For upcoming subject retreat days I put together a presentation about assessment. It includes diagnostic, formative and summative, as well as showing teachers how to use G.R.A.S.P.S. to create authentic/meaningful tasks.  This is just a short presentation and there is so much more I could add, but I didn't want to overwhelm.
Link here.

I worked with the subject coordinator for math, and she said she is keen to focus on GRASPS for her upcoming assessment day. I had a stab at turning some activities/ideas/themes from some of the textbooks they are using into GRASPS activities. Any feedback would be wonderful, as I am not a math teacher! Consider these examples a work in progress! GRASPS for Math.

I made a short presentation about inquiry questions for our upcoming subject retreat days. From what I have seen in my school, along with various others is:

• teachers struggle with writing debatable questions
• some teachers throw in 25+ factual questions, because they write all the content/skills/knowledge of a unit into a factual question. These should be included in the learning process. Inquiry questions are broad and link to the statement of inquiry
• Often teachers don't use the key or related concepts to help them write any of the inquiry questions. I tend to go here first - for example, if my key concept was 'community', then I would have: Factual - what is a community? Conceptual: How does community shape who you are? Debatable: Is belong to a community more important that individuality?
• Teachers don't use them to scaffold the learning. When someone first told me to use them in this way it was such a game changer for me! I show all the questions at the start of the unit, but we first unpack/answer the factual questions. We cover the conceptual towards the middle of the unit, and we end with a reflection linked to our debatable question
• Some teachers write way too many inquiry questions to possibly cover! I always try to go for the model three factual, two conceptual and one debatable. Of course this is not concrete and each time I cover a unit, students generate additional questions.
• Use debatable questions that really get the students to argue and debate! They can also be used to help make Service/Action connections!
• Here's the presentation.​

I put together a presentation about statements of inquiry for some upcoming subject retreat days. Hopefully this is useful to you.LINK.

I put together this website to help my students prepare for their eAssessments.
I've just updated it today with the PCUP material which the IB just released. For Arts and Design, students can see the full PCUP.  For Language Acquisition I don't provide the links, because for some of the tasks, they should see the prompts only ten minutes before the assignment (oral exams). Subject specific information is under 'May 2021 Exams and E-Portfolios'.
Here's our website - feel free to use/copy.

A short session I made for one of our advisory classes, focussing on Research AtLs (1. Use critical literacy skills to analyse and interpret media communications 2. Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and make informed decisions).
The students play a game developed by "The Clemson University Media Forensics Hub" called Spot the Troll. They then have a class discussion and also there is a prompt to 'take action'.
Feel free to make a copy.

I has the pleasure of speaking about the UN's Global Goals during a recent Highr Webinar. Here I explained how I use them in design class, and how you can use them too! 
​
"In the run-up to #WorldSDGDay on September 25th, this webinar explores how crucial components of learning - empathy, design, play, and stories - can be interwoven with our teaching of the SDGs to help students understand the world they live in, and how they have the potential to be change makers."

You can watch a recording of the webinar here:

I have a three part workshop coming up soon, "Building Student Empathy & Perspectives", which will focus on the important of an empathy based classroom! I want my students to be successful, but I also want them to make a positive impact on the world! Empathy and perspective taking can help this happen!

The session will happen over three Sundays, starting on October 4th. Each session will be two hours along.

Aims of the workshop:
The Participant will be able to: 

1. Understand and explain the importance of an empathy focussed classroom.
2. Curate relevant resources linked to current local and global issues for student engagement
3. Design activities, lessons and units which are focussed on students developing empathy, which will lead to them taking action

Click this link to find out more and to sign up!
Here's a video sneak peak:

In yesterday's staff meeting we used the 'evaluating our IDU plans'.  I put together a Google Doc version, where you can add if you are 'beginning/developing, using, or sharing' for each section. I also made a version, with Google Sheets, for evaluating general/subject plans. Please let me know which is better - the Google Doc version or the Google Sheets version. Make a copy by going to 'File' (below the document title, not on the top left of your screen, then select 'make a copy')

• Evaluating IDU Units
• Evaluating MYP Units

I really like this document, and it really helped me to see the areas that need improvements. I know that I am good at the 'inquiry' section of the unit, but maybe not always good at documenting everything in the 'action' section. I tend to have long, rolling google slides presentations, which has the learning process in (which students also see), so I upload those to our units. I also need to be better at documenting differentiation. I also know that the units make sense to me, but using these evaluating tools makes me more conscious of how much my unit would make sense to someone else. For example, this year I am only teaching Grade 6, so hopefully my Grade 7 and 8 units last year make sense. I'll also be on maternity leave soon, (you all remember how ill I was at the start of the year...I thought I had Covid...but turns out...baby!) so I need my units to be strong for those taking over.