of learning always begins with the learner's initiative - where the emergence begins. The child or children start on their own, without cues or direction.

Stories are always about "good" things we value: nothing negative is said or implied about any child. The tale progresses through the subsequent stages of engagement (becoming involved) and intentionality (causing something) and continues forward in time - one instance one day or connected instances over several days. Generally, this is the sequence to be attentive to when capturing the stages of a story:
Initiative → Engagement → Intentionality → Representation → Benefaction → Reflection
The Deep View of Learning Stories

The New Zealand - Aotearoa Learning Story narrative assessment connects what we see and how we make meaning of this observed event in the light of the ideals of society and culture as expressed in the goals and strands of Te Whaariki. I believe the congruence between assessment, shared goals and societal ideals is the best of all possible worlds.

Despite the lack of that congruence among ideals for society, goals, and assessment of learning here in the US, I wish to show here how one can write Learning Stories to attend to and convey what it means to grow and become a fully realized human being in a community of others.

When we imagine the biology inside a growing human being, we would recognize the natural flow of learning-passages, I call them-named in that sequence above. I have found that when Learning Stories attend to the passages we go through when we learn, they have a lasting impact on the life of children-an impact beyond anything I have ever seen in education.

You can visit The Learning Frame page to find a discussion of the passages along the journey: transformation-climbing a bit higher-becoming the best we can be.

A Learning Story Convention

A convention is a generalized framework we can refer to for guidance as we proceed, neither restrictive nor rigid.

Six Guides

A story benefits from having at least one photo of the context and child, or group if it is group learning story. Of course, when the photographs can illustrate the sequence of events, the more the story conveys to others when they read it.

1. I like to begin with my own interest in what the child has taken the initiative to do. When I talk about myself in the first person using "I..." I give a "voice" to me, the storyteller. As an observer I bring a personal perspective to the tale.

2. Then I describe what the child does and says from my perspective as someone who cares and is listening closely to discover what is happening. It is not totally objective: I am endeavoring to be present with my heart. I can only see the child from the outside. I try to pay close attention. This is the heart of the story.

3. At the end, I title a paragraph "What it means" and write about the significance of what I saw, but I am often weak at this part. I need help. This meaning-making is best done in a dialogue with other adults. Many perspectives can be included here. If the results of that meeting are voiced directly to the child, the child can hear educators speak educational words, even though the words may be complex: "You..." In the examples you can see this change in point of view from #2 in the first person voice to #3 in the second person voice. I write stories as if I were talking to an adult; I expect children to gain understanding on each retelling.

4. Next I offer an additional paragraph "Opportunities and Possibilities" to describe what we (adults, educators, parents, etc.) can provide next and give voice to what we think the future may hold. This gives a bit of insight for the participants in the school (parents, friends, and prospective enrollees) about how thoughtful educators think about what they do. Many people who wish the best for their children may not realize what educators do. It can be difficult for outsiders to understand how educators learn the ways to lead in an inquisitive and responsive way to benefit unique children. It is hard to see how educators constantly evolve their own understanding and devote themselves to a quest for what might be best over time. is the voice to this statement of reflective intent by evolving adults.

5. Finally, I offer a blank page for the family to respond with their view. Members of the family may have things to say to the child and to the educators. Some may easily offer something; others might need a prompt. I am sure you can find a way to draw them out based in your relationship. I am wondering what would you say to your child about this. What do you see happening? What delights you?

6. Like every good story, I make sure to have a title.

I make two copies of each story, one for the child and one for the school to be added to as they grow.

Effects of Learning Stories

I created a 10-week college course on Learning Stories that enabled me to gather information about the effects of learning stories on various audiences. This is what participants in those courses said.

Effect of Learning Stories on the Writer

I can say things in stories that I could not say in any other way.

I am seeing the child in my Learning Stories differently. For example, one child was, in my old view, a child with "issues." I viewed him mostly in negative terms. Now I see him as possessing strengths.

