Laura Servage in her article “Making Spaces” encourages educators to think about the role of critical reflection energized by dialogue and conversation. Discourse should be authentic and focus on the meanings or “whys” behind why we do things. These times of collaboration should tackle foundational questions and should always be a place for openness to discussion.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit with my teacher-friend and colleague, Rhona Pederson. Our relationship is one of openness, “where care is the vital centrepiece” (Sonu, “The Professional Development of Two Teacher-Friends”, p.31). We share a passion for loving children and a desire to create as Nel Noddings encourages, “spaces of invitation that allow us to move beyond the mask and share our vulnerability and humanity”.
Our conversation lead us to the challenge of personalizing our teaching by providing honesty and clarity in our assessment practices. With the introduction of the redesigned BC curriculum in September, we felt that our ideas about how assessment took place should be revisited as well. Rhona and I brainstormed together for things we were already doing that we felt were moving us forward in our vision of what assessment should look like: documenting student work using pictures and audio/visual, sending home work that had clear criteria based on learning outcomes, writing daily messages in student Planners, sharing pictures informally with parents, using iPad (Adobe Voice) recordings at parent/teacher interviews and making use of district technology support.
During my last field study I had begun to use the assessment/reporting tool called Fresh Grade. I was impressed with their vision of “making learning visible with a collaborative learning platform”. This reporting system allows for a better representation of individual learning. Teachers, students and parents have access to this interactive and real-time sharing tool that provides a “window into the classroom”. Fresh Grade seems to align itself with our current educational themes: one of which is personalized learning and assessment.
What to do next? Rhona and I will be collaborating and supporting each other as we hope to begin to use Fresh Grade in September, 2016. I the meantime, I have connected Rhona with the district tech support and they will be providing her with technology to experiment with and try out Fresh Grade for the remainder of the year. I am following Fresh Grade on twitter and continuing to read supporting literature and documents. I will use the Fresh Grade account that I have already set up to learn more and practice using the program.