Visible Learning- Effect Size

Effect Size and Effective Techniques

Welcome to my second post on the book "Visible Learning" by John Hattie. In my previous post I discussed the practices of uninspired (bad?) teachers. This post is less on the generalities of teaching, and more on how this book measures effective teaching.

This book quotes effect size in just about every chapter. On the surface, it is pretty easy to decipher what it is about. The higher the effect size, the better the technique/item/etc. is. At the outset, they establish 0.20 as the minimum effect size that is "worth it" and 0.40 as a full year's worth of learning. A few examples of higher effect size influencers are "Teacher Student Relationships" (0.72), "Teaching Better meta-cognitive strategies (0.69), and "Teaching Study Skills (0.63). A few low level influences included "Home-Schooling" (0.16), "Open VS Traditional Learning Spaces" (0.01), and "Individualized instruction" (0.23).

You may not be surprised to learn that I quickly grew frustrated with the lack of clarity on what exactly effect size was. I made it through 96 pages before I broke down and looked it up in the appendix. Here is is

Do a pre-test, Do a post test.
Take the class average for the two and find the difference (post-pre)
Divide that by the average of the standard deviations for the two tests
Boom- Effect size.
So if you improve the scores a great deal by your technique, and it worked equally for all students (they were all brought up, so there was a low standard deviation), then by this book it was deemed effective.

The book later recommends teachers employ this formula and technique with their classes to determine how effective the teaching techniques are. I don't think this is a bad idea per-say, but it does leave a few large-ish holes in the overall view of education.

1. It doesn't measure long term retention
2. It only views the class as a whole. So if half the class gets 100% after the lesson, but the other half was not paying attention and fails, the technique was a failure
3. Just because it is effective, does not mean it is necessarily good for students.

I don't think any of those three reasons is enough to say "don't do this", but I feel it is important for me to keep it in mind. Numbers can be a tempting mistress to math and science teachers.

Individual effect sizes are possible (post-pre test)/class standard deviation

From videos of John Hattie, I've learned the following:

• Classes should have clear learning intentions
• Classes should have challenging success criteria (for both struggling, and accelerated students)
• Provide feed back
• Learn Visibly myself
• Provide an opportunity for students to determine their own progress
• Classes should trust the teacher so they are comfortable saying "I don't know"

I do my best to make my class comfortable, and convey care for students, but students almost never say "I don't know" in my class. Am I alone? How Can I improve this? Can I improve this?

Visible Learning: Inspired Vs Uninspired Teachers

Visible Learning: Inspired Vs Uninspired Teachers

I recently obtained a copy of  "Visible Learning for Teachers" by John Hattie. Unlike several other education books out there, Visible Learning for Teachers uses research and data to examine the effectiveness of teaching strategies.  For instance, yes homework will help students marks, but is the effort worth it for all parties involved (spoiler alert: the answer is no). 

The book starts off with some general boiler plate information, but one section has caught my interest the most. It is titled "Visible Learning- Checklist for Inspired and Passionate Teaching", and it has a list of professional development criteria that has been shown to lend itself best to "inspired" teaching. I don't know if inspired is really the best term, so I just mentally translate it to "good" teaching. 

In the discussion after this list, there is a rather important string of sentences discussing what inspired teachers do NOT do.  I think I am a rather far distance from "inspired", but I think I can certainly avoid being "uninspired". Here is a list of "uninspired" teaching practices

Italics added for my own emphasis

• Use grading as punishment
• conflate behavioral and academic performance
• elevate quiet compliance over academic work*
• excessively use worksheets
• have low expectations and defend low-quality learning as "doing your best" **
• evaluate their impact by compliance, covering the curriculum, conceiving explanations as to why they have little to no impact on their students
• prefer perfection in homework over risk-taking that involves mistakes

*I'm not too sure what they are getting at here. Why is there a comparison between compliance and academic work, it seems like they are comparing apples and oranges.

Where I am falling short is the excuse making. I know there are students that are struggling in my class, but because I don't know what to do about it (beyond what I have already done), I make excuses. "They are not really trying" , "They don't study", "They did not have the skills required for the course coming into it". While these things may be true, they are not terribly constructive. It doesn't matter why the students are not improving, it only matters that they are not improving. I will admit, it is unlikely that they have made zero improvement, but with the constraints of the public education system as they stand, the improvement made is not sufficient to allow them to complete the course. 

So what is an aspiring inspired teacher to do? Keep reading the book I suppose!

-Mr. H

The power of the baseline

The Power of the Baseline

TL;DR: Establishing a starting point for students' abilities with the curricular competencies (a base line), is the first step to not only assessing what they've learned, but also the first step to growing their skills in your curricular area(s). 

If you are reading this in the hopes of a post regarding the righteous baselines of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, you are going to be disappointing. The title was misleading, I'm sorry. However, if you are tuned in for a post regarding assessment practices with the curricular competencies and some standards based assessment, then boy do I have a treat for you!

Some background information to start. When the new curriculum for BC came out,  I wasn't a big fan. It taught too little, there wasn't enough detail, the content was ambiguous, overall I thought it was  'bleh!'. As I've worked through the new mandate from the ministry of education, I've grown to appreciate it. The following are my reasons for the turn around.

1. Memorization is not Science. While it is true that you need to know things in order to practice science, it is not true that the focus should be memorizing facts. 
2. I have been teaching the scientific method for years, and this curriculum is heavily influenced by it
3. I am a huge nerd and this allows me the freedom to go into the areas both my students and I find interesting. 

The only issue I've had (up until recently) was how to assess the curricular competencies (CC). Neither the district I work for, nor the ministry of education itself, were of any help here. So this is what I've come up with...

Step 1: Baseline assessment (experiment like gyrocopter lab, non-curricular, but opportunity to explore the CC

Step 2-5: Graduated Release of the Inquiry process (focus on how it relates to the CC) 

Step 6: Open inquiry

Steps 1-5 are almost entirely student assessed with teacher support, step 6 is an interview based assessment with the questions supplied in advance of the interview. 

Assessment is done with a single point rubric (what students are working towards) with a growth mindset emphasis, that students are not expected to exceed expectations in all categories (or any really for that matter) but rather are expected to address where they are, and how they can improve. The goal, I tell them, is to fully meet expectations for all of these items by the time you graduate high school. 