I wrote the story, but I was the one who changed the most. The child's grandmother's addition to the story began with the words, "I don't know what to say, but here it is." She wrote a long list of strengths. Both the story and her list totally changed my view of this child and all children.

I have noticed a change in myself. I see the uniqueness of each child. I am not "grouping" them. I am seeing how each child approaches things differently. I pay more attention now and see with a different eye.

I found that some children are easier to write Learning Stories about than other children. I am becoming more deliberate in looking for their interests. I am attending to what they choose to do, so I can hone in on those I haven't seen yet.

The children who are "low key" present a challenge for me to find a way to see them. I have to find the right time of day when they shine.

I find this so organic and natural. There's so much richness in what children do, and now I have a way to pull the richness out of it in a kind of backward way.

Learning Stories have helped me to see the learning that is happening for children who have English as a second language. I take pictures of them. Then later when I look more carefully at the pictures, many things come to mind that I hadn't seen. Because I have captured the child's interests, I have much more to communicate to the child and the family.

Learning Stories have taught me patience. I have slowed way down, because I want so badly to be able to see and record what's going to happen. Something great might appear in the next moment.

I learned that I am more aware of the process children is going through, and I am capable of allowing children to complete their learning experiences in their own way. It is just after observation and patience that I am able to witness it.

Because I was focused on taking pictures for a Learning Story, I did not step in right away where I might have before.

Learning Stories have changed the way I look at teaching. It's no longer about what I view is important for the children to learn. Now I am the one being taught what is interesting and what there is to be learned from it.

Effect of Learning Stories on the Families

I had a parent conference after the story of their child. A much deeper disclosure happened, not about the story but about the issues they faced at home. This had the effect of opening a non-threatening invitation to share new things about their family with me.

My story was given to the family in Chinese. The family read it over and over again. The grandfather, who speaks no English and I had no way to communicate with, was in tears when he read it.

The family read the story to all the extended families. They all valued the fact that this child is unique.

The parents made a copy and sent it to Grandma.

I have more open communication with the parents now. They are happier with the school. The other day I asked the mom of the Learning Story child if I could have five minutes to talk to her. I was surprised by how enthusiastically she said, "Yes!"

I see parents more aware of what we teachers do at school. They value us more. They recognize the importance of having skills as a teacher.

Our families are more connected to us now

It's hard to prepare parents for their additions to the story, which is to write a positive, heart-felt personal response to the story. This is something entirely new to them.

It was a huge anxiety for some families to put something on paper. They need some examples.

Effect of Learning Stories on the Child in the Story

Now my child wants to show me his latest work and asks to have his picture taken.

A child's self-esteem was transformed dramatically from being mostly silent to being in the forefront. She even yelled across the room to greet teachers as they came in.

It's amazingly important to them. It's personalized. It's permanent.

My child is one of those quiet ones that are hard to read. After she read her Learning Story she began to be more expressive in school. Her father said that he took her to the community center on Saturday. As they passed through the gym she saw children her age playing basketball. She asked her father to enroll her in basketball, too. She is taking charge of her life.

Effect of Learning Stories on the Other Teachers

After listening to another teacher's Learning Story, I see that child differently. This child is in another classroom. When I saw him next I took the time to talk to him. My relationship changed.

Hearing a story has made me think before saying things like, "Let's not do..." I am more open to trying to understand the child's process.

The other teacher is noticing the child more.

Effect of Learning Stories on the Other Children

A child said to me, "Teacher, I want a story like that."

I see all the children more focused and intense now.

The children loved hearing the story. I was shocked how they were so into it. I would love to get this into a form, so I could do it for everyone.

The story I wrote was about how two 10-month-olds were so happy to see each other and handed each other toys. It seems that since I read the story to these very young children that more connections are forming between the other children as well.

Comparison of Learning Stories to Checklist Assessment

If I had the chance, I would do Learning Stories all day long. I enjoy doing the observations and discussing them with the team. I value the checklist observations, too, but this is more meaningful to me, the child, and the families.

