I really appreciated Kristina’s presentation on Assessment as Learning.

While I did not necessarily “learn” anything new, I definitely had my thinking probed with her brief, but generous presentation. I completely agree with Kristina’s opinion that “we teach who we are.” I think it is vital for teachers to be authentic to who they are, not only in their instructional methods, but also when building meaningful relationships with students.

I am so thankful to have had Kristina share her though processes with us, and break down how she plans lessons. It was really cool to compare and contrast our processes.

Something I have been struggling with has been designing lesson that have the students actually doing meaningful work and activities for the majority of the periods, and minimizing the amount of “stand and delivery” time, or “bookwork” time. It’s not so much planning the activities that I have been having challenges with, it has been building in extensions for students who are meeting expectations or criteria. I’ve been finding it difficult to find extensions for them that are meaningful, and aren’t just busy work. Kristina seemed to agree with the importance of having things to do for the early finishers, or high achieving students, however, examples of what she’d have them do did just seem like busy work.

Challenging our assumptions is something that transcends the profession of teaching, but I really appreciated having Kristina present assessment as learning to us in this fashion.