Education Program Portfolio

Kaori Lau and Tracy Humphries gave an excellent guest lecture on the importance of inclusive technologies in the classroom.

One of their main points included the importance of not modifying the curriculum for all students who have learning needs. A common misrepresentation of these students is that they need to have separate assignments or separate learning goals in order to succeed.

Rather, as the guest speakers highlighted, most students with, or in the process of attaining, Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are fully able to meet standard curricular outcomes. However, the means that they can traditionally represent their learning, or engage with classroom materials, are restrictive. 

For example, if a student with dyslexia was tasked with reading a short article and writing- by hand- a paragraph response, they would likely struggle with the assignment. It’s not that the student can’t do it. It’s that their ability to access the material and show their learning are restricted.

As a result, students feel isolated in the classroom. Because they may struggle with traditional means of learning and representation, students feel they are behind their peers in achievement. These effects are not just reflected in academic scores, but also negatively impact student’s perception of self as a capable and intelligent individual, as our speaker’s mentioned. 

As an English and Social Studies teacher, my subject’s traditional means of learning have been the textbook and essay response. While fantastic leaps have been made in revamping the curriculum and content brought into the subject, the subject focuses on regular focused instruction (teacher goes up to the front and presents) and written work.

For a student with ADHD, sitting in the classroom while the teacher presents may be difficult to engage with. Without clear time stamps on classroom activities, the focused instruction may seem to unduly stretch on without a clear ending.

Just Five Minutes More!

In Michael’s list of assistive technologies (linked here), he mentions the use of a timer in the classroom. While it’s a simple addition, I’ve found it useful in my own explorations into teaching. 

For my first few lessons, time became very subjective to me. I thought that my focused instruction had only taken 5 minutes, but when I checked my watch, I found that 10 or more had passed by. 

It was like being in an X-Files episode where a character experiences time differently from other characters.

Except in my case it was just me losing track of time, and students struggling to stay awake. 

I found setting a timer for 15 minutes (aiming for a total of 20 minutes) helped both to keep me on track, and students from falling asleep.

I use a Timex Ironman, which has a persistent and loud timer. When it goes off, students know that I’ve set five more minutes to wrap up focused instruction, and move onto the next part of class. 

Doing this, students can hear that the end of focused instruct is coming soon. This helps to give clear timelines to students who may struggle with more passive modes of instruction. 

Another technology that may be helpful for some students is speech-to-text. I experimented with two dictate functions, one on Microsoft Word and the other on Google Docs.

I found Word’s dictate function to be easy to use, needing only my computer microphone. While it was mostly accurate in copying down my voice, I found I had to speak especially slow and clearly for it to work well.

I have included a screen snippet of my sample text below.

I wonder if the artificially slow pace Word’s dictate needs would be a barrier to some students. When I dictated, I found it hard to keep track of my thoughts while pacing out each word. 

Google Doc’s dictate function was easier to use. I’ve included my sample below in quotes.

“Does this work?  this software seems to work better than Microsoft Word. it’s more naturally used and it picks up my voice easier so far so good.” 

I especially liked how I could state “period” or “delete” into Docs, and it would perform that function. I also found I could speak more naturally with this software as less typos were picked up. 

As Google Docs is more prevalent in the classroom, and freely accessible to students at home, I would lean towards using Doc’s dictate over Word’s. Although I can see how it’d be difficult to dictate in a classroom setting, I would still recommend this feature to students.

As educators, we’re already living in the future. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reshaped not only how our learners learn, but also how we teach.

Previous generations of teachers could only dream of a machine making a worksheet for them. As easily as students can use AI to write a paragraph response to “What is a central theme in Macbeth?” I can utilize it to create instructional sheets, quick blog posts (not this one) and even replicate the human voice.

When I think of AI, I think of ChatGPT.

What I didn’t know was that there were two types of generative AI. ChatGPT is akin to a massive dragnet scooping up the Internet’s collected open resources, which it mashes up into its algorithm. Like an icing cone, ChatGPT then channels the wealth of knowledge stored in it to filter out a response.

However, ChatGPT does not distinguish between mistaken information, bias, hate speech or other non-truthful content. Thereby, whichever response is generated by ChatGPT to a question is influenced by the totality of the Internet’s biases, fears, hopes and truths.

It’s like biting into a hotdog- sometimes you don’t want to know what’s inside.