Doing these makes myself pay attention, and when I do, I discover that I value what they are doing. Checklist observation requires me to look for listed things, which is different.

Learning Stories goes so much deeper than just assessment.

When I take a picture I am able to recall the situation so much more clearly than with an anecdotal record or a checkmark. I can see in the picture the context and body language, so the whole experience comes back to me.

Unfortunately, doing Learning Stories comes out of unpaid time. It does take time.

It's an amazing process! I wish I could do it in place of other paperwork.

Now I feel I am not forced. I am not pushed to look for what others have decided are the categories and objectives. Yet, once I look and create a Learning Story, I can see all the objectives, and I can see the ways to create emergent curriculum in the result.

It has changed how I observe. Instead of my focus centered on looking for children to do the listed item, I am being open and waiting for something amazing and new to emerge.

Agreements

I use my smartphone to videotape. I think the taping of children and educators is an essential component of a good school. School is for learning, experimenting, trying new things, making mistakes, and correcting mistakes. Recording is the most informative form of documentation, because different viewers can generate different views in a cooperative discussion. One can play it over and over again. I never see what is truly happening on the first view.

Recordings can be treated as privileged communication. A privileged communication is private and must be kept in confidence by the recipient for the benefit of the clients: the child, the family, and the school. Families can provide permission formally for this to happen and staff can sign a non-disclosure agreement covering disposition of the recordings. There must be a way to find agreement so recordings can inform practice. If the final story is to be shared beyond the community, formal written permission can be included in that agreement.

Technology

I use software to watch and listen to the recording several times to find the essential story ( The Learning Frame). I use video editing software that makes it easy to use arrow keys to select exactly the video frame that is most elegant. I export each still frame to a named file for the story. Each frame gets numbered in sequence. Those images then can be selected and dragged into a new slide show in Keynote. I like it because each image automatically creates its own slide. The mask function enables me to crop closely. I type the story slide by slide. All slide show software offers choices in the printing dialog to select the number of slides to print per page and to create a PDF that is easy to share.

Aspirational Challenges

There's no right way here. We are each on our own path, hopefully in concert with others who are working on being better, too. For me, right has two parts: One, I see the children happy, participatory, involved, and vigorous; they are being and acting in ways I value and I seek. Two, I am being more like my true self, not trying to copy anyone or do some procedure: I am authentic, open, aware, and fully present. When both conditions occur at the same time, I know I am doing the best I can right now. I realize, however, there is more to seek, for tomorrow or the next group of children will not be the same. If there is any right way at all, it can only be thought of as a quest, a continuing journey toward beauty, or goodness, or something like that.

In that spirit, I offer three signposts to attend to in writing these stories. They are alerts, if you will, along the path.

Alert: judgments

What gives us the right to judge others, their actions, or their works? Praise is a judgment, an opinion: that's good, beautiful, nice, wonderful, etc. When one praises, one implies that I have some kind of higher status: I have importance. I carry the expectation with me to sprinkle stars on those below me who will benefit from my favor.

The act of praise is also not authentic; it's not talking straight. A child's work is not really beautiful. It's not really a good job; there isn't a job. We can be supportive of children by talking about an accomplishment, a creative act, or a surprise. That expresses what we see and value, but if we offer our unsolicited opinions, we cross a line into being unreal. " I like how you thought of watering the plants by yourself. " OK, that may be what you are thinking, but if you say it, the judgmental form restricts a child's freedom to be.

Then, too, praise has a dampening effect on those who are not praised, for the implication is present to do what the praised person is doing. Do we really want children to seek our approval rather than develop self-confidence and self-awareness? This aspiration is to see and honor this evolving human being, not to slip into easy habits of judging.

