Assessment: a procedure for making observations and inferences.

There is no "valid" assessment, only valid interpretations.

His go-to assessments: white boards

Make sure you have lots of opportunities to assess, even if they're small (holding up white boards, etc.).

Reteach when necessary, even with adults!

"Work smarter, not harder."

We need to know the purpose of what we are asking/trying to interpret.

Pick your battles; relational phase; as long as the students get there it's okay if they do it differently.

Greatest advice to a new teacher: teach to the test.

Our instruction needs to have opportunities for flexible thinking!

Have the end in mind (goal, purpose).

Books:

• The Teacher Clarity Playbook

  • Are your kids cognitively engaged?

• IES Practice Guides

  • Helping kids who are struggling, word problem advice

  • Can submit questions to researchers

• John Pegg - Solo Taxonomy

  • Nice approach to assessment

A good teacher is a good coach.

Why should we (I) teach?

• You won't know until you meet your students, and then you'll know; you won't have to ask again.

• You have an opportunity to pour life into kids everyday.

Assessment

• Go-to: whiteboards (because assessments are constant to know where they're at), look at kids on the same basis, map it out,

• Where are we going, where do we need to go, where should we end up

• Did they grow?

• Should be fluid

How to work smarter not harder: COLLABORATION with your team; and you'll get more done.

Small groups with teacher

• Your higher level kids still need to grow

• Struggling kids will ask questions they didn't want to in class

"Show me what you know"

New teacher tip: Don't walk alone - coworkers, parents

• Go into other teachers' classrooms; can get tips and tricks

Books:

• How Do You Hug a Porcupine?

  • You have to be careful with some students just like in the story.

Kids are caring.

Why should we teach?

• Going home with stories (hard and good)

• The impact/connections you make can last a lifetime

• When it's tough, go back to your why

WIG (Wildly Important Goals)

• Make class goals and she gives little personal calendars that students can keep track with

Anchor charts !!

• During learning

• Exit tickets

Flexible seating

• Different days that they can choose first

Put student projects up in the room.

Learning posters (grammar, math, etc.) to help learning.

Assessment: when you have a goal/objective and you have to assess and see whether you've made that goal, whether through formative or summative assessments.

Go-to assessment: rubrics (help tie back directly to standards; make your own so you know what standards you're wanting students to master and whether they did or not)

How to work smarter, not harder: use rubrics

• We don't have to send massive amounts of homework to assess, figure out how to utilize formative assessments quickly to determine learning

• Don't have to grade everything

• Can use thumbs up/down, whiteboards for immediate assessments

If you have good relationships and clear expectations with your students, they will listen and do what is asked 99% of the time

Guide students in their independence.

Clear expectations for students

Peer conferencing

Coaching them

Asking how we can help them

New teacher advice: have procedures and routines from DAY ONE because you can't teach them after a time has passed

• Even the simple things like lining up expectations, etc

Book: Learning By Doing

• PLC (professional learning community)

Book: Excellence In Every Classroom

• Procedures and routines in place, standards in place, engaging activities

We help students grow in school, emotionally, socially, etc.

Assessments

• Can students apply the knowledge? Doesn't matter how, but can they show it?

• *It isn't always going to be what you expected, they all learn differently and apply their knowledge differently

• Have the types of assessments be open-ended

• Independence, owning their own assessing

Make learning continuously grow - not just take a test and be done.

• How can they improve?

Students should know the expectations.

Five essential questions for the standard and for students to know.

Have students peer-teach

How to work smarter, not harder: you're going to be overwhelmed at first, so take a piece of something that you can do and do the best you can with it and then add another piece, and so on

• "What's soemthing you can do tomorrow to make the biggest impact on that (something small)?"

• Make little changes over time, not trying to bite off the whole thing at once

The parents should know that you know and understand their kid

Take the time to get to know them; spend time with them, eat lunch with them, make connections, show you care, what makes them tick

• There's a secret combination to every kid that you can figure out by spending more time getting to know them

Book: Culture Code

• Culture of the building, your plc, is crucial to your growth

• Making sure you're checking in on everyone

Book: Small Bets

• Make a goal, and steps to get there that are clearly defined and can make the biggest impact

• Everybody moving in the same direction

Book: Deeper Learning

• Will help you understand the different cultures coming into your classroom

• Going deeper, how do you dig in, roll up your sleeves, and go

• Equity

We have such a big impact on students and are role models for them!