Another approach is a small model AI. Notebook LM, a Google product, takes the opposite approach to ChatGPT.

Instead of filtering a wide ‘base’ of information into your response, LM works only off the sources you provide it.

For example, I could ask a question of it and upload 3 academic articles for it to interpret from. With LM, the AI only draws from the provided articles, helping you to curate the foundation of your AI product.

As an educator, this is incredibly valuable for preventing some of the less-than-classroom appropriate content that ChatGPT can raise. I am more in control of what sort of content is created.

The Podcast

For someone who’s never made a podcast before, LM made the job easy for me.

I only had to clicked a button (or two).

I wanted a podcast on how suspense is created within “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. I uploaded these two stories in .pdf format as well as this TED Ed video on the same topic (linked here).

I also prompted LM to focus the podcast for a Grade 10 audience who need an introduction to what suspense is.

The podcast is linked here.

I was surprised at how natural the ‘podcasters’ voices sounded. Aside from a few “Right’s” that were awkwardly placed and too fast, they sounded like normal, if slightly ‘bland’ human voices. If I didn’t know an AI made this, I could easily have been convinced otherwise.

Overall, the podcast was accurate to the material. It accurately communicated what suspense is, and even had some applicable examples for a high school student (the feeling of waiting for a test to be handed back). It gave a serviceable analysis of how suspense operates within “The Monkey’s Paw,” and even applied the relevant portions of the TED Ed video to it.

Its analysis of “The Monkey’s Paw” had some holes, however. In one instance, the ‘podcasters’ analyse a detail of a strange man hanging around White’s door. The way the ‘podcasters’ frame this character implies that he is a clue in a series of events towards a much larger payoff. While this is- on a surface level- accurate, the stranger in Jacob’s story is there to inform the White’s of their son’s death at the factory. Instead, the podcast frames it in murder mystery-esque terms, misrepresenting the story.

Little errors like this make it important for the instructor to periodically pause the recording and correct any misunderstandings before students internalize them.

Moreover, there was no mention of “The Lottery.”

I was left in suspense for the podcast, wondering when Jackson’s story would appear. Alas, it did not.

If I was to use an AI podcast in my teaching, I would absolutely take the time to listen to it first. Twenty minutes of focused instruction is one thing for students, it’s another to assign a podcast on a story that is never mentioned.

While LM glazed over a third of it’s assigned sources, the AI podcast feature can be an effective tool in a TOC’s toolkit. In about 10 minutes (considering loading time), I was able to compile three sources to create a relatively focused and somewhat engaging teaching resource.

An effective educator is often an organized educator. In class, Michael discussed several digital tools for organizing one’s files and curating a Brainscape. A Brainscape, or second brain, is a digital ‘porting-over’ of the connections between one’s saved, created and curated content.

In an analog format, a Brainscape might take the form of filing cabinets. Each drawer holds a specific type of document. My desktop is a direct descendant of this system.

It’s folders all the way down.

Instead of Inception-levels of folders, Michael recommended a master document system. Using Onenote, for example, I can link multiple documents on a single page. Clicking on a link, I can access the nested documents without scrolling past seemingly-endless .pdf and .doc files.

Obsidian, although mentioned in a previous lecture, has the nesting feature of Onenote and creates a graphic organizer of your content. A classmate generously shared his Obsidian organizer with me, and explained how his documents are connected. It looked something like a spiderweb to me. Each document, note or link can be ‘tied’ by a thin black line to another. This way, you can see ‘hubs’ of how thoughts are related to each other.

Instead of the prescribed “folders all the way down,” software like Obsidian and Onenote allows more organic interaction with your content.

Over winter break, I hope to engage more with this type of curatorial process. In the meantime, I’m left something like this.

But Michael’s introduction of the Brainscape made me think about another type of digital reflection of who I am.

My Reddit feed. (While I use Instagram, I’ve filled it with sugar gliders, hyraxes and cute cat videos).

In contrast, my Reddit includes a fair amount of news articles. Most of them come from CNN or CBC, and largely lean towards the political left. When I do receive a conservative news article, it’s often nestled in a r/LeopardsAteMyFace post.

You are what you eat.

To an extent, my feed influences how I lean politically and what social issues I know. This might explain why I’m more familiar with American politics than Canadian.

Students are not isolated from the same algorithms that shape how I think. They consume the same, if not more media than I do.