The beginning of the year, which previously was reserved for "teaching the scientific method" is now "introducing the CC". Throughout the year, I have students do labs/inquiry projects with decreasing involvement from myself. The first project I guide the CC heavily (direct questions, check lists, etc) but as we progress through the curriculum, I provide fewer and fewer scaffolds, and allow them to be independent with the CC more and more. My hope is that they can reflect on their CC and see how their skills have developed over the course of the year. Below is what it looks like in general for science 10.

Intro lab: Galileo's rolling ball experiments- how does the height of a ramp and slope of a ramp impact the final velocity of a ball. - students self assess on CC

Start the question journal: Students are informed that they will learn a lot of interesting things this year, many of which are half-truths. There will be a lot of room for questions, and those questions are encouraged. They are asked to keep a journal of any questions that come up for them, and time is given at the end of most classes for students to reflect and record these questions. 

First guided lab: Foam insulation and marble roller-coaster. - Students build a roller coaster out of foam insulation, marbles and tape. They first model it using a phet "physics skate park" and I ask them questions directed to address ALL the CC directly (major headings, but not the sub-headings)

Second Guided activity:- Students measuring pH of soil sample. I provide a back story that describes how I have begun the inquiry process, students complete the process, then reflect on any CC that have grown. 

Question journal check in : Class discussion regarding the questions they've developed and how they can be moved to an inquiry question.

Third Guided activity: - Students address the question "If the Canadian space agency wants to colonize a new solar system, what star should they target" - students develop criteria, I give resources for students to develop understanding of star-cycles to help them frame their questions further. Students then present their information as a bidding war to the agency as to why their solar system is the best choice. 

First unguided activity: - Students are asked to investigate the questions they've had throughout the year. This is a formally assessed project, and students will engage in a double blind assessment of the draft product

Fourth guided activity: - Are Mr. Smith's children his own? Students use their understanding of basic Mendelian inheritance to develop and ask questions to explore the problem. *Special focus on ethics in this section*

Final inquiry project: Students are told to "mine" their journals for a question to research. They are expected to go through the CC for guidance on what their research should include. The final assessment will be in the form of an interview, where they look at where they started off in their CC and make claims on their growth, using their learning portfolio (Freshgrade) and their final inquiry project as evidence of that growth. 

All of this is done with the typical classroom activities which will develop their CC as well as their curricular content skills (and core competencies of course), but the steps described above are typical classroom activities that have been adapted for the purposes of illustrating their CC. 

Summer Reading: Part 3 of ? - The Value of Time - Deep Thinking requires Deep Knowledge - Wait time

Summer Reading: Part 3 of ? - The Value of Time 

TL;DR: Students miss school because the time spent in it, is not accurately valued by students. In their minds, minutes and even hours can be wasted with no adverse consequences. One way to change this mind set is to treat every second in your class like gold. This gives your students more time for learning.  

I remember when a misadventure in elementary school left me with three days at home to think about what I had done. I don't know much about other 11 year olds, but I know I wasn't exactly the "self-reflection" type. I was a ninja turtles type, so that's what I did. I watched TV, I read comics, and I played video games. Oh sure, there was homework assigned as punishment, but that took me 15 min and then I was free to do what I liked. To make matters worse, I completed two weeks worth of work in the three days off. This was likely the most damaging event in all my schooling. Essentially, I was given very clear evidence that my time in class was a waste. This attitude lasted until my first year of university, and very nearly cost me my place there. I can't help but wonder, are any other students getting this same evidence anywhere?

1) What do we want!? Student accountability for their own learning! When do we want it!? When parents stop sabotaging our attempts at instilling it!

So cheeky title aside, the area I teach has a fair number of students whos' families hail from lands far from where they currently call home. Normally this is a fantastic addition to the classroom because it provides me a variety of viewpoints and opinions to draw from. All too frequently however, it presents a significant problem for myself and my students. Visiting the homeland. Any time we have more than a few days off, I lose at least one of my 150 students to visiting a far flung land. Not for days, but for weeks, and occasionally months. On this, I am torn.

On one hand, it is an opportunity of a lifetime. I grew up not knowing my heritage (not that it is all that exotic) so for my students to experience a new culture, and to be able to relate that to where they came from? That is something that I couldn't give them in a lifetime of classes. However, that isn't what I have been tasked with teaching them. I have a detailed set of learning outcomes that I have to assess at the end of the year. If a student misses a month of school, what are the chances that they will achieve all of the learning outcomes demanded by the ministry of education? What am I to do with a student that is gone that long. As previously indicated, I am very much on the fence. Theoretically, students are intended to get a form filled out for any extended absences, I could simply refuse to sign it until a student has shown me they have the minimum skills / knowledge from the unit/s they will be missing. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the time these students don't get the forms signed, and if they actually do bring you the form, it is considered a fait accompli. I don't want to be the road block stopping them from seeing where they came from, but I also don't want to be complicit in them sacrificing their education. I am often confused as to what the parents are thinking when they book these expensive and extended vacations. I have a strong suspicion they don't value my class time. That might be my fault...

2) Time use: Waste Not Want Not

Hands up if you have ever had this experience. You have given the students a task to complete, most of the students remained on topic and are now finished whatever it is you have assigned. There is five minutes left in class, and one student starts the avalanche of "pack up time". With an efficiency typically reserved for military parades, all your students have packed up and are now fully, and completely off task, regardless of the completion level of their respective assignments.  Not a big deal right? 5 minutes? 

5 min / class  X 180 classes per year = 900 min. That is 15 hours of lost time, or in other words, 11 full classes missed. 

I routinely communicate this to my students, but unsurprisingly, I get few results. Here is my theory on why. 

Some students will complete assignments fairly quickly, it is just the nature of the game. Often, I don't have meaningful work ready for those students. By the time I drag out something for them to do, their lack of attention / activity has spread like wildfire and wild horses couldn't drag their attention back to whatever it was I wanted them to do. 

Doug Lemov in his book Teach Like a Champion has a fairly simple solution. Always have deep and meaningful work in your pocket (literally or figuratively) The moment a student completes an assignment, you pull out something new for them to do. Taking it a step further, I would prefer to have an ongoing, weekly assignment, that students would work on in their spare time. There is no waste on transitions, no confusion, and no opportunity for tom foolery. 

