{"id":90,"date":"2013-04-23T05:52:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T09:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/melodyrussell\/?p=90"},"modified":"2013-04-23T05:52:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T09:52:48","slug":"further-thoughts-on-my-action-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/melodyrussell\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Further thoughts on my action plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detail<\/a>
Detail from growing success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have had many conversations about my action plan with teachers and administrators from my school and from other schools (former colleagues, friends, and participants I met at an AP conference a couple of weeks ago). Particularly interesting to me were the three group discussions I conducted during prep periods with colleagues fortunate enough to find themselves sharing a prep period with me. There were 6-8 participants in each of the meetings. We discussed the tools that different people are currently using and what they liked and didn’t like about the tools.<\/p>\n

An important question which was raised in every group was regarding the purpose of this tracking.<\/strong> Of course it is necessary to consider the purpose as that can inform the choice of tools used. \u00a0The main purpose I am focused on is that of our professional obligations as per growing success. Thus, the evidence should be something that could be shown to an inspector<\/strong>. We also discussed other uses of having such evidence. Some teachers mentioned that they had been asked about the learning skills on report cards<\/strong> — of course we are all able to explain why we chose to give a student “good” or “needs improvement” with regard to Initiative, Responsibility etc (see attached Learning skills<\/a>\u00a0for ministry guidelines). Evidence of their child’s\u00a0attendance\u00a0at extra help or participation in discussions would further inform such a conversation. Also, as the ministry notes, marks should not be determined solely through a calculation of results on\u00a0products<\/strong>, if we are to allow\u00a0conversations and observations<\/strong> to inform final grades then some evidence could be required in justifying marks to students, parents, administration, and possibly universities. A further consideration involves students with<\/strong>\u00a0accommodations and psych ed reports<\/strong> —\u00a0tracking observations and conversations helps to demonstrate that we are serving these students’ needs and also provide useful feedback to parents and others involved in working with these students.<\/p>\n

I tried to get an idea of what this kind of tracking looks like for different teachers and the following observations \/ conclusions informed my further investigations:<\/p>\n