Thoughts on cleaning

I've recently done some purging. I'm moving into my new office. This has given me the opportunity to sort through my "stuff" to decide what's important and what I need. There are things that look good, but do I need them to fulfill my duties at school? No...

I just did the same thing with the tweeps I'm following on twitter. I went through my list and made decisions.

"Does this person tweet useful information?"

"Do I learn from this person?"

These were the two main questions I looked at. I also looked at the last time they tweeted. There were some who haven't been active in months. Unfollow....

Now, why did I do this? It looks good if there are big numbers by my twitter id... but I've decided to follow those I find value in.

I also want to clean up my feed. I want the good stuff. I found myself moving very quickly through tweets... I probably missed some really good stuff..


I also noticed that I got a bunch of new followers in the last week. I engaged in some conversations regarding #iste10 . I imagine that some people started following lots of people who were there, or involved in those conversations. I welcome those followers, but hope they follow me because I provide them with something.

Just some thoughts on cleaning.. Is it a good time for you to clean?

A change

Well, if you follow my twitter feed, you have learned that I will be changing roles and school districts next school year. I have accepted a position as Middle School Principal at South Tama County Schools in Toledo, Iowa. I am really excited about this new adventure! I'm also nervous. I've not been a principal before.... I've been in control of my classroom... not a whole building of 6-8th graders, teachers, counselors, aides, a secretary, nurse etc....

 Now that may sound like I'm afraid, I'm not afraid.. The administrative team, school board, teachers, and parents who were part of the hiring process saw leadership skills in me they value and want in their school leader. Talk about a humbling thought. These people trust me to move their school forward. To take it to the next level. That's my goal, to take the school to the next level! I've spent the time since I've been hired preparing a plan. I know my summer will be spend learning the ropes of the building, meeting staff, students, and parents, and building relationships! So, if you don't hear much from the blog this summer, know I've not lost my educational passion, it's moved to a new task!

I won't give up my passion for assessment. I'm still teaching a class on formative assessment and standards grading with my brother Matt Townsley this summer. I also hope to introduce the idea to my teachers. Many of them have already visited the blog, so I hope the conversation can be started and we can use formative assessment to guide our instruction and help students have a deeper understanding of their learning. I'll keep posting ideas and experiences about assessment and learning here in the future. I may even throw in a good admin story as well!!! 

Thanks for the visits, and stay tuned in the future!

Thoughts on Summative Assessments... Comments please!!!

Well, as the school year winds down, I have been reflecting on the practice of Standards Based Grading. My current practice is use formative assessments throughout our class time, then give a "summative" assessment at the end of each unit. I then allow students who want to re-learn a standard do some practice/re-teaching and then redo any of the learning targets they want to. I've liked this method, it's more work for me, but I can see the students continue to learn.

My question is... how does this prepare them for the challenges of mid-terms and final exams in college? Is it my job to model the methods of assessment that many colleges utilize??

Off the beaten path.... #edchat

This post has been a long time coming.... I've participated in various #edchat's on twitter. If you haven't yet, I'd really encourage you to. If you want to to spend an hour watching your computer screen explode with passion for education, then join on in!

Anyway, the real reason for my post is a reflection on #edchat in general. I love conversations about education. My extended family is filled with educators.. My brother Matt, sister Becky, and her husband Russ are all in education, along with myself and my wife. Our family get togethers are filled with talk of education. There are times where we put a moratorium on ed. talk during certain holidays.

Anyway, back to #edchat convo...Sometimes I'm torn during #edchat. Torn in a sense of lack of control, lack of a belief for a real change. Many of the conversations are what I call "out there" The conversation moves to a realm of almost unreachable desires of what education looks like. Many will say that we need people with vision in our world. I totally agree, but what's really going to change and when will it happen? I believe that education needs to change in the United States. Many will say that local control is still important... Really? The students we have are going to compete in a global market, not just for a job at the local mill.. We have to prepare our students to compete with students from India, China, France, wherever....The SYSTEM needs tweaking, but how much? The conversations I've had in #edchat are great and my thinking is always challenged (Which is why I participate!) Who's going to take charge and rock the ship?

My struggle is when is this change going to happen? All this talk about how education needs reformed, how standardized testing is hurting education keeps happening, but nothing has changed. #edchat has given me hope! Hope that there are over 1000 people in Tuesday's 12pm chat who want to create a change... I just hope it happens soon!

A change is a comming!

Well, it is with a saddened, but excited heart that I share some news. I have just been offered and accepted a position at South Tama Middle School as building principal. This is an exciting change for me.

Well, what does this mean for the blog? Well I'll still be posting about assessment, but with a different twist from a leadership view. I'll also being throwing some "off the beaten paths" along the way about what I see in leadership and education.

I'm excited for the change and can't wait to learn from my PLN along the way!

Another small victory????

Yesterday, we spent our class time talking about graphing rational functions. This is a fairly advanced topic in Algebra 2, so I planned to spend some time on it. As usual, I had students fill out their self assessment paper before they left class. After school, I browsed them to see how the students thought they did. As I suspected, they weren't very confident in the learning, so I wanted to do another check at the beginning of class.

After our usual fraction warm-up, I put a graphing rational equation problem on the board. I gave them roughly 10 minutes to complete. The students worked diligently for most of the time, but I could sense their struggle (which I suspected and wanted to validate). I collected the papers to give the students feedback. On one girls paper, I saw some work plus this comment, "I'm sorry I don't get this".....

This tore me. I was pleased that the student didn't want to let me down, wanted to do well. However, I wondered what message I have been sending. I always want my room to be a safe environment. Students should feel safe asking questions etc. I really hope that I didn't create a fear of failure with my students..

My response to her comment hopefully made my point. "We're learning, it's okay not to get it yet!"

Guest appearance: With Students in Mind

I had the great opportunity to have a guest appearance on the Podcast: With Students in Mind co-hosted by Russ Goerend and Matt Townsley.  I had a great time and wanted to create a link to the podcast from the blog!

With Students in mind episode #4