This communicates to students that your time, and their time is valuable, and not to be wasted. Sometimes enforcing the "work to the bell or past it" mentality is exhausting, but anything less communicates to students that the time in class in not of value. I suspect this bleeds into their parents' opinions of school and is a contributing factor in why they think they can pull their child out for a month and have no consequence. 

In my next post:
3) Deep thinking requires deep knowledge
4) Wait time, and why do we ask for hands?

The Best Self-Assessment Questions for Encouraging a Growth Mindset

The Best Self-Assessment Questions for Encouraging a Growth Mindset



A Growth mindset (GM) is one of the pillars to improvement.  While this article doesn't speak to what a GM is, I think it is pretty clear as to how the questions presented would be valuable questions for students  to ask. In fact, they aren't bad questions for educators to ask of themselves as well!

Summer Reading- Post 2 of ? : "To be a Scientist, you must always read"

Summer Reading- Post 2 of ? :

 "To be a Scientist, you must always read"

TL;DR - Science teachers should get students to read more scientific articles / information because it is their job, and what is best for kids. Reading aloud is one technique that I would like to use more, both to break down the culture of fear surrounding being wrong, and to add life and excitement to material that may otherwise seem listless or boring to some students. 

     In his book "Teach Like A Champion" Doug Lemov discusses techniques to optimize your students' classroom experience. One such technique that caught my eye was "Control The Game". Upon first reading the title, I assume this was going to be something about classical classroom management. That it was going to be some psychobabble regarding being the dominant presence in the room, or some such other thing. Imagine my surprise when right from the byline it states "Ask students to read aloud frequently, but mange the process to ensure expressiveness, accountability, and engagement."

     I have a confession to make. I am a big. fat. phony. At least that is how I feel after reading this chapter. I have long taken up the cause of the beleaguered Humanities teachers. A bit of back story first perhaps? 

1. One of the most important skills a child develops is how to read. The vast majority of research available indicates that the best way to get better at reading, is to read more.
   
2. Many science teachers recognize this, and bemoan their students inabilities to read and comprehend scientific information. Furthermore, they often level criticism at their Humanities counterparts. "Why don't you ask them to read more scientific information" they often lament.
    
3. It is not the job of a Humanities teacher to teach the skills of a science class.
   
4. It is; however, the job of a science teacher to teach the skills of a science class

--- Q.E.D.---

5. It is my bloody job to teach students how to bloody well read scientific information!

     So that sounds great and everything. But here is the problem. You see, nobody ever taught me how to read scientific information. It was something that I just picked up over time, and honestly, I am not entirely sure exactly what I do when I read scientific papers. So here is where the hypocrisy comes in... I haven't quite been doing that, actually to be fair, I haven't been doing that at all in my Jr. Classes. Do I ask my Jr. Science classes to read from the text book? Sure, sometimes. Do I bring in the occasional article? Yeah. But with my Jr. Science classes 1, I have been seriously lacking. 

     Back to the book. Lemov recommends reading early, reading often, and reading out loud. Furthermore, he suggests not just reading out loud, but reading with emphasis and emotion. I can't tell you the last time I had a student read out loud, let alone with emphasis or emotion! He continues in the chapter to further refine the "read out loud" theme. I'm sure you had a similar experience to mine. A teacher would start with one student, then predictably move around the class, each student reading one paragraph. You would look around the class, figure out what paragraph was yours, then promptly tune out. For that reason (tuning out), he proposes keeping students' on their toes by mixing how much they read, who reads, and obviously what they read. This connects with the technique mentioned in my previous post regarding a culture of wrong, and regarding mistakes a learning opportunity, rather than something to be embarrassed about. In addition, not accepting "I don't know" or "I don't want to read" as an answer. Even if they just read a sentence, or the teacher reads the majority of the material, but they pause and make the students read out important words. 

     I remember during my time in  high school, there was nothing worse than having to read out-loud, a new word, and then stumble and fumble over it. Part of the dread of reading out loud came from the fear of failure, or being wrong. If I can reduce that fear, maybe I can reduce some of the anxiety around reading aloud  and thereby introduce more meaning to the deluge of scientific reading I will be throwing at them ;) .  Furthermore, by reading the material out-loud I can bring more meaning and life to it. If a student reads something in a monotone voice, I can re-read it with emphasis on the parts that I found interesting or surprising, or I can ask them to re-read it doing the same. On occasion, it has been pointed out to me, not unkindly, that I am a bit of a nerd. That is to say, I am very passionate about topics that one is typically not passionate about. It is that passion that may be one of my greatest strengths as a teacher. What better way to try to get my students to match that passion then with matching my volume and cadence with reading a particularly juicy sentence out loud?

     What do you think? Maybe you disagree and you think it is the English teachers' job to teach students how to read different types of literature (science included). Maybe you think asking students to read aloud is cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe you didn't like how I switched between out-loud and aloud (I checked, they both suffice). You know where to comment. 

1- I am being a bit harsh on myself here. I think I do a much better job with my Sr. Science classes. I typically get them to keep a pdf I found regarding reading scientific articles, and I have a small selection of primary research articles for ecology and a few other topics. I also pepper in a liberal number of articles from "IFL Science" 

Summer Reading: Teach Like a Champ - Post 1 of ?

Summer Reading: Teach Like a Champ - Post 1 of ?

In this post: Checking for understanding, The culture of "wrong", and don't take "I don't know" for an answer.

In the dying days of the school year, and in a desperate attempt to maintain my motivation going into the summer, I decided to order a book of chapters.ca (No I won't call it indigo). I was torn between "Teach Like a Champion" and "Teach Like a Pirate". I was leaning heavily towards Pirate (for obvious reasons) but after learning that the latter book did not involve swords, parrots, or booty, I decided on "Teach like a Champion" by Doug Lemov [From here on out abbreviated TLC... don't go chasing water falls]

The book begins with some useful preamble about he purposes of the book, but in an effort to avoid stepping on the authors toes, I am just going to skip to the good stuff. The vast majority of this book involves techniques, so I will provide my take on some of the 62 techniques (Yes, you read that right, 62!)

The first six groups deal with checking for understanding, abbreviated as CFU by the author. This posed a bit of a problem for me, working as a lifeguard and taking quite a few molecular biology courses, CFU typically stands for Colony Forming Units and is indicative of how much feces is in the water.  But I digress.....