Although I’ve already written on The Social Dilemma documentary in a previous post, it warrants revisiting. The 2020 documentary discusses the effects of social media on youth, and how it influences mental health, advertising and political leanings.

The documentary focuses on a dramatization of a young male, whose social media feed directs him further into an Extreme Center political leaning. Although a dramatic portrayal, the film speaks to the power that algorithms can have for its users.

As a Socials teacher, I wondered how to engage students in critical evaluation of their feeds.

Just this morning I ran across this article from the Columbus Dispatch. (https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2024/11/25/body-cam-video-neo-nazis-claim-to-be-victims-after-marching-in-columbus/76568284007/)

It reports on a recent Neo-Nazi march held in Columbus, Ohio. The march, the newspaper reports, received a violent response from African-American members of the community. It also describes a later encounter between the Neo-Nazi’s and Ohio Police, and highlights the marcher’s confusion over being stopped, citing free speech.

Yet when I checked the same event on Fox News Carolina, there was no mention of a counter-protest. The article is linked here (https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/11/17/we-will-not-tolerate-hate-ohio-officials-respond-reports-neo-nazi-march/).

This source, while providing official condemnation of the group’s hate speech, physically describes the Neo-Nazi group, and omits the episode of their stoppage by police.

Although this is a recent and highly charged subject, I thought about a way to incorporate critical analysis of feed into a Socials assignment.

Royditt (Royle and Reddit)

The goal of the assignment is for students to be able to draw from multiple credible news sources and appropriate social media commentary on the topic. Students will be able to summarize their content, evaluate their political leaning, and provide an argument as to how an imagined social media feed might influence the stance of the consumer.

This assignment could benefit from a Jigsaw approach, where focus groups of students tackle a specific topic, and circulate their project to another group. Each group would write a report on how they perceive the Royditt (of no connection to Reddit, truly) may influence an imagined consumer.

In the first part of the assignment, students would be assigned or choose a current event, topic (AI, etc) or world figure (Trump comes to mind). They would then collect a number of news sources reflecting a political leaning (Right, Center, Left), a piece of appropriate public commentary (a TikTok, appropriate meme, or YouTube short, for example), as well as a news source from a differing political leaning. They would summarize each piece and create a short verbal or written response on the overall effect of their Royditt feed.

A tool that can be used to assist students may be AllSides. Mentioned by a classmate, this website gauges the political leanings of world figures and events, and provides a running chart of headlines organized by leaning. This resource is easy to access and provides users with a one-stop-shop of news articles across a spectrum.

(https://www.allsides.com/topics/donald-trump?search=donald%20trump)

Part two of this assignment would have students exchange Royditt feeds with another group, and for each of them to consider how their peer’s created feed influences a consumer, and how, more broadly, it influences them, and how/ if they will move forward with this new information.

One challenge I see with this assignment is the sensitive nature of polarized content. This could be mitigated by the teacher creating a pool of contentious but otherwise ‘safe’ topics. For example, choosing to focus on nuclear power applications on Three Mile Island instead of an article on Andrew Tate. This way, students could be steered away from topics that might generate more harmful responses than benefit student exposure. On the other hand, students are not ignorant of serious global issues, and likely have opinions of it.

Students also have a wide range of opinions. If the teacher was to assign students to groups, making sure there is a mix of student opinions per group (as applicable or realistic), it might encourage more thoughtful peer engagement.

Moreover, this project has many moving parts. Students need to be able to understand what a credible source is, be able to categorize and summarize information, draw from multiple sources, and consider multiple perspectives. Students will also need to be able to conduct respectful dialogue with each other when personal feelings regarding the articles are mentioned.

While the content skills needed for this assignment are fairly simple, it asks for ‘soft skills’ in youth that even many adults may struggle with (Thanksgiving dinner comes to mind).

Just as curating an organizational Brainscape is important, so too is curating one’s social media Brainscape.

Although students have access to more technology than any previous generation, much of this technology is inaccessible or difficult to access for classroom use.

Big Tech and Student Privacy

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act protects students regarding their online permissions.

https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96165_00

Using many online services, such as Facebook or TikTok, requires that users divulge personal information to the service provider. This could include emails, access to device permissions (contacts and location), as well as the storage and ownership of user-created data abroad.

As educators, we have a complicated relationship with Big Tech and technological integration into the classroom. Google, for example, is a world-standard search engine and gold mine for information. Instead of relying on Microsoft Suite, students can access Google’s free document software, or quickly create a Google Slide and collaborate with classmates on it.