Connections can last a lifetime.

Why should we teach?

• The time we need education most is when it's being attacked (right now)

• We can be a stable, loving, caring peson in our students' lives who may not have that

• You can change people's stories by checking in and loving them a little bit more, especially when they need it the most

Assessment

• an estimation of the quality or nature of something

• a snapshot of a student on a particular day

• a piece of information as an estimation of something about a student

• Dylan William - "There are no valid assessements, only valid interpretations."

• MTSS/RTI

• Have a good screener, good diagnostics, good means of monitoring progress

Formative assessments

• exit tickets, quizzes

Look at all students as gen ed students

Have good academic measures

Partner with service providers (speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers)

How to work smarter, not harder:

• you have to have a process which all team members are on the same page

• work as part of a bigger team

• have a framework for how you're going to utilize assessment, look at data, figure out what data means

• trust the process

Do everything you can for every student - they may be behind in grade levels, but be very smart cognitively

• figure those things out for the student

• work with other professionals to do this

Teacher tips:

• students are going to look to you to form relationships

• your impact goes a long way

• assessment has its place, but all roads lead back to intervention

Books:

• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

• Jack Fletcher

• Janusz Korchak

Why should we teach:

• Kids need you

• You can instantly change a student's life the second you meet them

• You get to shape our future

• You are making a huge impact on students' lives

She was the national teacher of the year for 2020

She taught for 12 years and is now a teaching coach and special ed teacher

Assessment

• gives an accurate picture of where students are

Olatha Pre-K uses specific assessment tools that help you modify assessments to each individual students

Books:

• Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey

• How to Build an Equitable Classroom

She educated herself on diversity

Why should you teach?

• Passionate in what you do

• Make a difference in the lives of others

Assessment

• getting to know what the kids know and how to use that information

• "know what you know"

• Go-to: exit tickets with sticky notes or pictures with diagrams

How to work smarter, not harder:

• give students a lot of responsibility and let them do the work

• you don't need them to do a million papers to see what they know

Start off the year with tons of procedures, it is always worth it to do more

She got to teach in China, and that experience inspired her to become a teacher

Have an All-About-Me board to put students' work on

She has a color-changing light that shows what voice level to be at

Flexible seating!! She only has comfy seating

• rolling chairs

• couches

• cafe-style stools

Special Education

Assessment

• informal or just observation for some

• others can handle tests and other forms of assessment

• Go-to: FNPs (benchmark assessments) in reading; map tests are less important to her

Assessment

• a tool to know what the students are ready to learn next

• helps guide the teacher

• Go-to: fast and easy assessments with short attention spans

• ex: cubes to show the number five

Rules and routines are so important: she takes the first whole month to go over them

How to work smarter not harder: share the load with your teaching team

• She works with her team on Tuesdays to plan

Teacher tip:

• Leave all the things in your personal life at home!

• Start each day fresh

• ALWAYS greet students at the door

It is her best day when all of her students are present

Assessment:

• its all about making observations in the classroom

• it is not a paper and pencil type thing

• Go-to: small groups; that's where you can see where students are really at, and connect and make them better than they are

How to work smarter, not harder:

• be a team with your other teachers!

• divide and conquer

• let everyone do what they are best at

A classroom is a family, and you have to take the time to get to know each student

Show your students that they are worthy of your time and that you truly care for and about them

• this will help with behavior management

• attend their after-school activities

Books:

• Despite the Best Intentions

• has a lot of data about kids with special needs and helps teachers understand students with autism and other social-emotional needs

Why should we teach?

• It's so impactful

• You are a part of every student's journey

• You help your students know who they can become

• You get to be a small part of a student's dream

Even on the hard days, we are a part of something bigger. Focus on the bigger picture.

A lot of the advice of each guest mentor was similar. Most, if not all, of them talked about how great of an impact we have on our future students. Because of this, we need to show them we care for and about them by giving them responsibilities, trusting them, including them in the assessment process, and attending their music concerts and other after school activities.

One of the assessment strategies that quite a few of the guest mentors talked about was having a lot of fast and easy assessments. For example, having students record their answer on a whiteboard and holding it up, exit tickets on sticky notes, etc. This will give you a quick answer of "Did they learn what I intended them to?"