Assessment Blog Post 2

                Now that I have had a chance to familiarize myself with the Growing Success document and Kindergarten Addendum, I have definitely felt myself being forced to change some of my previously held beliefs. Not necessarily in the sense that there were points that I agree with now that I previously disagreed with, rather, there are a lot of points I have to incorporate into my outlook on life as a teacher. For instance, one of the policies that really stood out to me in the document was that teachers have the responsibility to communicate to their students, as well as, the parents of their students all of the learning goals that teacher has planned for the class. Communication must remain consistent throughout the year as well (which I knew about, because of the existence of progress reports). This point made me realize all the added benefits that would come along with parents being made aware of all of the teacher’s plans for their children at the beginning of the year. Parents would be able to discuss with the teacher certain things about their child(ren) that otherwise might have taken the teachers days, weeks, or maybe even month to figure out on their own, and this information can help as a form of informal assessment for learning. Another benefit would be that since the parents are on-board with what is going on they will also be able to either come into school and help out in the classroom, or at the very least, they will be able to help their chil(dren) in the home.
                Another great point that was brought to my attention was that treating all students the same is not necessarily a good idea. The goal is equity between students, not necessarily equality, in the strict sense of the word. Not all students are the same, think the same, work the same, learn the same, or have the same experiences, so we would we then as teachers treat them all the same. We need to be able to differentiate our instruction to make it inclusive to all students.
                Another eye opener for me was the fact that it is very important for teachers to be able to help develop self-assessment skills in their students. I always wanted to take pride in the fact that I will try to always make myself available to help students with anything and everything, but now I realize that no matter what, I cannot always be there for all my students all the time. This conclusions mean that it is vital that I direct them down a path that will allow them to become good independent learners capable of locating, retaining and acting upon beneficial knowledge on their own.                Finally, yet another point that I really liked was that teachers should always “provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning” because students do not all learn and process information at the same speed. As teachers we have to make sure that students do not think that we are ‘out to get them’. As educators we want what is best for all our students, and therefore, we should always be accepting and happy when we see progress, and should therefore also allow for a revision of assessment whenever we see that our students have progressed, that way we become more efficient in teaching them and they are given even more opportunity to improve and reach their potentials.