When I was their age, I remember passing around thumb drives during groupwork. Now, students can research, write and collaborate all within the Google ecosystem.

As an educator, I have greatly appreciated the ease of the Googlesphere. Whether I am at home on my own computer, or using UVic’s libraries’, I can access the same document. I can then share this document over the net to my practicum school, and walk into class the next day with all my teaching materials having preceded me.

As Michael explained, this integration is permitted through extensive consent forms signed throughout the district. Google allows for separate educational accounts, which (although there are complications) keep the students’ personal information separate from their classroom experience.

TikTok

TikTok, the Gen-Z and Gen-A reincarnation of Vine, has entrenched itself in the youth. The social media platform offers short video clips, ranging from funny cat recordings, to impromptu opinion pieces to political advocacy. For many people, the app is incredibly easy to access and create content on.

For example, this two-and-a-half minute video covers the basics of what’s needed to use TikTok.

For example, I found this TikTok on essay writing tips. Although students may find this video engaging, as it promotes ‘fluffing up’ essay word counts (to my English teacher’s distaste), it captures the spontaneous and opinion-sharing ‘vibe’ of TikTok.

Much like how the Googlesphere allows for users to collaborate over the net, both Canadian and American educators have praised TikTok for allowing students to work with peers.

This article by CBC includes Bonnie Stewart, a professor of education of the University of Windsor. Although the article is two years old and focuses on student engagement during the pandemic isolation, much of what drew teachers to TikTok then still holds true.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/tik-tok-teacher-1.6593395

As Stewart mentions, TikTok encourages creative engagement by students. In this format, students are free to express themselves through a medium many are already comfortable with. Moreover, Stewart adds that TikTok is quick to implement during classroom time. Although she did not specify further, I assume this refers to the platform’s ease of use.

Unlike Google, TikTok does not have the same consent agreements in B.C. schools. TikTok does not offer student accounts, meaning that students would give up personal information to sign up for the service. Moreover, TikToks (the video products) are largely created off phones, which students would likely use on their own.

Regardless of whether students already have TikTok, it is unethical to mandate it’s use for classroom engagement.

Pecha Kucha

However, TikTok’s short presentation format can be somewhat replicated through another presentation medium- Pecha Kucha.

The better part is, Pecha Kucha presentations can easily be created within the school’s Googlesphere.

For those unfamiliar with Pecha Kucha, it is a short style of textless presentations. Traditionally, the form is twenty slides, each with a photo. The slides are timed for twenty seconds, which is the limit the presenter has for each photo. This creates a concise, short and engaging presentation.

Below is a video which summarizes the history and structure of Pecha Kucha.

Although students do not need to record a video for the Pecha Kucha format, it allows them to practice a mode of presentation somewhere between a TikTok and a Ted Talk.

The style is accessible too. As each slide only has one photo, the instructor does not need to teach slide design in-depth, rather, only needs to scaffold for accurate image to content pairing (though not a trivial task). Like TikToks, students are held to strict time limits, making for snappy presentations.

Regarding images, a Pecha Kucha is also a fantastic opportunity to introduce Creative Commons or Open Source copyright content. Thereby, a Pecha Kucha could be an assignment where students learn image sourcing and presentation skills within a concise package.

Trevor Mackenzie summed up the benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) well in his statement that “curious kids attend class more often and earn higher grades [paraphrased].”

A curious student is an engaged student.

IBL, as presented by Mackenzie, is an instructional approach that encourages students to deeply engage with a topic they are interested in. The teacher decides the learning goals students will achieve through an assessment and provides options for ways students can represent their learning. While students may not always have total choice in choosing their topic, they have the opportunity to engage with facets they find interesting or would like to learn more about.

In implementing IBL, the teacher works next to the students, assisting them in refining their learning process. Mackenzie mentioned that a key focus of IBL is the continuous dialogue between students and teachers. This dialogue helps the teacher gauge where the student is and implement scaffolding accordingly.

Mackenzie illustrated this through a triangular relationship between Product, Conversation, and Observation. The Product in traditional teaching is often overstated. Learning is not merely a series of essays or worksheets completed. Rather, one of the best things a teacher can do for a student is to help them develop independent learning.

