December+9th+Minutes

Thursday, December 9th, 2010 4:15pm-6:15pm Attendance: Bob St. Cyr, Anne McSweeney, Jill Greeley, Deb Lablonde, Jennifer Carrobis, Karen Bradley, Cheryl St. Pierre, Sean Pine, Mary Heath, Becky Berk, Hayley Whittum, Marge Polak, Dana Salvatti, Rand Cayer ** Points Discussed  ** The “Best Practices” team has been renamed the “Research” team. This should help us focus more on “what can be” rather than “what is” Before moving ahead, the focus of our work should be to define the 21st Century Learner. The goal now is no longer to adapt an existing assessment plan but to create a new plan that meets the needs of our district, our teachers, and our students. A webinar with Heidi Hayes Jacobs will be posted on the Instruction Committee’s Wiki shortly. The webinar focuses on the use and effectively of technology in education. ** Chapter 3-4 Book Talk-  ** using the information and talking points from the book we engaged in elaborate conversations about what we expect from our wok on this committee and what we hope to achieve. The focus should be on the purpose of assessment. We need to decide what we feel classroom assessment should look like. Assessment must be tied to instructional goals. It is essential that we discuss goals and standards with students as well as share a range of work samples before beginning a unit of study. We should begin with the end in mind to build assured learning outcomes for all grade levels across all the schools within SAU 15. We came to the conclusion that the work that lays ahead of us will be challenging as we will need to “define our own path as we create it”. Change will be a constant in the new meaning of education. Just as we design pre-tests to help drive instruction in the classroom, assessing where we are as a district now will help us to see how much work we have ahead of us. You need to know where you’re starting or you don’t know how to get to the end. What should the end point be? Assessment shouldn’t be considered solely paper-and-pencil assessments. What system do we need to put in place to be sure students are able to demonstrate their learning? We should be trying to include formative daily assessments. Assessment shouldn’t be an isolated event. We need to assess and understand the environment necessary for learning to occur and for students to demonstrate their learning. Jill shared a football analogy. Assessment drives the game. The coach constantly assesses progress and performance and redirects the game. Assessment is ongoing throughout the game-not after it. Are we only looking to assess student knowledge and performance or should we also be assessing our curriculum and our teachers? Using written expression and oral explanations will help students demonstrate their knowledge and their thought process. Teachers can learn a lot from their students this way. We should do the same with the community. Talk to teachers, parents and students to find out where they are and what they’re thinking. What is their impression of our current assessment practices? What do they feel is needed to improve on our plan? Feedback and input from teachers in the district is essential for change to be possible and effective. Regardless what // we // feel the perfect assessment is, we need to be sure that our assessments are measurable and provide norm data. Students need to leave SAU 15 and be comparable to students outside of the district. The Communication Committee will work on building opportunities to share with other committees, other schools, and with the community. ** Other points  ** Cheryl St. Pierre shared a bibliography of materials from a recent conference. She will post the bibliography on the Wiki. GotoMeeting.com Becky shared information on gotomeeting.com and demonstrated use of the program. This is a web based collaborative software program or workspace. It allows up to 15 people to participate. The “presenter” can share the screen and even pass over the mouse to other members of the workgroup. Once in control over the mouse, other members can alter, modify, and edit documents on the screen from any other computer. AWESOME PROGRAM! ** // Next Meeting Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 4:15 pm in Candia  // ** Agenda items: Book talk Chapters 5-6.
 * Good to Great Assessment Meeting **