Category Archives: Assessment

Growth mindsets and school wide learning cultures – a perfect mix!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by mwalker

I’ve written before on growth mindsets and this year teachers were keen to include young people developing growth mindsets as a key principle in the new strategic plan. A few teachers are now mentioning this to some parents who have … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Instruction, Teaching | 1 Comment

A twist on parent teacher interviews

Posted on August 28, 2014 by mwalker

This week we completed our 2nd round of parent teacher interviews. They were held in August, which is just over half way through the academic school year. So what’s different you might ask? The students 1/2 year written reports were … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, school, Teaching, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

“education is not a horse race”

Posted on July 3, 2014 by mwalker

Over the holidays I came across an easy to read article by Elliot Einser on Benjamin Bloom. Essentially the article made a some key points about Bloom’s work: education as a process was an effort to realize human potential, indeed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, curriculum, differentiation, Instruction, Instructional Rounds, Teaching | 1 Comment

EPS visits Jefferson Elementary School in New York

Posted on June 26, 2014 by mwalker

This blog entry is the eighth in a series from the team visiting schools in the States and comes to you from the ‘Big Apple.’ Today we visited Jefferson Elementary School (K-5), located in upstate New York in a town called … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Assessment, Data Wise Program, Instruction, Leadership, school, Teaching | 2 Comments

EPS visit Joseph Lee and Harvard-Kent schools in Boston

Posted on June 25, 2014 by mwalker

Here is our new post, sent from South Station, Boston. This is the seventh post in the series from the team participating in the Data Wise Institute at Harvard. (Penny, Jess, Erin and Sarah) Today we visited two schools within … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Leadership, professional learning, Teaching | 2 Comments

Elsternwick PS meets Tobin Montessori in Boston

Posted on June 24, 2014 by mwalker

Continuing the series of posts written by Jess, Erin and Sarah 3 teachers attending the Harvard Institute and now visiting schools. Today we visited The Tobin School in Cambridge. This school was familiar to us, as we had read about … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Networks of Schools, school, Teaching | 2 Comments

teaching trades and technology

Posted on June 22, 2014 by mwalker

This post is written by Malcolm Dawson, Carpentry Trade Teacher, Holmesglen Institute, Victoria. Bob Dylan must have known something when he wrote the song “The times they are a changing” and there certainly has been a shift in the way things are … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Teaching, Technology | 3 Comments

Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 5.

Posted on June 22, 2014 by mwalker

Well…it’s over. Today was a celebration of our journey so far. We spent some time-sharing our insights and dilemmas with another school, and used something called the “consultancy protocol” to give and receive feedback around our journey to date. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, history, Teaching | 4 Comments

Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 4

Posted on June 20, 2014 by mwalker

Today all the 8 pieces of the Data Wise Improvement Process came together. We  collaborated with teachers from other Elementary schools on a case study about a school in Texas. We used real data, student work samples and videos of … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Networks of Schools, professional learning, Teaching, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 3

Posted on June 19, 2014 by mwalker

We are now officially over half way through the course, and what a whole lot of learning has taken place. We feel that in a sense there has been growth on four different levels – personal, team, school and beyond … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Teaching, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 2

Posted on June 18, 2014 by mwalker

Today was a significant day for new learning, during which the ideas we had established in the morning session, had dramatically changed by lunch time. Following the morning session, in which the Principal of the BART Public Charter School, Ben Klompus, … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Teaching, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Naplan hits headlines

Posted on May 1, 2014 by mwalker

This article headlined in my school newsletter this week and I have invited comments. Unless you are a teacher or parent of student in Years 3, 5, 7 or 9 you may switch off when reading a newspaper headline with … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Assessment, Harvard, Teaching | 4 Comments

Is there a mindset change needed to engage parents when using formative assessment during parent teacher interviews?

Posted on March 10, 2014 by mwalker

I’ve been thinking lately about our upcoming parent teacher interviews which we now hold in March and August of each year and whether we need to reset the context for both teachers and parents? Let me set a little background … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Sister School, Teaching | Leave a comment

Data Stars

Posted on August 11, 2013 by mwalker

At a recent staff meeting we were busy celebrating some new data which showed improved student learning results for the first semester this year. This clip shows a small part of those celebrations and I think the importance of humour.

Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Leadership, school administration, Video Clips | 4 Comments

Is drill and kill the right approach to learning to spell?

Posted on May 19, 2013 by mwalker

My headline is in lots of ways misleading for there is no one right way to learn to spell efficiently in English. In the 60’s and 70’s we made students learn to spell lists of words through repetition or drill … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, differentiation, Instruction, Teaching | 10 Comments