When Doug Lemov speaks of CFU, he isn't talking about at the end of a unit for the purposes of a report card, but rather activities at the beginning, middle, and end of a lesson to determine A) When it is time to move on and B) Where you need to focus some more attention. While reading, this is where I started to get really interested. I will be teaching math for the first time in a while starting in September, and all of this clicked well with how I was envisioning my math class. (These techniques will also work well with my Jr. and Sr. Science classes as well, and he provides examples on how to use them with an English class to boot!)

Unfortunately this first unit is also where I start to get a bit worried. Throughout TLC Lemov provides suggests that involve a great deal of preparation. He suggests having everything in a lesson planed out, from the questions you will ask, to the answers you expect to get from the students, and how you will address what you think the students will do incorrectly. At times it reminds me of some mad game of chess. That degree of planning might be obtainable for me after five of six times teaching a course, but I don't know if our curriculum will stay the same for long enough to make that possible (kidding....mostly) Here is my takeaway (I'm ignoring the parts that I don't agree with, or feel like I wouldn't have time for).

1. Ask probing questions in class.
      e.g. "Where is the energy transformation when a car stops? What else has a similar                       transformation? How do you know"
   These questions should be answered in full sentences so that someone walking by the room and only hearing the student answer, would know what was going on (more on that later)1. This ensures that the student DOES understand what is going on, and it isn't a fluke, and it makes sure that the other students understand it now as well (even if they didn't before) 
2.   Ask for volunteers infrequently. If you are asking questions of the class to assess understanding, and the same three students are answering your questions, you are really only assessing the understanding of those three students. Relying on the same few students also allows the remainder of the herd to relax and take a mental break during these question times. Not exactly what a teacher is looking for!
3. Don't take "I don't know" for an answer. Those herd members that want the rest know that if you just feign ignorance enough times, you will get that rest. Don't let them!
   E.g "Markus, Where would you find the largest biomass in an ecosystem""I don't know""Lets figure it out then. Where should we start to find the answer?""I don't know""What are the options""I don't know""Okay, Bobby Brownose, where would we find the LEAST biomass" "The apex predators""Correct Bobby, Frieda Cantfocus, why do you think Bobby said that""Because they rely on the next level down for energy, so if there were more of them, they would starve""I think you have the answer, but I'm not sure. Can you give that answer again, but convince me you understand it, maybe using the correct terms for everything""Apex pedators eat primary and secondary predators, so if there were more biomass with the apex predators, they would starve"
   "Much better Frieda! Now Markus, with that information can you predict where we would find the MOST biomass and why?
   This exchange would probably take 3 min, but would give a pretty clear indication of the general level of class understanding, but only if you used targeted questioning. You have to know who to ask that is least likely to understanding, most likely, and equally as likely. This requires you to know your class, but that is a post for another day (Attachment Theory etc) 
4. Change the emotion behind being incorrect. "Being wrong is embarrassing. It grates. It is to be avoided at all costs!" at least that is how I felt as a student. It wasn't until university that I realized I learned more with I got something wrong then when I got it right (sometimes by accident) The class (and maybe school) mentality has to shift. "Growth mindset" gets thrown around a lot. But that is what is called for by this book. 
5. Standardize your written CFU. Create a template to put your questions in, and have students write the answers in the same location with their work in another, laid out in a particular manner. This allows you to circulate and quickly understand what students understand and what they don't. Furthermore, he suggests you should have these problems all worked out in advance along with likely areas of misunderstanding. When you circulate, he suggests you write down the names of those students that had those misunderstandings. This along with the culture of "wrong is good" can help to shape your class discussions or single out students for more help at lunch/after school.
   
   I feel like # 5 is the tip that would help me the most in my Math classes, but I haven't taught them enough to anticipate the misunderstandings. That is where planning with a more experienced teacher would be great, unfortunately there is vanishingly little time in the school year to do things like that. I find this to be the most heart breaking because it is where "what is good for kids" does not seem  possible to me (sparing giving up my every waking moment) 

1- Using "academic language" is the only way to ensure students speak the language of academia and their points are taken seriously. Saying " the thing does stuff and that shows that process" will convince nobody of anything 

Mr H's Musings, the lost blog posts..

So this will be both short and long. It turns out I already started a blog a long time ago! Whoops. For posts from 2013, Follow the link :)

http://mrhmuses.blogspot.ca/

Final Interviews and What's Good for Kids

Final Interviews and What's Good for Kids

A search to define the seemingly undefinable

Well, it has been a while since my last blog post. It seems the end of a semester and the beginning of a new one don't lend themselves to idle reflections, more's the pity. You see, the end of one year and the beginning of the new have always been fertile ground for reflections, resolutions, and rebuilding. It is a little late, but here I go....

Too Long; Don't Want to Read : I find that doing a final interview is what is best for kids. I accept that time can be a factor, but with proper planning it can be done and I feel that for the sake of proper assessment and a fair shake for all students, it should be done. 

      This year with my Planning 10 and Digital Media 10/11/12 classes I decided I was going to take a chance, and try doing final interviews with my students. I felt that both courses had a few, very important, "key learnings" the students needed to get out of the course, and doing an interview for it should be pretty reasonable/quick. I wasn't totally wrong...

    While doing final interviews, I was absolutely able to gain insight into what the student had (and had not)  actually picked up from the course; furthermore, it was actually a predominantly positive experience. Unfortunately that was where my luck ran out, and quick it was not. For some students the interview took nearly 30 minutes. These tended to be those that knew the material, but struggled to bring voice to it. A combination of nervousness and lack of interview experience likely did not help these students. While it was long, both the student and I came away with a better understanding of what they knew (I think this would also count as one of the "reminder periods" for he curve of forgetting-- More on that in a future post)

   The students at the opposite ends of the spectrum stunned me (as you may be able to guess). Some students knew exactly what they had picked up from the course, and where they wanted to take it. I received some marvellous answers regarding aspects of the course that even I had forgotten! Did you know students appreciate learning scientific literacy strategies? Me either!

    Unfortunately the other end of the spectrum was stunning as well, for the opposite reason. I was fully aware that there were students that, regardless of how often you contact home, pull them aside and talk to them, threaten, bribe, or otherwise harass, were not going to try in your class. I was always of a mind that they picked up something, but just didn't put in the effort to show you. I have now been debased of that opinion. If you have a student that looks like they are learning nothing in your class, it is very possible that they are actually learning nothing in your class. It was disappointing for me to be sure, but it seemed like it was an eye-opener for them as well. To receive a report card that says "35%" or "F" depending on the student's age, doesn't really mean anything. You can shove that report-card in your backpack and forget about it until you get yelled at by your parents. Sitting there, face to face with the person you were supposed to be learning from, unable to prove that you've learned anything?  One of the key motivators for student procrastination is the avoidance of discomfort (see previous posts). A 30 min  interview  (maybe 10 min if I do it 4 times a semester) where you are unable to talk about anything you are supposed to talk about is probably the apex of discomfort. 

