I'm a sharer. I'm a disruptor. I believe that a sound assessment pedagogy is the key to student success.
I’m an extrovert. No wait, I’m not just an extrovert. I am a certifiable, put me in the spotlight, please give me attention, extrovert. That's more accurate. Extroverts, in case you don’t know, are completely aware of their cravings for attention and are far from obtuse about it. I have no issues telling someone I’m … Continue reading An Extrovert in Isolation
Slam Poem about making sense of Covid 19- The Problem is Video reading - https://youtu.be/DUNW87sdyRM
Once upon a time, in a far away gradebook, oh about fifteen to twenty odd years ago, there was a keen and eager teacher who wanted to create an assessment for an English 9 short fiction unit. She laboured over the assessment and decided that a test would be the finest of fits for her … Continue reading Content, A Fairy Tale
For the first week of school, a young man (Let’s call him Brad) hid in his hoodie in my Humanities 8 room. He refused to do any work. I pulled him out, one day, and questioned him in an authoritarian manner. It's the beginning of the school year and I needed to show him I … Continue reading Syncing Maslow with Bloom
I love Bloom's Taxonomy. I literally have a picture on my phone, another pinned to my bulletin board by my desk, one in my marking bag, and a copy saved to the desktop of every computer I work on in the school, plus one on my H: drive and my flash drives...err...make that flash drives. … Continue reading How do I love Bloom’s Taxonomy…let me count the ways…
The dynamic of my Drama classes is a special one. I get students from all walks of life: academic, athletic, eclectic, quiet, loud, at risk, behavioral, funny, awkward, and musical. They all seem to be able to find a place to call home in a Drama class. The kid who feels unsuccessful at Math discovers … Continue reading Teaching Special Needs students is a privilege
In my forties, I have not been able to endure any kind of major dental work, other than a routine cleaning, without the support of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. Even with that gaseous wonder, I still feel a slight panic when they cover my face with a rubber dam and inject the freezing. My … Continue reading Going gradeless is like a root canal
I've had the gradeless mindset for a while, but it wasn't until my principal got behind it, this past September, that our school went gradeless in grade 7-9. Now that doesn't mean that teachers went gradeless in their classrooms. With respect to them, taking the plunge into gradeless assessment is a huge, complicated endeavor, so … Continue reading I’d like to introduce…my cups