Alert: assumptions about the inner life of others

What gives us the right to describe how others are thinking or feeling? We may have inferences, and razor-sharp insights into others, but in stating how others feel we cross a line. We have no way to be sure, so it's odd to pretend we do. Usually what happens in the inner life of others is not even available to the child: they are conveying what they think and feel in what they do, what one can see and hear. If a child hears someone say, with confidence, what they think the child thinks or feels, (you worked hard, JR was eager, Josie was determined) it oversimplifies and may alter the meaning of the story; at least, it could be confusing to the child.

We always can talk about ourselves, because we have access to that. Our emotions and feelings give life to the story we tell. We don't know, really, how others feel. This aspiration is to be present to your own experience, listen deeply with love and compassion, and let children discover themselves in an atmosphere of confidence and trust.

Alert: stories created in order to complete developmental items on an external form

Why should we allow external systems to interfere? They don't even know the child(ren) we are writing about! We ought to be free to write learning stories about what we observe at this moment with this child or these children. Yes, Learning Stories are an assessment in narrative form, but we can be distracted from the deeper discoveries right here if we are doing our duty filling a development chart. The best of the best Learning Stories arise in unexpected ways when we love being with children.

This is said more succinctly by the teacher writing the last bulleted item you saw above:

It has changed how I observe. Instead of my focus centered on looking for children to do the listed item, I am being open and waiting for something amazing and new to emerge.

So many forces draw us away from stopping the train, setting down our baggage, and spending this moment in deep attentiveness to children. This aspiration is to be alive, here and now, present-to discover and to honor this amazing child.

For more thoughts...
So What is Different About Learning Stories? Tom Drummond on the Power of Story Telling in Early Education Using 'Learning Stories' to Strengthen Teachers Relations with Children

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Public Domain PDF Writing Learning Stories Writing Learning Stories With thanks to Margaret Carr and Wendy Lee who created these gems, have the deepest ideas, and offer here the most comprehensive place to look.

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I often get asked about student portfolios when kindergarten teachers come to visit our classroom.

What are student portfolios?

What things go inside?

How do I collect and store student work?

How do you create a personalised portfolio for each student?

Part 1: What are student portfolios?

When I first started researching and learning more about portfolios, I turned to this book to get started.

Susan Stacey, the author, says that portfolios are a wonderful communication tool to use with parents.

"Family members want to read about and see their own children in action during play and investigations, want to witness their children's unfolding developmental stages, and want to examine work samples from their children." (Stacey, 2015, p.64)

I like to think that portfolios should be:

- created for each child (everyone is unique and so will be his/her portfolio!)

- not only for assessment purposes

- able to show as well as tell about a child's development

And keep in mind, there is no right or wrong way to set up a portfolio! Do what works for you! If you don't have access to binders, use something else (scrapbooks work well too). If you can't print in colour, print in black and white. And if you prefer to store everything online, create a portfolio electronically.

During the first week of school (yes, the most hectic time of year!), we take the photo of each new Year 1 (JK) student and we ask him/her to write their name on a white board. We also write their name underneath as many students coming in do not know how to yet.

Once printed, this serves as the cover page of that student's portfolio.

(We don't change the picture the following year. Rather, we take a photo of the Year 2 student at the end of the year holding a sign that says "This is me at the end of kindergarten" and add it to the back page of the portfolio.)

Think about a place you want to store the portfolios. We have used various shelves in the classroom, and a few years back we purchased this shelf which fit perfectly near our door. We love how our students, and visitors, are able to help themselves to each portfolio and look through them.

One of the things we start with at the beginning of the year is send home a parent/guardian questionnaire. When I took my Kindergarten Part 1 AQ course a few years back with Joanne Babalis, I loved this idea that she shared.

This helps us, as educators, get started with what our students are interested in, their family life outside of school, and let's us plan around that for the first few weeks of school.

This becomes the very first page inside the portfolio.

You will notice that there are 2 versions - one for Year 1 students (JK) and one for Year 2 students (SK) as we keep our students for 2 years.

Part 3: What goes inside?