What do you think? Are final interviews something you do/could make a part of your practice? What problems do you see / encounter? 

Anxiety and Student Accountability

Anxiety and Student Accountability

With guest star: Procrastination

At a recent staff meeting, it was mentioned by one of our counselling staff that the instances of students missing school due to anxiety, depression, and gaming addiction. There isn't much I can do about gaming addiction, but the anxiety surrounding school I felt was at least partly the responsibility of the teacher. 

Being the consummate scientist (nerd?) that I am, my first step was to do research. My first search brought me to the personality-project.org's PDF on anxiety(1). Interestingly they made the link between Anxiety and procrastination. They state that procrastination is often a result from anxiety which I found fascinating.  Teaching in a computer lab, I have a huge number of students that procrastinate on a daily basis. Perhaps this is because they are anxious about the assignments I have given them? I didn't want to take this one source at face value, so more research was required.

What else causes anxiety? Neuroticism seemed to be the biggest culprit(2). Neuroticism is defined as an over sensitivity to stressors, as well as a higher reactivity to those same stressors. An example may be how an individual experiencing neuroticism would view a deadline vs someone who does not. Both individuals would likely have some level of anxiety around a deadline; however, the individual experiencing neuroticism would have a far larger stress response (release of adrenaline, cortisol etc.) from the same stressor (the deadline). The truly unfair aspect of this is this response can be "learned" or rather the response can be strengthened through repeated experiences just like any other kind of learning(3).

How does this relate to procrastination? It is a re-focusing of the mind. The individual shifts their attention from the "painful" stimuli (the due date), and onto less painful stimuli (snapchat, supersnake.io, etc.) , with the big bad stimuli gone, the mind can relax again (and possibly reward itself with a healthy dose of dopamine for a job well done(4))

Understanding why students procrastinate is one thing, preventing it in class is a bird of another feather. Without going into too much detail on anti-procrastination techniques, the biggest and easiest step seems to be just to start. Once an activity is started (no matter how small the step), it has been shown that anxiety abates if individuals can simply start whatever it is they were anxious about. Something as simple as writing a title page can be enough.(5) The theory behind this technique is the stress of the upcoming task is no longer there when the task is no longer upcoming. It seems odd that the stress of an event approaching would be greater than the actual event itself, but that is the paradoxical nature of anxiety.

What can I do to help students develop OUT of their habits rather than deepen them? Mindfulness seems to be the ticket. Students procrastinate, they know they procrastinate, but rarely can they state WHY they procrastinate. When asked recently, the vast majority of one of my classes stated "It is just who I am, I procrastinate because I am a procrastinator." Boy, was that ever a long conversation after that little informal poll! Mindfulness can help students become more aware of their behaviour, and then eventually the causes behind their behaviour. The argument goes something like this.

1. Many of the issues we see in the classroom (and in life) come from dysfunctional self-regulation. (6)
2. Functional self-regulation requires functional emotional-regulation
3. Mindfulness increases individuals emotional-regulation abilities(7)
   QED
4. Mindfulness can help with issues in the classroom (ta-da!)

One source I have found useful is the "Get Things Done" model developed by David Allen. You can summarise the steps thusly:

Step 1: Mindfulness exerciseStep 2: Capture your ideas- get them down on "paper"Step 3: Clarify- Focus on the ideas that are important and flush them outStep 4: Organise- Which are things I can do now, which soon, which laterStep 5: Do it!

Nothing there is particularly surprising, but I have noticed a significant decrease in "time wasting" activities by my students on the days that I ask them to do this. Below I have an example of how I used this with a grade 8 class.

• Start: Re-Introduce students to mindfulness, state that the purpose is to focus on their personal emotional state, and the things that are on their mind. I provide an example of my own how I wasn't aware that an upcoming family dinner was on my mind so much (and distracting me), until I took to the time to "be still" and relax a bit.
  
• 3 min mindfulness exercise (youtube has a million of them[133,000 to be exact])
  
• Introduce the purpose of the days lesson- problem solving skills - prototype development - ask the students to write down what code they think the will have to put into the sphero (robot) to make it move around a question mark (they have already done it with a square) (3 min)
  
• Ask students to collaborate with their group and make a master copy of their draft code (including why they excluded some ideas and included others)
  
• Show students the project criteria (they have to film their trials, communicate their thinking and their learning in the video) ask them to make a plan on how they are going to get me a final video (listing digital literacy skills they might employ and predicted problems )
  
• I check their plan to make sure it is reasonable (if not, then they get sent back to the drawing board with more direction)
  
• Students film themselves programming and testing the robots, writing down anything that would not be clear through film. 

I don't think I had to tell a single student to stay off their cellphone in this class (compared to previous classes doing similar things where I would have to tell a different student every 4-5 min to stop using their cellphone inappropriately) I have yet to try this type of lesson with Sr. Grades, so stay tuned for more examples in the future. 

What do you think? Questions? Do you have experience with procrastination/mindfulness? Where do you think the problems come from?

References: (it's my blog and I'll cite how I want to ! ) 

1. Procrastination and Anxiety (Dopamine) - Personality-project.orghttps://www.personality-project.org/revelle/syllabi/301/301.anxiety.pdf - taken from:Source: http://www.sh.lsuhsc.edu/fammed/OutpatientManual/Anxiety.htm taken from 5. Gliatto, Michael F. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Am Fam Physician. 2000;62:1591-600, 1602
   
2. Anxiety and Neuoticisim - https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2016/01/neuroticism-predicts-anxiety-depression-disorders
   
   
3. Anxiety and the relationship to neural connections- "The Neuropsychology of Anxiety" 2nd Edition by Jeffery Alan Gray and Neil McNaughton- Accessed Dec 13 2016- Page 171 - https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_M4owh-vs-8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR15&dq=are+reactions+strengthened+through+habituation+neural+networks+anxiety&ots=KVOzLqKYn7&sig=JsHjpz4DLAQCWbRx7vqhfMrpT7c#v=onepage&q&f=false
   
4. Dopamine and Procrastination Neurogistics- "Procrastination- Is Dopamine to Blame?" by Emily Roberts
   
5. Tools to treat procrastination - "Procrastination the Time Robber" by Dr. Thomas A. Richards http://anxietynetwork.com/content/procrastination-time-robber
   
6. Importance of Self-Regulation in the classroom- "Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance".
   Pintrich, Paul R.; de Groot, Elisabeth V.
   Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 82(1), Mar 1990, 33-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.1.33
   Special Section: Motivation and efficacy in education: Research and new directions.
   