For myself, saying “I’m a lifelong learner” while I binge Netflix and munch on Taki’s can seem without substance. But looking back on educational moments I found the most valuable (and often the most challenging) were times when I needed to develop my ability to learn, and to enjoy (or at least appreciate) the process of learning.

Not all classes encourage the same interest. When I tell people I’m training to be an English and Socials teacher, I often hear, “Socials was my least favourite course,” or “I think I remember Socials, at least falling asleep in it.” English especially can recall strong feelings. Many of us can remember writing an essay on a topic we couldn’t care much less about, or glazing-over at the umpteenth introduction of a ‘diamante’ poem. (This link for a refresher on the form)

Students at my Link2Practice also report similar experiences.

Granted, not every lesson will result in Goodwill Hunting moments.

I’ll admit I’ve also assigned some dry material in my first forays into teaching. When I was assigned the first worksheet I’ve ever made, with the accompanying prescribed article, I had a sudden recollection of myself- years ago- falling asleep in Grade 9 Socials. To the students, I must’ve sounded like this.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Dungeons, Dragons and Inquiry

Connecting to Mackenzie’s guest lecture, I found this podcast by Educrush. (Linked here)

It features Andrew Rigby, an English teacher who uses Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) to teach narrative arcs and characterization in his classroom.

As Rigby mentions, DnD encourages students to take the initiative in creating their own stories and characters. For those unfamiliar, DnD asks players to create their own character with a backstory that joins other characters in some form of grand adventure. Players work together to face challenges along their journey and explore how the story can change the character they started out with.

Framed through IBL, Rigby’s approach sets a learning outcome (narrative arcs and character) and provides scaffolding for students to demonstrate their knowledge. How students explore narrative arc and character is up to them.

Moreover, the team-based nature of DnD also holds students accountable to their peers. Students want to attend class, both to have fun playing the game, but also not to let their teammates down. Mackenzie’s implementation of the Gala Night is similar.

The Gala Night allows students to showcase their projects to peers in an art exhibition format. This takes the assessment away from a teacher-student relationship and opens it to peer accountability. Mackenzie found that the ‘togetherness’ that the Gala Night expected increased student buy-in to their projects. They took pride in the process and product, and showing this to their peers.

On an organizational level, peer accountability in DnD and a Gala Night could make teaching much simpler.

Not all work is submitted on time. As a high school teacher, it will be our responsibility to reach out to students and parents regarding missing work. Students not doing their work makes more work for us.

However, both DnD and a Gala Night have subtly ‘hard’ deadlines. To participate fully, students need to be prepared for the activity and be present for it. An IBL student may be more likely to hand in their work on time.

Yet, as Mackenzie said, implementing IBL is labour-intensive. Instead of a prescribed avenue for student assessment, using IBL requires a teacher to purposefully guide students, and scaffold the skills for effective engagement. The DnD example requires that students are introduced to the game and learn how to play it. In my own practice, I can see myself implementing IBL assessments as a major project, likely as a conclusion to a unit or course. Although it takes considerable effort to implement and plan for IBL assessment, the benefits to student engagement and peer collaboration are worth the effort.

“Space [is not] the final frontier.” The internet is. 

I’m not one to mangle Star Trek’s iconic line lightly. Yet as an English and Social Studies teacher, Jesse Miller’s presentation on instilling digital citizenship in youth made me reassess my assumptions of technology and the internet in my future classroom. 

Thinking back to elementary school, the internet looked something like this.

My news largely came from cable TV news channels, and the closest thing I had to ‘meme’ accounts was America’s Funniest Home Videos. I did not grow up in the hyper-connected world many students are familiar with.

While Miller raised numerous fantastic points, I focus on the importance of teaching digital literacy in the classroom. 

Miller stressed that it’s important not to demonise social media. Instead, he recommended teaching students ways to interact with it in a healthier way. One of these, he said, was managing the constant stream of information that youths are bombarded by through the internet. This isn’t just the 24/7 newsfeed (often pared down into ‘Tik Tok-sized’ clips), but also advertising, streamer opinions, and posts from their extended peer network. What he (and others) maintain, is that- unsupported- this unceasing barrage of information buckles the emotional backs of students. Students are given so much to care about, but not always given the space to deal with the resultant emotions. 

Luckily, this isn’t a new conversation. In our socials methods course, we discussed the importance of integrating what students bring in from outside the class (in breaking news for example) into class discussions and lessons. The importance of this being to support students in contextualising and digging deeper into the critical issues thrust into their hands, day in, day out. 