Keep in mind that student portfolios should be unique, just like that child is, so if you are creating a craft or using a worksheet for the entire class, think about if there is anything that shows student learning or growth.

The easiest place to start? Offer some really wonderful opportunities for your students to explore various classroom centres, such as the Writing Centre or Math Centre, and leave out open-ended provocations where your students can both explore and explain their thinking.

We always carry our iPads to take pictures and videos.

Sometimes we simply print the picture and add that to the portfolio (a picture does say a thousand words!). You can use the free app PicCollage to add writing to it, such as student quotes or your own observations:

We all know how much students love to draw and create so think about setting up a meaningful Writing Centre.

Look at what students create!

We also love to leave out a story book that we have read with the children. They often flip through the book, "reading" it, drawing their favourite part or creating their own story!

You are probably thinking...."What about those students that NEVER visit the writing centre! How do I collect work for them?"

Taking pictures is probably one of the best ways to document student learning. Here's a quick tip: print the picture on half a page (easily done with printer setting on your computer) and ask the students to write/draw about what it is that is happening in that picture. Students love it when they see themselves, or the things they have created, in pictures. And you can even project it on your Smart Board and have that student share with the class!

Often times, children are reluctant to visit the Writing Centre because they might not know how to draw. Scribble writing/drawing is important too, but actually spending time with students showing them that using simple shapes can make pictures come to life.
When we meet with our small groups, some children are shown draw. You can find lots of "step by step" pictures online and compile these into a booklet for your students to look at.

As I mentioned earlier, one of our favourite apps to use is PicCollage. After taking many pictures of students working, we can quickly compile them onto one page, adding quotes or our own notes.
Here's an example: we set out a provocation asking students which numbers they could create using fall counters, ten-frames, and large wooden numbers. These two students chose to figure out how many fall counters there were altogether instead. Look at all the math happening!

We printed this page out twice and added it to both students' portfolios.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with using apps and sorting through your pictures, you can always stick with simply printing a few pictures and pasting them to a paper, along with your notes.

Part 4: Where do I store all of the students work?

Here are some things you might need to think about:

- do your students have a place to hang up and display their work?

- do you have space in your classroom to display the binders?

- how often am I expecting students to write and display their work?

- do I allow them to take it home right away or shall I store it?

- who will be responsible for adding work to the portfolio?

We really believe that the portfolio should be compiled by BOTH the educators and the student. It is, after all, their binder!

We used twine on one of our bulletin boards near the front of the class as a place for students to hang their work using clothespins. (*This also encourages them to write their name on their work!*).

I have seen classrooms that give each student a place to hang their work (idea taken from Joanne Babalis), and we have tried that in the past, but if you are worried about lack of space in the classroom, you can dedicate a bulletin board for everyone to use.

What about all that work?

Joanne also gave me the great idea of storing student work in a monthly learning folder in a large milk crate.

We clear the wall every day or so, once we see it's getting so full that students can't hang their work up, and we file it all away in the monthly learning file folder. At the end of each month, we spend a few minutes with each student and ask him/her to choose one or two pieces of work that they are most proud of to put inside their portfolio. We also insert student work that we find showcases student learning and growth.

Here are a few more examples of how we use technology to showcase student thinking:

Over the years we noticed we have one very big problem with this way of creating student portfolios...

we couldn't share the videos we took of our students' learning!

One of the new things we really wanted to try this year was using QR codes in the classroom. Simply put, QR codes (short for Quick Response) is a bar code that once scanned, takes you to a webpage that displays information (or student videos in our case!). Parents can download the free app, scan the QR code and be redirected to the web page that shows the video of his/her child in action.

*Blog post coming soon all about documenting using QR Codes!***

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I often get asked about student portfolios when kindergarten teachers come to visit our classroom. What are student portfolios? What things go inside? How do I collect and store student work? How do you create a personalised portfolio for each student? Part 1: What are student portfolios?