   
7. Mindfulness' efect on behaviour- "Feasibility and Preliminary Outcomes of a School-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Urban Youth" Mendelson, T., Greenberg, M.T., Dariotis, J.K. et al. J Abnorm Child Psychol (2010) 38: 985. doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9418-x
   
8. Getting things done- http://gettingthingsdone.com/  and http://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-getting-things-done-1551880955 

Digital Reflections: Graduated Release and Interviews

Digital Reflections: Graduated Release and Interviews

Inspired by: Learn rich by:Ben Richardson

    So I had a few fleeting moments before the bell went today and I thought I would catch up on the blog by my friend/coworker  Ben Richardson, or as I call him Benny R (link in the subtitle). He is exploring how to shift his conversations with students into more of communications with students. He is currently giving a lot of feedback in class but in a more informal way. That forced me to reflect on how effective my feedback currently is, and I've realised the answer is "Not very effective". So the following is my plan on how to remedy that. 

Step 1: Improving the student side (Graduated release)

     This is an iron that I already have in the fire. I have been working on it (rather haphazardly) for the past two weeks. For those of you unfamiliar with graduated release, the mantra goes something like this. "I demonstrate, you watch. I demonstrate again, you help. You do it, I help. You do it on your own". That is the formula for 90% of my math/physics classes and it has worked well for me so far, so why not apply it to (digital) reflections.

    I will use the example of my IT9 class for the remainder of this, but I am doing similar things with my other courses as well, with similar results

    I started this near the end of a unit on Photoshop. I wanted the students to reflect on the major questions I have had them reflect on all semester:  

1. What did I know at the start of this assignment?
2. What did I learn? 
3. Where is the evidence of that learning? 
4. What do I still have to learn going forward? 
5. What problem solving strategies did I employ?

I didn't want to just give them a script to regurgitate, so I gave them an example of my learning about how to use the "animate frames" tool in Photoshop (essentially it makes a simple animation). As I described my learning to the students, I typed it out. This forced me to slow it down a bit, and gave the students something to reference later on. It looked something like this:

"Coming into this learning, I wasn't sure how animating would work on Photoshop. I viewed Photoshop as simply a tool for making pictures. Pictures and videos occupy very different places in my mind. Another teacher reminded me that early animations were just a series of pictures that you flipped through quickly (like a flip book). I had done flip books as a student (sometimes at the corner of my note book when I should have been focusing on something else). So I now had the background knowledge for how animation worked, now I needed the technical knowledge to figure out how to actually get pictures to flip through. I decided to google it. I knew there were teachers that knew how to do this (because I saw them do it), but I also knew that I learn better by being able to reference material as I move through an assignment.

After googling it and working through it in Photoshop, I animated a ball bouncing around the screen. As you can see I used the knowledge of the shape tool in Photoshop to make a ball, then duplicated the layer and moved the ball to make the frames of my animation. When the ball hit the edge of the canvas I added layers where the ball squished, then expanded in a new direction. I stopped making new layers when the ball returned to its original position. That was all old knowledge. The new knowledge came from using the "timeline" tools, using the "create slides from frames" option, and then playing around with the timing of each slide to make the ball look like it was moving smoothly. If I let the frame linger too long the ball looked like it jumped, not long enough and the ball moved too quickly to see. 

I'm not sure how this can be used with real pictures, if I can take a series of photos of people and make it look like an animation. I have seen GIFs that look similar to my animation, so I suspect you can.

I struggled a few times with the timeline tools." I persevered and applied past knowledge to a new situation and I remained open to continuous learning" [tools of the mind PDF #1,8,16 respectively] There is one button that does not have the typical button appearance (I think the shadow on it is too small, so it looks like a title) If you don't press it then the tools required for this don't appear in the timeline menu. This is a common thread for my problems with Photoshop. I had to ask another teacher to show me once quickly how they did it.  Tools not appearing used to throw me off , but I am starting to detect patterns. If tools don't show up, it is usually because there is a setting that is off. For example, if you load a picture that is in grey scale, any setting to do with colour is not available  (because there is no colour to adjust) 

Phew, it looks long on a page, but it only takes about 15 min to go through with a class (less if you type faster ☺ )


Stage 2: The interview- I write you help

This is where I am at the planning stage. Inspired by Ben Richardson's blog "Learn Rich", My plan is to interview 3-4 students every class. I will get the class to start their work for the day, then start at one end of the class list and work my way through (keeping track of who I've talked to on google spreadsheets). I will use an assignment that they have already completed and help them to shape a meaningful reflection out of it. This will ensure two way communication of their learning. I will use the online tool "Fresh Grade" to ensure that the student has that conversation to look back on, and because I have chosen to include the parent in their portfolios, the parent will see the written portion of the conversation as well. I will point out the relevant sections of their assignment and get clarification from the student

Stage 3: The interview - You write and I help

Similarly to the previous stage, I will go through the class list, 3-4 students per day; however, this time I will give them the computer to write the conversations and I will be the more passive one. They will take the pilots seat and I will just nudge them in the right direction where required.

Stage 4: The Summative Assessment- You write, I mark. 

Only at this point, after I have given them plenty of resources for writing a meaningful reflection, will I attach a permanent mark to their work.

This is where things get tricky. With 30 students, it could take 30 classes to get through stages 1-3. In that time there will probably be at least one major assignment that they have done, and several minor assignments that lead up to it. I will still have to provide marks for all those assignments (and reflections). That isn't much of a problem, but because the students will be improving as we go, I have to provide them with the opportunity to re-submit old assignments with their new reflective capabilities.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Criticism? Post them in the comments.

Reflection and the Curve of Forgetting

Reflection and the Curve of Forgetting

     One of the learning concepts I like to brief my students on is "The Curve of Forgetting". The concept deals with how memory is stored/lost over time, and has huge implications for all types of learning. The graph below shows generally what is going on when a student is trying to learn something. 

