My thoughts are in UPPERCASE. I can see much of this might be incoherent…if there’s value or need for clarification or discussion, leave a comment.

Conference page

Doug Reeves: Four Questions

• What do students need to learn?
• How do we know they’ve learned it..before the tests?
• What are the most effective teaching and learning strategies?

Speaking about accountiblity for central office administrators…everyone is accountable

STARTING TO HATE THAT WORD.

Reassess what you’ve learn with PLC’s and dig deeper…don’t retool…I LIKE THAT

Equity Gaps

Clear evidence to say that reducing this gap is not about outside factors such as socio-economic factors…it’s about what schools and teachers do

Brand names or programs are a myth….deep implementation of a few things makes a difference

Leadership Map

Lucky…high achievers…replication of success unlikely

Losing…low achievers… replication of success unlikely

Learning….low results…replication of success likely

Leading…high achievers…replication of success likely

Don’t use scores alone….demonstrate and account for learning that doesn’t yield high test scores…focus on improvements

What is your level of implementation? No need to do one more new thing. Just do it better and deeper…research has been out for a while…if 90% of teachers participate

• Recognition of Achievement….do you have a trophy case? Teachers who systematically recognize achievement see better results
• Aligning Standards….
• Assignment of teachers based on needs…instead of teacher preference
• Modeling and Mentoring of instructional strategies
• Engaging Classroom Environments….posting standards and excellent work POSTING WHERE..IN THE CLASSROOM? I THINK THERE’S A BETTER PLACE
• Deep Content of Analysis
• Monitoring
• Teaching Strategies

These are not new things….but they’ve never been deeply implemented…we assume too much…we haven’t done these things well

It’s their Culture …how to we deal with minority issues or in our case First Nations.

evidence shows that blacks and hispanics popularity declined as grades went past 3.0

2nd grade students when asked, “who do you want to be like?” focus on other high achievers

7th grade students are wanting more and more to be like lower achievers

Rules of games are consistent…grades aren’t…after a while, kids don’t want to play anymore….of things that are important, we have consistency….why not grading

I LIKE THE PRINCIPLE BUT DOES THIS LEAD TO STANDARDIZED TESTS AND DUMBING DOWN OF WORK IN ORDER TO MANAGE IT?

Toxic Grading Practices and Alternatives

• Zeros for missing work….instead…apply Larry the Cable Guy’s practice…”git ‘er done”
• Average/Mean…instead…evaluate best representation of work

Semester killer-one project or test…multiple evidence of learning

Change Killers

• Toxic Feedback….set teachers up with success….tell them what you’re looking for and give them feedback the same day
• Hierarchial Communication…Networking is better….WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS BEFORE IN ACTION?
• Blame…those who believe achievement is due to teacher decisions as opposed to those who blame kids and other factors

Effective Change

• Do we watch just kids or teachers?
• What and who are the cause of achievement?
• Evaluation…is it working?
• Differentiated PD
  • 4,3,2.,1
    • I will lead
    • I will model
    • Iknow about this but don’t use it
    • I’m not familiar

    Holistic Accountablility

  • Science Fair for adults..sharing and transparency…I CALL IT BLOGGING
  • Conversations
  • Remove excuses
  • Watch those that do it right

  DOUG OFFERS SOMES GREAT STUFF AND TO ME IS CHALLENGING TYPICAL CLASSROOMS….COMBINE THIS WILL TOOLS OF ENGAGEMENT AND MEANING AND I THINK SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS WOULD LOOK QUITE DIFFERENT

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