Chubby Bunny and Reasons to move away from Summative Assessments

As school starts this week for the majority of American Educational Institutions (and thank goodness for that), teachers prepare to introduce themselves to a whole new crop of students, go over procedures and talk about the dreaded "Grading Policy."

I recently read a piece on Edutopia about Formative Assessments, which you can find here: Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding - I started to think long and hard about WHY these types of assessments do not get as much attention as their older, much more maligned sibling does. The summative assessment, for much of the modern world, is the end all to be all.

Benchmarks, Midterms, Finals, SGOs... summatives rule the roost in education right now. They are in the news, they are tied to teacher performance, and they are all some students think about because of the emphasis that is put on them. Teachers do their part too - they weight summative assignments much higher than other types of grades in their room to reinforce the severity, and finality, of these assessments. 

Summative assessments also keeps the great tradition of "cramming" for a test alive.

Cramming for a summative test is like trying to shove 100 marshmallows in your mouth at the same time while trying to say "Chubby Bunny." Have you ever tried to do that? It's not easy. You may get them all in but you aren't going to swallow them all and when it's time, its all going to come back out the same way in went in. Now try putting marshmallows in your mouth one by one without swallowing or letting them out out. Cramming information in your brain the days leading up to, and the night before, a big test is the same way. 

Teachers need to help students out. We need to focus more on the formative assessments because that is where true learning, reflective learning, takes place. Having common formative assessments can help with that and starting off with just a few in place to play with this year should happen. You can add these to your repertoire quite easily and they generally take very little to put into place in your classroom. 

Below is the cycle that ALL formative assessments have in common. A solid formative assessment will help and direct the teacher on how to teach that child, or group of children and help to CHANGE the direction of what was planned. They are to help inform all of what is going on, what needs to be addressed, and where things can potentially go. 

For instance, take exit cards. Students can give you a one sentence answer to what they learned or an answer to a well formed formative question right before they leave. That information can be, and should always be, used to shape the next days lesson depending on the answers. It gives the teacher a real chance to listen to their students and the students a real chance to let the teachers know, "Hey, I need some more time with this."

Formative assessments also allow the student to understand material in smaller chunks, like eating one marshmallow at a time. Using this method, its easier to swallow the information and keep it down, this focusing on the learning, not the actions of trying to keep it all in at once. 

Some great ideas for Formative Assessments can be found here: 

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them


So while I don't think the big bad midterms and finals are going to go away anytime soon, formative assessments are the true key to helping your students understand what they are learning and will help them retain that information long after its been taught. 

So this year, put more emphasis on your checkups before your students checkout - you may be surprised with what you find out! 

Every new beginning ...

Moving on is hard. Change is hard. Leaving is hard. I am someone who enjoys consistency and a sense of familiarity. I like digging into someone, growing roots, so that whatever I am doing, where I am, whoever I am with, means something. I become socially, emotionally, and even physically invested with my whole being. 

For the past seven years, I have been growing my roots deep in Green Brook Township Public Schools, first as a teacher and the last two as Technology Coordinator and Supervisor of Instruction. These roots have dug deep as I have had the chance to personally teach over 500 students in that time, work with nearly 100 teachers, help improve the learning and education of nearly 1000 students and be involved in a fantastic small community. I have gone through many life changes here that I will never forget - marriage, home ownership, the arrival of my two children, rescuing a few pets along the way, finding out I wasn't that good at soccer (you get the picture). 

As the start of school is right around the corner, I cannot help but think about new beginnings, fresh starts, and the eagerness that I know I hold dear to my heart about this time of year and the good feelings it brings along with it. I think about new teachers, new students, and returning educators and the excitement they bring each and every day.

I am excited to start the school year off with my Green Brook family one last time but it is bittersweet knowing that it is my last one. Writing an email to my Green Brook family to let them know I has resigned as Supervisor of Instruction and Technology to accept a position in Princeton Public Schools as a Supervisor of Social Studies and Global Education was, and will always be, the hardest task I have had to do in my years there. 

I don't like saying goodbye - I don't like "uprooting" or "removing" my roots. I am thinking of this as a chance to plant new roots, but never forgetting to water my old ones as well. My family in Green Brook will never, ever, leave my heart and mind. I have made some near and dear friends that will be with me the rest of my life. 

New beginnings happen because something ended – it’s like that band Semisonic’s line “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”

Thank you, Green Brook for the journey we took together, through all the ups, downs, laughs, and cries we shared together. 

So while this journey may be coming to an end, I am excited to start a new one in Princeton Public Schools come this October. 

Timothy J. Charleston

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Recently, and by recently I mean today, a good friend of mine and fellow connected educator, +Jay Eitner, challenged me to the #strikeoutALS #ALSicebucketchallenge. I accepted his offer with great pleasure.

Here's the proof below:







After doing it, and watching so many others, from Governor Chris Christie, the NY Jets, and so many others take the challenge, I became overwhelmed with good feelings. THIS is what social media is meant for!

So often, social media is demonized for being so negative and being the first to break bad news but this is something that is not only positive, it is for a great cause, to find a cure for ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease.

Bravo, Social Media. Bravo, Society. You have taken one, very large step in redeeming yourselves.