Forgetting curve: Showing % remembered per day. Taken from 4mylearn.org

     The various studies vary, but most agree that within a day most people will forget ~25% of what they have learned, and if you stretch that out to 3 months that increases to well over 80%. That loss can be mitigated through well timed repetition, typically 1h after learning, 24h after learning, 1 week after learning, then 1 month after learning. Reviewing material at those four critical stages has been shown to flip the results, and increase the retention of the learning to 80% rather than the loss of that information. 

     Even with the decreased content in the new BC curriculum, I don't think there is time to review the same content four times. Ideally your students would be studying on a regular basis, but I don't think risking students forgetting the vast majority of what they learned is worth the risk. Reflections are helpful here. Let's take a math class as an example (as I feel this curve is especially apparent in the math classes I've taught) 

Beginning of class Reflection: What do you know about the Pythagorean theorem?

Example: "I don't know anything about it, I know theorem has something to do with an idea, and the name Pythagorean sounds foreign to me"

Direct Teaching: During the class you provide examples of how if you make squares out of the two smaller sides of a right triangle, you can cut up those squares and they will fit inside the square made from the largest side. Introduce the language of "Leg" for the smaller sides, and "hypotenuse" for the largest side. 

Student independent learning:  Students practice what they have just learned hear, example problems should start simple, and move to more complex problems with real world examples. Challenge questions can be useful here

Final Reflection: "Compared to what you knew at the beginning of the lesson, what do you know about the Pythagorean theorem? What do you think we are going to learn about next?" 

This serves as the first "inoculation" of learning. This is the review ~1h after learning something that students require in order to ensure long-term learning. It also provides you an easy feedback mechanism. If you get 20 reflections stating they didn't remember anything, then you will have to go back to the start :( 

The Next Day: Alternate between a reflection "What did we learn last class" and a one question quiz with a simple example from the last class. This is the review 24-48 h after the learning. This is the second booster shot to their learning

One week later : What do you remember about the Pythagorean theorem? (This should not take longer than 3 min) 

One month later: Provide an example of how you could use the Pythagorean theorem with [insert what you are learning here] 

This is a time intensive process, and it takes a LOT of planning. Your day plan might look like this

Expressions Lesson

Reflect: 

5 min -Pythagorean Theorem && Cartesian Coordinates ;  

5 min -Flash back quiz- tessellations; 

6 min -"If I have a formula 3-5x, what will happen if x=0? What do you think will happen if x gets bigger?" 

60 min -Insert lesson on expressions here including practice-

10 min- Final reflection "how did my prediction at the beginning of class pan out? Was I right? What did I base my answer on? What would I have to change about the formula in order to make my prediction right?

It isn't perfect, and it is time consuming, but I feel like it is best practice. What do you think?

Over-caffinated conundrum

Over-caffeinated conundrum

** I have gone back over the notes I wrote on the articles I read and added in reflective comments. These are denoted with [   ] around the reflection. 

     So a Seattle based coffee company currently has a buy-one get-one-free premonition going on.  My wife and I decided to each get a "holiday inspired beverage. " Unfortunately my wife enjoyed neither her drink nor mine, so I was left to polish off the better part of  40oz of milk and caffeine. Once my stomach forgave me for the injustice, my mind took over on punishment for my poor judgement thus depriving me of my much desired sleep. 

      tl;dr: (Too Long; Didn't Read) I had too much coffee and can't sleep. [ don't ask me why there is a semicolon there, as far a I know it is just internet convention.  I was curious as well and that rabbit hole is deep. Feel free to take the red pill here though  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-the-semicolon-in-tldr-ironic ]

The result of my lack of somnolence is shown below.  I got lost in blog posts and masters theses  (thesises... Is that right?) And in the end thought I would write down things that felt relevant. Are they relevant? Will they be coherent?  Can our intrepid, insomniac  author get to the point?  You decide

For blog:

1. Assignments provide snapshot of learning. 
2. Reflection is the thread that ties that Polaroid to the other snapshots AND explains the meaning of the pictures
3. Digital portfolios are both assessment as learning and of learning.
4. The assessment of the learning is obviously the final stage of the portfolio,  and ideally will be done with the student.
5. The assessment as learning has a few parts

    i) cements the learning that has taken place [future blog on curve of forgetting ]
   ii) focuses reflector on the big idea / purpose of the assignment
   iii) teaches metacognative strategies
   iv) provides a logical application point for skills that may not have been obviously applicable to an assignment

Part 4 (iv) of this is hard to explain. Imagine a math assignment where a student has to examine a math "shortcut" figure out how it works, then explain it to a small group.

Using the bc  maths 8 curriculum as a guide  ( https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/mathematics/8 ) 

the student would likely show "reasoning and analyzing " skills and " Understanding and solving " techniques,  but it is unlikely that there would be an organic  way to show their ability to "Reflect on mathematical thinking". I can't recall many group presentations that had the presenter stop and think out loud regarding their thinking strategies. (Maybe they should though...ooh meta^2). I'm not sure if that cleared my point or just muddied the waters.

3) End point reflection should probably include :

A) what skills did I develop /refine
B) what knowledge did I gain / sharpen
C) What do I still have to learn / work on for this course?

4) [Clearly I was getting a little bit over excited here]

• DO I DIRECT TO THE CURRICULUM,  GUIDE THEM THROUGH THE CURRICULUM OR TELL THEM WHAT THE GOAL WAS????? 
• Are the curriculum documents written in such as way that your average high school student can understand them? 
• If not, is it better to re-write the curriculum in "kid friendly" language, or walk them through the "unfriendly" language? [Upon further reflection I would rather walk them through the "unfriendly" language. It develops literacy, helps me re-focus on the task at hand, and provides the students with another tool to help their understanding. ]

Clear as mud? Questions, Comments,  Concerns?  Post them in the comments.

Digital Portfolios: Practising What I Preach

Digital Portfolios: Practising What I Preach

When I first began to ask students to reflect, quite often it would look something like this

         "Okay students, reflect. Here are some questions you can answer, go!"

Quite often I would get answers like

         "I found this assignment difficult because the tools I was using were hard."
or
          "This was an easy assignment because I was good at it."

