Looking closer at assessment data

Today our professional development focused on using data from assessment and what we know about what makes students learn to think about how we can raise achievement. We learnt how to use the student over time report to compare scale scores to reflect on a students learning over a year. 

My key learning today has been about selecting the appropriate test for the student. This will help me receive more accurate information to make the decisions of 'where to next' for a student.

Will (ro)bots/AI reduce the need for human teachers?

Our inquiry tonight at the Mindlab was based on the question of whether robots could replace teachers or reduce the need for them completely. For our group (Myself, Vikki, Vanessa) we were surprised to discover that robots are currently being used for teaching.. especially after viewing the following video..

Following this we had a few questions :

How long will it take?

What is the difference between Bots/ Robots

What impact will robots/bots have on teachers?

How will this impact teachers now?

Are they currently using robots for teaching?

How will robots teacher the whole person( Hauora)

How will Robots affect teaching?

How does a robot do lesson planning?

How does a robot plan for student needs and diverse learning styles? Can it differentiate?

These are questions we are still thinking about, and will ponder this more in the future. As we researched various sites (Unitec library, Google Scholar) we did not find conclusive evidence to support our initial wonderings ... so may be more research needed.

Engagement & Agency

Thank you Alicia for your post on engagement and agency.  A highlight for me was taken from 7 Ways to Increase Student Engagement.

1. Use the 10:2 method. For every 10 minutes of instruction allow the students 2 minutes to process and respond to the instruction. This can be done in various ways by having them write what they have learned, questions they may have, or by discussing the content with a fellow student.
2. Incorporate movement into your lessons. Require students to respond to a question by moving to a certain spot in the room, writing on whiteboards, or standing (or sitting) when they are done thinking about the question, etc.
3. Pick up the pace. One misconception is that we must go slow for students to really understand and engage in a lesson. There is a lot of evidence that shows that when teaching is at a brisk instructional pace, students have more opportunities to engage, respond, and move on to the next concept (Carnine & Fink, 1978; Williams, 1993; Ernsbarger et al., 2001).
4. Provide frequent and effective feedback.
5. Allow students 5-7 seconds of ‘think time’ when asking a question. At the end of the time draw a random name to answer the question.
6. At the end of a lesson have students use the 3-2-1 method of summarizing by having students record three things they learned, two interesting things, and one question they have about what was taught. Allow time to share their findings with a peer.
7. Periodically pause mid-sentence when teaching requiring students to fill in the blanks.

EdPuzzle away...

Further to my post from last year... I am excited to say I have used EdPuzzle again. I think this is an effective tool for creating learning activities that are relevant to your specific environment and tasks. I also discovered that I could link a class from Google Classroom in EdPuzzle !

Here goes: Privacy Matters

Here are some advantages of using EdPuzzle through Google Classroom

• students are able to comment individually without judgment of peers
• students can watch and answer questions at their own pace
• student voice is heard

Google Classroom

For our second assignment for Mindlab Postgrad studies our task was to investigate and use a digital tool to meet a need in our classroom. At first Vanessa (my partner in the assignment, who is a teacher in an nearby intermediate school) were not quite sure how we were going to do this. We thought of possibly using a Google Doc with a planning tracker.... we soon found out this was not the solution for us.

So we have decided to look at using Google Classroom instead. I have never used Google Classroom before and I am excited about the possibilities. Where to next?

I needed to do some online searching as to how to set-up a classroom. I decided that I would start with creating a classroom for one of my digital technology classes, as these were smaller classes and hopefully these students would become my early adopters.

I found this very helpful video from Alice Keeler

So the journey begins.....