Sherry Bennett: Reflections after Two Decades of Learning with AAC My first encounter with the Alberta Assessment Consortium was in 1999, when Robert Hogg, new to his role as AAC Executive Director, invited me to join the AAC summer development workshop. Through many conversations about this thing called ‘assessment for learning’, I gained insights about
Pat Lore: Reflections at the End of a 9-Year Secondment Have you ever felt like you were in a relationship that just wasn’t working as well as you wanted it to? That wasn’t helping you live your best life? I have, and that relationship is with assessment. I’m closing in on the end of my
9 Big Ideas about Student Engagement and Motivation – for This Year and Every Year! It can be hard enough to keep students interested in their school work when spring arrives and the weather warms up. This spring poses special challenges. Students are parents are growing increasingly weary with the schooling situation they find themselves
We’ve heard this a lot – but now more than ever, parents are essential partners in our students’ education. Let’s be clear – we haven’t moved to wholesale home schooling, but rather to learning at home. There is a fundamental difference in that language. Teachers are still very much responsible for making decisions regarding instructional
The most important thing we can do to help our students – and their families right now is to encourage them to take care of their physical and emotional health. We talk about hand washing and social distancing – but what if we gave emotional distancing from grades a try!
If you’re reading this, you probably already know that AAC has a collection of performance tasks on our website, designed for teachers to use with their students in class. Maybe you’ve even used some of them in the past. Some tasks are available only to AAC members, but there are others, particularly in middle grades
It’s never been very helpful to argue with kids about homework, and that is especially true right now. With so much uncertainty in the world, it’s no surprise that many kids (and parents, too) are finding it hard to focus on something as ordinary as schoolwork. We keep hearing that we are all in this
Time to Make Lemonade! It’s been said that when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Well, it appears that we’ve been gifted a very large shipment of lemons. I’m not pretending that things are fine, because they’re not. If any have ever doubted our connection to a worldwide community, there is no question at
To Fret or Refocus: That is the Question! Ruth Sutton, one of AAC’s long-time assessment friends posed the following question at the Fall 2015 AAC Leadership Day. How do you hang onto your sanity and your confidence and your resilience and your health when things around you seem to be changing, and not always rationally?
Whenever we do a workshop , we always showcase something from our fabulous AAC website. Participants are often surprised, because they had no idea the wealth of resources that are part of their AAC membership. We may be a bit biased, but were pretty confident there’s no better place to access resources to support quality
Performance assessment is not just a passing fad – it is an essential part of a complete and balanced assessment plan. Let’s be honest – some outcomes simply can’t be measured by a test or quiz. And just because students need to complete some multiple choice tests during their schooling doesn’t mean that we have
The test is coming! The test is coming! Break out the practice questions and bubble sheets!! We know that some of our students are required to take large-scale assessments, and that the results matter, to a greater or lesser degree, to students, parents, teachers, schools, and districts. Naturally, we want our students to perform to
If you have a child beyond Kindergarten, you’ve probably heard about school assessment being divided into two categories: formative and summative. People may have even explained the difference. But in plain language – why does it matter? Isn’t a grade a grade? Well, as it turns out, assessment and grades are two different things! Assessment
Hey Leaders! Do you know how important your work is? Seriously! It’s true. In a review of the research, Leithwood, Louis, Anderson and Wahlstrom (2004) determined that “…leadership not only matters: it is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning…” With the new TQS and LQS officially in place,
Report cards, conferences, checking the online parent portal for the latest entry, looking at your child’s test or project rubric – what matters most to you? Is it your child’s grades? Where they are in relation to their classmates? Or are you more concerned with their attitude toward learning? Where they’re being successful, and where
Report cards or progress reports, and parent/student/teacher conferences can be a stressful time, no matter when they take place. Some parents seem focused on grades. Some want class averages. Some want to know that their child is at the top of the class. Some want to know that their child isn’t at the bottom of