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In September, we decided to use small, black binders as a way to organize and store certain pieces of student work.  Instead of sending home several loose leaf sheets of paper throughout the week, we date them and pop them into a page protector to be stored in each child’s portfolio.  Despite only being at school for 4 months, it is amazing to flip through the pages and note each child’s growth.  At the end of the year, we will send home your child’s portfolio and know you will enjoy reading and reflecting on their journey this past year.

Here are some examples of what our portfolios contain:

-pieces of documentation from an inquiry we did and pictures used in planning our play

-patterning with pastels, and drawings from our shape hunt

-self portraits drawn by students using small mirrors at multiple points throughout the year!  Check out Michael’s freckles!

-homemade computers and evidence of how big their foot was in October!

Both teachers and children have a say about what goes in their portfolios.  As such, some children have over 20 pieces, where as others may only have six or seven.  Also, because our program is highly individualized, no two portfolios are the same.  For some children, their book is filled with drawings and paintings as they spend a lot of time in the art centre.  For others, their binders contain photos and stories documenting a great play experience they had in the block or sand centre.

Despite their many differences, the one common element to all of our portfolios is that they capture the beauty and growth of our precious students.  Every day, a few children will choose to flip through their portfolio and reflect on their past projects.  When we sit down and have a conversation about their past work, we can talk about what they did, why they chose those materials, or how they might do it differently next time.  The children even notice differences in their work.  One student recently reminisced, “Remember when I was so little and I didn’t leave spaces between my words.. now I always do that!”

If you would like to see your child’s portfolio more regularly, please let us know!  We are happy to send them home, so long as we get them back safely!

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Every year, I like to consider ways that I can improve my teaching practices. I try to develop my goals/plans with the kids in mind: always considering how these changes could positively impact on them and their learning opportunities at school. As many of you know, I'm incredibly passionate about the value of It was this question and my thinking around it that led to one of my goals for this year: documentation, but also how documentation can further solidify home/school relationships and increase parent engagement. Over the summer, I spent a lot of time looking at my documentation of student learning, but also thinking critically about how I can improve in this area. Pedagogical documentation is highlighted in the updated Kindergarten Program Document, and it was an important part of staff development in the role that I played at Camp Power this summer. As I thought more about pedagogical documentation and read more about it, I began to contemplate an uncomfortable question: was I really engaging in "pedagogical documentation" or just "documentation," and did I need to make some necessary changes to my practices? moving from "documentation" to "pedagogical documentation," and making this thinking and learning more visible to parents.

Over the past month, I've addressed this change in different ways. Initially, I decided that I was going to do a few more thorough Learning Stories each day, which included PicCollages and videos of student learning, details about this learning and the connections to the Four Frames, and possible Next Steps. I chose to place them on our class blog in the same section that I placed our story of each day.

The Berry Picking Expedition - A Joint ELP 1 and ELP 2 Adventure!

I had mixed feelings about these stories. On one hand, I loved taking the time to really look closely at one or two bigger areas of learning, either in the classroom or outside. I loved how this learning involved students from two of the Kindergarten classes, and often events or activities from a number of days. Even though my teaching partner, Paula, and I identified next steps in our discussions with each other, writing them down made me more aware of them, and often changed how I responded to student interactions and learning possibilities the next day. I wonder if this led to more targeted instruction for students.

On the other hand, I also struggled with these stories.

They took a long time to write, and I usually wrote them late at night, when I was tired and found it harder to clearly articulate my thoughts.

By the time I finished writing them, it was normally after 9:00, which meant that parents may not even see the blog posts that night, when they could possibly reflect on this learning and extend it at home.

I really value the reflection that comes out of these Usually the time that I put into writing these posts, meant that I didn't have a chance to write a professional blog post on most nights. professional posts and the dialogue on them, and I wondered about the impact of writing fewer of them.

While the Next Steps in these Learning Stories helped with focusing instruction, I continued to wonder how I could share with parents the impact of these goals. I also didn't know what to do about "what comes next." Should I write another blog post? Edit the original one? Or not share this impact at all? This last option did not sit well with me.