Obviously this wasn't really the detail I was looking for. I wanted to actually get an idea of what the students found hard, and why they found it difficult, or what skills the students came into the assignment with that they leveraged in order to make it easier for themselves.

The root of the problem was obvious, but I couldn't see it because I was so wrapped up in providing feedback and chasing students around for not completing their work. The issue was I wasn't asking the right questions, or rather the questions I asked were to vague. I had also provided no exemplars for the students, good or bad. What is worse (in my opinion at least) is the students only have a vague idea of why were were reflecting in the first place!

Here is an example that I have found more success with:

   "Okay students, lets reflect! Not so fast, I go first."
*open an assignment*
   "So lets take the high road, lets talk about the successes I found in this assignment, who can give         me some things they see that are good about this assignment"
*students provide me a list of good things*
   "If were were to reflect on what went well in this assignment. What would be the purpose of such a    thing?"
*Students hum, haw, and shift awkwardly. Finally one brave soul shyly puts up a hand*
    "To tell you.... to tell you  what we learned?"
*Balloons fall from the sky, lights flash, a band starts up!*
   "That sounds pretty reasonable, so what kinds of things would a teacher like me be interested in    hearing about"


We then proceed to write a basic reflection on one positive thing together. How I made it, what skills allowed me to make it, how I solved problems I encountered etc.

I then ask the students to take 15 min and write one for their own assignment. After 15 min I come around to each student and provide them with verbal formative feedback.

After doing this four or five times with a class, the quality of  their reflections have improved dramatically. It doesn't work for all students, and it might not work for you, but it works for me :)

Digital Portfolios - How

Recently some colleagues and I got together to talk about Digital Portfolios. Here is what we came up with . Stay tuned for a video on all this :)

---

We’re here today to talk to you about the “how” of reflections within Digital Portfolios.

Digital Portfolios allows your students to show you their continuum of learning; including what they know going into the lesson, what their progress is mid-way through and at the end of it  what they know now and where they may go next. This communicated through reflections.

From here on out I will be discussing what has worked well for me.

Initial Major Reflection:

This is where we hook them and determine the initial baseline of their knowledge. This includes what they already know, what predictions the can make about the upcoming learning, and potentially some strategies they may use.

Midway Major Reflection

This occurs partway into your project or assignment. This stage is where you provide opportunities for student to reflect on their current learning including: weather their initial predictions have been corroborated or rather their learning has gone off on an unanticipated direction. Students can also highlight any initial successes and discuss current difficulties.

Final Major Reflection:

At this point students will summarize their learning journey [cue don’t stop believing] They will describe what they thought they knew, what they actually knew, and what they learned. Hopefully students will also reflect on  what is yet to be learned as well. [Remember, this is just what has worked well for me]

They will also describe their skill development - The strategies they thought they would deploy, the strategies they DID deploy, and how effective they were. Effective reflection should also include where they struggled, how they coped or how they should have coped.

As the learning facilitator, your role in the reflections is to provide guiding questions, examples of your own reflective practices, as well as formative feedback on their reflective abilities.

ç

What you as a teacher do:

Before they start:

Give them an outline of what the assignment is about both topic and skill development.

Give them formative feedback on their plans and predictions.

(e.g. So you know romeo and juliet is going to be about teen suicide? Interesting, why do you think that? ~Or~ You are going to try and solve this problem by making a graph? Why do you think that will work? Have you tried that with a similar problem? ~and~ You think we will work on gathering, interpreting, and analyze ideas about the bubonic plague and communicate what you learned and some decisions about that? Do you think your plan addresses all that, or are you missing something?)

Middle:

This is still the realm of formative assessment / feedback. And it should still be on both their acquisition of knowledge, and the development of skills.

(e.g. This sentence in [insert language here] of your story seems like it is missing something. If it were in english, what would you say could make it better? ~OR~ Your hypothesis seems to be missing something, compair it to the examples from your notes and see what is different ~and~ You said you were going to collect information about settlers when discussing the impact of the colonization of canada, but you decided to switch to the Cree in Alberta. You went from a huge topic to a much smaller, totally different topic, that is an interesting choice, what made you make that choice?)

End:

Here is where the forces of formative and summative collide. With the feedback from the middle section, we assume the student has made the best iteration of this assignment that they can. We are saying they have squeezed as much juice out of this apple as possible. Assess their learning, how well have they shown you that they have learned what you wanted them to learn? But help them for the future as well, tell them what they could have done better, where you saw promise etc.

“Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face” - Mike Tyson

On Digital Portfolios

First!


So the school I work at has been toying around with digital portfolios as a way of communicating student learning (CSL). Typically I teach sciences with a supçon  of Tech, this year it is all Tech all the time! While I miss my precious sciences, teaching all tech is giving me the tools and time needed to really shift my practice. Hence the digital portfolios.


I see the digital portfolio helping in a few important ways.
1) Forces me to force them to reflect.
2) Changes my focus from from the result to the process.
3) Provides me with tools to better communicate students' learning with parents.
4) Allows me to shift from a numbers based marking system to a standards based marking system (mastery?)
5) It shifts the responsibility for learning more to the student (growth mindset)


Details:

1) A portfolio without reflection is really just a collection of assignments and doesn't show learning anymore than a messy 3-ringed binder does. I am hoping asking students to reflect will

• Re-focus them on what they are actually learning
• Improve their problem-solving skills (habits of mind?)
• Give me a better sense of what they actually know, rather then trying to interpret it from an assignment. 

2)  I know that the process is where the learning comes from, but breaking out of 20 years of schooling (don't judge me) is hard, and I often find myself drifting back to "results, results, results". Focusing on the portfolios drags me away from that (kicking and screaming at times)

3) "Your child is getting 75%" doesn't tell parents much, and doesn't give them any way to help the student develop. "Your child is proficient in their critical thinking but still beginning in gathering ideas from group members" is a lot more useful (in my opinion at least)

4) I am not satisfied with how accurate my marking is in terms of understanding. I have had conversations with "A" students where they show very little understanding of the material, but the "C" student next to them can explain what is going on perfectly. I am unjustly penalising students that don't have test taking skills, and unjustly rewarding students that have "figured out" testing.  

5) I feel like a lot of my teaching has been "This is what you need to learn!" followed by "Prove that you learned it!" I much prefer "what have you learned, what else can you learn, what would you like to learn" I think this will help student develop a growth mindset (another new passion of mine).

More to come on digital portfolio fun!