Miller’s interaction with his daughter and social media really spoke to me as a potential way forward. Helping to scaffold her use of social media and the internet, Miller asks his child about the content they access online, and how she reacts to it. Whenever they encounter content that troubles them, or they otherwise want to share, the child has a discussion with Miller to unpack the material. 

Dialogue is at the heart of what Miller recommends. But I struggled to find something tangible with which to bridge the gap between concept and application. I needed a tool.

Watching The Social Dilemma, I was struck by how useful it may be as a teaching resource.

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 documentary-drama that discusses some of the tactics used by social media corporations to capture peoples interest, market products to users, and grow their product base. While The Social Dilemma is about an hour and a half long, it is structured into ‘chapters’ on specific aspects of social media corporations. These include: selling user data, curation of feeds, and the mental health impacts of social media. Moreover, the ‘drama’ portion of this documentary illustrates a teenager’s journey down a content rabbit hole, his life taking a turn influenced by social media. Student’s may be more likely to connect with this story, as opposed to a slide deck of charts and figures.  

Using sections of the documentary, teachers can prioritise topics to focus on in limited class time. Returning to Miller’s importance on discussion, these sections can be used to spark in-class dialogue and provide a common context for all students. 

Very little is new in this documentary. Students have likely heard these points many times before at the dinner table, school assemblies, or in ‘Tik Toks’. Yet The Social Dilemma may help ‘break the ice’ of student indifference resulting from previous exposure. Part of the documentary dramatizes the separate algorithms that sell user data, recommend contacts, and suggest content. By having these otherwise abstract concepts characterised, it may help broach the topic with younger high school students who would otherwise struggle with deeper engagement. 

This is just one piece of content, one tool.

As teachers, it looks like now is the time to “boldly go where no [curriculum] has gone before.”

Most Likely to Succeed sounds more like a yearbook tagline than the title of a documentary. Watching the documentary (below), I wondered what made High Tech High students more likely to succeed, and how could I apply this in my own practice.

The documentary follows (among others) Brian, a grade 9 student at High Tech High. The students culminate their learning through a hands-on project in his joint math and social studies course. Brian’s class was tasked with representing their theories on the rise and fall of civilizations through a wooden/ mechanical medium. These projects culminate in a presentation night, where parents, staff and community members come to see what the students have accomplished. However, Brian failed to present a working model that night.

I was struck by how High Tech High gives students the room to fail. And not just failing but learning from failure.

Instead of a summative evaluation of the (un)finished product, Brian’s work gets a second chance. I really appreciated how the opportunity to finish the assignment wasn’t just an ‘extension in spirit.’ As I watched Brian’s teachers hold a verbal reflection panel with the students, I was struck by how autonomous Brian was in evaluating his performance. It wasn’t the educator solely telling the student areas for feedback, but rather, the student being open about their performance. Brian (in a way) fails at first. However, with gentle guidance from his teachers, he has the motivation and ability to improve on his project over time. That’s grit. 

At the end of my Link2Practice at a local high school, I asked a Dual Credit teacher how to best prepare students for university. He answered resilience—the resilience to fail and learn from it. Moving forward, I think I’ll incorporate resilience in my lesson plans.

At least it sounds less coarse than “Grit.”

Chances are, in my first few years, I won’t be co-teaching with the technology education teacher and assigning students to create a mechanical model explaining the process of Confederation in Canada. However, I can weave teaching resilience into my assessment practices. Perhaps I could incorporate ways to hold off on stamping a final mark until a project or assignment has been ‘polished’ a few times, or break larger projects down into smaller chunks to give feedback on individually.

In my English teaching methods course, the professor shared the #EduCrush podcast with the class (https://educrushpod.libsyn.com/32-pointless-assessment-practices-w-sarah-m-zerwin). Please note, you may need a UVic login to access this link. This episode features Sarah Zerwin, who gives some tips on formative assessment, and her philosophy of not assigning a mark until the last moment. When I listened to this podcast, I thought of Brian’s teachers, not marking his work until it was done.

If an assessment model stresses a student’s one chance at demonstrating their learning and then ‘freezes’ a grade at that moment- does that student really learn? Looking back, I wonder if that’s partly why High Tech High has a 98% university acceptance rate- despite not teaching to the SAT.