This is when I tried another approach. Recently, we've been embedding part of a more specific Learning Story into our Daily Shoot Blog Posts. While we still make a general comment about the day, we also hone in on some of the bigger learning that day, and discuss Next Steps to further this learning in the coming days and/or weeks. This way, we can also make links to previous days, and how our current plans address student needs.

I'm not sure if this latest solution is "just right" yet, but I do like how I can merge the story of our day with more focused Learning Stories. I've also tried to embed some Next Steps into the documentation that I share through my Instagram account.

I've been thinking back to a presentation I saw a couple of years ago by Karyn Callaghan. She spoke a lot about pedagogical documentation, and the value in seeing this documentation not as evaluation, but as truly celebrating the work and learning of the child and what we can do to further support this learning. This is not about comparisons. None of us are perfect, and "Next Steps" should truly be valued as part of the learning process. I see this as equally important for me, and one of the reasons that I'm trying to be open as part of my learning journey. Thanks again to Lisa Noble and the #visiblelearning hashtag that I've continued to follow closely since learning about it. My renewed interest and professional goal around pedagogical documentation will remain an important part of my "visible learning." What's yours? What advice can you offer me as I continue to grow in this area? Here's to a wonderful year of new learning, new reflections, and growth!

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Every year, I like to consider ways that I can improve my teaching practices. I try to develop my goals/plans with the kids in mind: always considering how these changes could positively impact on them and their learning opportunities at school.

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Michelle McKay - Central Board Office (0001)

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Michelle McKay - Central Board Office (0001)

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Professional Judgement

Professional judgement is something teachers exercise daily in their classrooms. ETFO has been advocating for greater recognition of teacher professional judgement for many years. The inclusion of the definition of professional judgement in the 2014-2017 Central Agreement was a significant advancement for teachers.

If you have questions regarding the use of your professional judgement in your practice, please contact Professional Relations Services at 1-888-838-3836 or your local representative.

Copies of Understanding Your Professional Judgement ( PDF | Word) were sent out to schools in the May 2016 Stewards' Mailing. The flyer supports ETFO members as they act upon and advocate for their professional judgement.

ETFO is pleased to announce a new resource series entitled Professional Judgement Matters. These resources will provide ETFO teacher and occasional teacher members with additional support on the issue of exercising professional judgement.

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Professional Judgement Professional judgement is something teachers exercise daily in their classrooms. ETFO has been advocating for greater recognition of teacher professional judgement for many years. The inclusion of the definition of professional judgement in the 2014-2017 Central Agreement was a significant advancement for teachers.

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Welcome to The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario's Professional Learning in the Early Years website. This website has been created as a companion to ETFO's Professional Learning in the Early Years workshop series and a greater support for professional learning.

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Michelle McKay - Central Board Office (0001)

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Kindergarten Frames Overall Expectations - USE.pdf

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Michelle McKay - Central Board Office (0001)

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POTR - Kindergarten Assessment Planning Template

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Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based conceptual framework, which aims to integrate the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters.

Visible Thinking began as an initiative to develop a research-based approach to teaching thinking dispositions. The approach emphasized three core practices: thinking routines, the documentation of student thinking, and reflective professional practice. It was originally developed at Lemshaga Akademi in Sweden as part of the Innovating with Intelligence project, and focused on developing students' thinking dispositions in such areas as truth-seeking, understanding, fairness, and imagination. It has since expanded its focus to include an emphasis on thinking through art and the role of cultural forces and has informed the development of other Project Zero Visible Thinking initiatives, including Artful Thinking, and Cultures of Thinking.

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Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based conceptual framework, which aims to integrate the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. Visible Thinking began as an initiative to develop a research-based approach to teaching thinking dispositions. The approach emphasized three core practices: thinking routines, the documentation of student thinking, and reflective professional practice.