Assessment, Inquiry, Indigenous education, inclusion, UDL! Oh MY!

I am sure many of us educators are drowning in the fact that our profession like many others constantly have new initiatives or areas of focus or guidelines that we have to adapt and change to. Change is good, in fact I would say that it's human. Humans from the time we're conceived to the day we die are in a constant state of growth in some shape or form. However, we all know that when we have too much coming at us we get overwhelmed and for some choose not to even try to change because "what we've been doing, worked."

Yes, what we did before worked, but that was before new learning took place. Just like our students our learning should grow and change over time - the purpose of professional development when taken seriously and with care. If I taught the same way now that I did 15 years ago I would not be who I am today as a teacher. Looking back I have grown in my practice so much that I could not fathom going back in time and saying that what I did then worked, so why change?!

This brings me to my last few years of professional development through keynote speakers, conferences, workshops, books, social media PLC. It all started in February 2020 just before the "Great Shutdown." I started my day with keynote speaker Mark C. Perna and his message about students finding passion and purpose and how that leads to performance. This was followed by a workshop with Trevor MacKenzie and diving into the concept of Inquiry which at time was new to me.

Then of course, came the shutdown. This event in all of our lives completely changed how we viewed the world, our communities, our friends and family, and even ourselves. Our sense of belonging to these aspects of our lives was put on hold. The following school year, for me at least, we were back in the classroom, but dramatically different. Octets (condensed 21-day classes), masks, no school cultural events, no gatherings, NO CONNECTION.

During this year, I remember having a ZOOM pro D day with Tom Schimmer. We had no idea who he was at the time and we were in a not-so-ideal state of mind now teaching in covid times. I specifically remember how he explained that our gradebooks are probably made up of some, maybe many categories. This is when I got mad, because 1) my gradebook didn’t look like that and 2) at the time, I felt that students needed some type of consequence for handing in work late as they weren’t learning how to be good citizens. However, in reality, I never took off late marks, but knew of colleagues that did. So, I stewed on this topic until I got my LS/prep octet blocks (3+4) and had time to let some information sink in. During this time, I read Tom’s Inside Out book and had many conversations with my principal at the time– learned that he is very passionate about assessment– and it was during this time that I decided that I wasn’t going to sit and watch the ducks pass by because, if you know me, I don’t sit and when I decide to do something, I dive in with my all.

So began my assessment journey which has since opened up so many doors and expanded my PLC ten-fold. My assessment journey was greatly woven with Inquiry, I read two of Trevor's books, my fav being his Assessment Edition. These two topics have been my focus over the past couple of years and I have greatly influenced how I teach and interact with my students. I even developed a new course, Intro to Careers in Teaching 12, for our school district (here). In this new course, I specifically chose to use the design thinking skills of BC's ADST courses because I believe them to be powerful catalysts for change. They are difficult skills to learn, but once learned they change they way you think - a comment students have made!

This year I took on another challenge of trying to indigenous how I teach in my classes as I believe that he First People's Principles of Learning are my mindset and felt that I needed to be more explicit with my incorporation of indigenous knowledge. I am proud of what I am changing in my classes. Of course, I also believe in inclusion and UDL - enjoyed yet another Keynote: Jennifer Katz as well as Tom Schimmer's most recent (Feb 27, 2023) podcast with Shelley Moore.

What I am trying to say here, is that it's OK if you can't take on EVERY new initiative that comes your way. Choose 1, maybe 2, and and focus on those until you're ready to scaffold in additional learning. I currently don't have time to read and understand the complexity of UDL. I can do some of the easy parts, but know that I need time to properly learn before I can implement with my students. On my projects page, check out some of the stuff that I am currently working on, use it, change it, critique it! We're all on a learning journey and support and collaboration are at the heart of change.