Assessments are the hardest part for me as a teacher. Because of the students I teach I always have to ensure that I am assessing them rigorously. Not only that I have to make sure it can measure up to the difficult assessments that the district will come up with. A lot of times when my students are assessed they are surprised by what is going on because it resembles standards that we have not even been told to cover. When I am not having to utilize what my district gave me, I give quick quizzes and tests on Socrative. That is a website that Ms. Halford gave me to use. It's really cool because it grades things for me. When I am in the classroom a type of formative assessment that I use is the show your cards method. The students simply hold up a card that matches how they feel about a lesson. This helps me correct any problems while the lesson is still going on so that when we do take an assessment that student does not fail. I love this method and I believe my students enjoy it as well. Sometimes I will assign my students a video to watch that has questions inside. They cannot move on until they have answered. This is also a great way of assessing. It really just depends on the lesson. Certain lessons require more quick checks, while others will not. Either way assessing students is what ensures that they are ready for the things that my district hands out. I actually just heard that I may be able to create my own district assessment! I'm so excited! Wish me luck!
I will honestly say with the ups and owns of Jackson Public Schools, the way I assess my students has become more of a burden then a way to assess growth. I used to use things like Plickers, online testing systems for quick checks, and interactive assessments. That has been lost, and when I stepped in these doors on my first day, that was something I knew would happen. See, at Blackburn, technology is limited, broken, and sometimes stolen. That makes online testing systems difficult even though we have a database that can be used. Right now the assessments I use are given by the district. They measure the students across Jackson Public Schools commonly, which…in my opinion I feel is a bit unfair. See, my problem with that is when you measure students from Northwest and Bailey, they don’t have things like suspensions. They have… “You’re getting sent back to your old school,” because they are APAC and IB schools, the detrimental effects of home life are less evasive. The students are also scared to come back to their home schools, so they attempt to be on their best behavior. The lack of equality in our schools when it comes to assessments, methods of assessments, and means of administering assessments is atrocious. I guess that was simply a rant, because I still can’t figure out what to do. While having a conversation with a friend of mine we discussed what could possibly be done by teachers to bridge that gap. We decided, it would be difficult. State tests are on the computer, district tests are on the computer, but the students won’t be successful because they have no computer experience. Now that I am here, I have to make the best of this. My students love Kahoot, and if we had the technology for this informal assessment tool, we would use it everyday. We use white boards now, and games from Scholastic. They love it, they don’t know any different. When I finally get my promethean board fixed up and my computer as well, we will start using the clicker system that goes with it. As far as how I use the assessments to change how I teach, one thing I’ve learned is that nothing about the common assessments are college ready. This has made me incorporate more writing and college level experiences in my classroom. Yes, we have to fill out data analysis sheets to show and validate how I will use the poor scores to teach, but at the end of the day, it takes a bit more than just teaching. As I mentioned before, a sick child, a tired child, a hungry child, or a scared child will not perform well on an assessment. They may not even perform as well as they did on the common assessment. They will however be able to discuss and make comparisons about things happening in life and literature. I feel that if I’ve done that maybe they really aren’t failing.
I will honestly say with the ups and owns of Jackson Public Schools, the way I assess my students has become more of a burden then a way to assess growth. I used to use things like Plickers, online testing systems for quick checks, and interactive assessments. That has been lost, and when I stepped in these doors on my first day, that was something I knew would happen. See, at Blackburn, technology is limited, broken, and sometimes stolen. That makes online testing systems difficult even though we have a database that can be used. Right now the assessments I use are given by the district. They measure the students across Jackson Public Schools commonly, which…in my opinion I feel is a bit unfair. See, my problem with that is when you measure students from Northwest and Bailey, they don’t have things like suspensions. They have… “You’re getting sent back to your old school,” because they are APAC and IB schools, the detrimental effects of home life are less evasive. The students are also scared to come back to their home schools, so they attempt to be on their best behavior. The lack of equality in our schools when it comes to assessments, methods of assessments, and means of administering assessments is atrocious. I guess that was simply a rant, because I still can’t figure out what to do. While having a conversation with a friend of mine we discussed what could possibly be done by teachers to bridge that gap. We decided, it would be difficult. State tests are on the computer, district tests are on the computer, but the students won’t be successful because they have no computer experience. Now that I am here, I have to make the best of this. My students love Kahoot, and if we had the technology for this informal assessment tool, we would use it everyday. We use white boards now, and games from Scholastic. They love it, they don’t know any different. When I finally get my promethean board fixed up and my computer as well, we will start using the clicker system that goes with it. As far as how I use the assessments to change how I teach, one thing I’ve learned is that nothing about the common assessments are college ready. This has made me incorporate more writing and college level experiences in my classroom. Yes, we have to fill out data analysis sheets to show and validate how I will use the poor scores to teach, but at the end of the day, it takes a bit more than just teaching. As I mentioned before, a sick child, a tired child, a hungry child, or a scared child will not perform well on an assessment. They may not even perform as well as they did on the common assessment. They will however be able to discuss and make comparisons about things happening in life and literature. I feel that if I’ve done that maybe they really aren’t failing.