National Board Renewal

In a time when teacher worth is connected to a few classroom observations and student test scores, I decided to pursue renewing my National Board Certification to connect myself with my choices and my students. I, like the thousands of other NBCTs, did not do this to prove that I am better than anyone else. I underwent the process to become better at who I am as a lifelong educator. This means I willingly put my practice under a microscope for other science teachers to evaluate. I defended why my choices in professional development for pedagogy and educational technology made a lasting impact on student achievement. This is exactly the type of reflection I love and crave as a professional.

I just submitted my renewal portfolio which represented 10 years of my growth as an educator. What learning did I accomplish and why was it important to my students? These are the types of questions we should be asking ourselves all of the time. Will this help my classroom? Will my students benefit from a better teacher as a result of my participating in this workshop or is there something more meaningful? As professionals, we owe it to ourselves, our students, and our profession to be reflective in our choices and thoughtful about our own learning endeavors.

After having gone through the NB process for a year 10 years ago with an extended PLC and now for renewal, I see an even greater need for teachers to connect with their colleagues daily and to share their practice. When we share ideas and discuss how our students are performing, we force ourselves to step outside of our comfort zones and become more critically reflective. When I have the opportunity to share ideas about education with other passionate educators, I can feel the fire energizing my brain. Going through National Board, you realize that extreme importance of a professional learning community and not just a common planning team. When we force ourselves to open our doors and invite others in, we can learn from feedback and improve our craft. My hope is that more teachers will seek NB Certification to promote and improve the profession and to become more reflective about their own practices.

Curious about National Board? Visit http://www.nbpts.org/ or http://www.nbpts.org/national-board-candidates

Assessing the Digital Native Student

Assessing the Digital Native Student

It's Thursday and it's time to talk digital learning! The following blog post comes from Rebecca McLelland-Crawley, one of the Project 24 Team of Experts and the K-12 Science Supervisor at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in New Jersey. 

When we think about assessments, it is really easy to pull up an image of multiple choice questions and Ticonderoga pencils en masse. However, my stance on assessment is quite different. Most of the tests created by others and scored with a machine did not capture the strengths of my students. As a matter of fact, I doubt that most tests of this nature can really identify what we truly want our students to do in a global society of the 21st Century. So, how do we as educators design assessments that are capable of capturing their essence? Do not let the era of high-stakes testing make you lose sight of the individual students sitting in your classroom.  

As educators we need to think systematically about our students. Data provides us with an opportunity to help our students become more successful in our classes. In professional learning community (PLC) meetings, we can discuss whether students are able to apply the knowledge they are acquiring and what interventions need to occur. We are also able to brainstorm ways to differentiate for the students who need remediation and for those who need more of a challenge. None of these conversations can occur effectively within a PLC without an initial conversation about data and assessment focused on two fundamental questions:

1. What do we want our students to learn and do?

2. How do we know they do not already know it and can do it?

Before designing any assessment, I find it critical to ask myself and others question #1. Like many other teachers, I wanted my students to think critically, creatively apply their content knowledge, and demonstrate their skills as effective problem-solvers and communicators. I am focused on presenting students with as many authentic problems as they can handle.

Once I shifted my classroom mindset to project-based learning and authentic assessments, I saw the greatest growth in my students with regard to retention and engagement. Looking at things from a practical standpoint, there are simple changes teachers can make when designing assessments. For example, rather than relying on a test about facts related to evolution, the students could be assigned to research something like the fastest case of human evolution and have the students create a social media campaign to educate others. The teachers can include all of the required content as part of the campaign, but in this example, deeper learning competencies are infused as well.

A great resource for designing scoring rubrics on these competencies is the Association of American Colleges and Universities Value Rubrics site. You can download the existing rubrics and work with your PLC to determine what areas a task will assess. A “techie” way to integrate these into your classes is to create a Google Form and have the students self- and peer-assess. Teachers can also add their scores and provide instant feedback for the students.

I'll admit that I am a data junkie. I like to know where my students stand before I begin a unit and I like to check in often to know if misconceptions are being dispelled and if they are really progressing in their knowledge acquisition and application. I encourage the science teachers in my school district to use the AAA Science Assessment website to create quick surveys on student misconceptions. Teachers can use the website question bank to design quick pre-tests on highly researched student misconceptions. This helps identify strengths and weaknesses in order to differentiate the activities of our classrooms. It is also paramount to everything we do as educators because if we do not address their misconceptions in a concerted manner, they will harbor these ideas throughout their lifetime. 

We are in a time of substantial change for educators. Districts administrators need to be aware of the stress that many educators are experiencing and provide them with the opportunity to meet and discuss the data of their students so they can remain focused on students. When we reframe the conversation about data to focus on the progress of the students, teachers will rise to the challenge of creating meaningful assessments to fully represent their students.

(image source: cover art, AACU Peer Review.) 

Rebecca McLelland-Crawley has been a science educator for 15 years and is a member of the Project 24 Team of Experts. She is currently the Science Supervisor for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District. Previously, Rebecca taught Biology, Marine Science, and Advanced Placement Environmental Science for the Perth Amboy School District. Field trips, authentic investigations, and technology play key roles in her instructional strategies. Through a service learning project, her students adopted a local pond and restored the habitat with a $700,000 Green Acres Grant. Her students also taught environmental stewardship to elementary students through Skype, podcasts, and face-to-face mentoring. Rebecca is past president of the Biology Teachers Association of New Jersey and has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as professional learning communities, the flipped classroom, bioscience career awareness, and the New Jersey science curriculums. In 2005, Rebecca was recognized as Teacher of the Year for Perth Amboy High School and named the New Jersey Phi Delta Kappa/Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year. You can follow her on Twitter at @WWPscience.   

Published 5.9.13  http://www.all4ed.org/blog/assessing_digital_native_student