Planning a Night for Parents

With all the work we build into our classroom activities that uses the Chromebooks and iPads, my teaching partner Ray and I thought it might be helpful to share some of the tools with parents and teach them how we use tools like Google Docs with our students. We have put together a small presentation that we can offer to parents to help educate them on this. Below is a copy of the Agenda that we have outlined:

Parent Night Agenda

1.  Introductions/Housekeeping (5 minutes)

2.  What technology does your child use at home? (Mindomo) (10 minutes)

3. Presentation Objective: To share some of the basic features of Google Docs in order to become familiar with the tool. (5 minutes)

4.  Google Slides Presentation – Using Technology in Language, Science and Social Studies. (10 minutes)

5.  Use Google Docs to create a shared document. Parents will be supported through the process by Mrs. Davies and Mr. Swinarchin by modelling on the projector circulating as parents work on task (25 minutes)

Parents will complete a table in a shared document

• column one – four seasons
• column two – insert image of season
• column three – insert link to information about the season

Learning About Google Docs Parent Activity

 6.  Questions/Comments (10 minutes)

7.  Feedback – using Google Forms - Parent Workshop Feedback Form Some explanation of how Google Forms can be used in the classroom. Parents will be shown Google Form and assisted as needed to complete the feedback form.

Back up plan:

If we have technical difficulties at any point or extra time we will have ipads available for parents to explore some of the apps that have been highlighted in the power point.

Materials/Equipment Needed:

chromebooks projector ipads

Here is the Google Slide Presentation that we will share:

How 21st Century Tools Can Improve Feedback and Evaluation

Authentic and timely feedback is often a hot topic in education. It is widely accepted that giving feedback quickly is the key to seeing improvement in student work. However, many educators will admit that they find this a challenge and that it is affecting the thoroughness of their assessment and evaluation practices. It is challenging for many teachers to keep on top of giving all of their many students feedback that is specific, detailed, and done quickly enough for them to make immediate improvements. The beauty of so many of the 21st Century tools that are now available is that they are providing us with more creative ways of giving feedback and assessing students. These tools are making it easier for teachers to give feedback quickly, to give more detail, and to follow up with more students. Thus in turn, allowing teachers to have more data to use in their assessment and evaluation practices. Below are ten technology tools that can help improve how teachers give feedback and evaluate students.



E-Portfolios: E-portfolios, like the one that can be created on D2L, allow students a space where they can archive their work, achievements, make reflections and leave notes. Students can use this space for their work and then reflect on their strengths and needs. The portfolio also allows the user to allow others to share comments. Using this feature a teacher could have students work on giving peer feedback. Finally, the student could set up the portfolio that would allow the teacher to give feedback that could only be viewed by the student. E-portfolios allow the student to collect work and see progression over the year by using and building upon the feedback and reflections of the students work.


Google Drive Forms: Google Drive Forms can be used in two ways to evaluate student work. The first way is to create a form that allows students to submit their work directly to the teacher. This makes it easy for teachers to access a particular assignment and prevents students and teachers from misplacing work. A second application for evaluation is to create a self-evaluation form. Once work has beens submitted the teacher could set up a questionnaire that has students reflect on the task they have submitted.


Voice Thread: Voice Thread can be used in many ways that allows students a way to show their work. Students can insert pictures of their work and add their own comments about it. By being able to record their thoughts, students can clearly express their knowledge verbally. A practical application is to use Voice Thread during DRA. Not only could the teacher record the student reading, the teacher could also have students give verbal responses to the comprehension questions.



Evernote: Is excellent for documenting anecdotal notes on students and can be used as a place to keep evidence of their learning. You could save photos of work samples, photograph and save any written feedback you have given. As well, you can later search for a note you made for a student easily because Evernote will search both text and images. This is useful when reflecting back with a student to previous feedback you had given.


Google Docs: Not only is Google Docs a great tool for student collaboration, but it’s also very handy for providing feedback as an assessment as learning tool. Students can submit work to you for commenting. The comment feature allows teachers to highlight specific sections of the document and comment on what they have done well or what needs improvement. In addition, if students share their work with their peers, peers can provide comments in a similar way; thus enhancing the use of peer feedback in the classroom.


Ipad: The iPad is another useful tool for assessment in so many ways. However apps aside, one of the simplest uses for evaluation is the camera tool to provide photo evidence. Rather than keeping endless samples of student work for reference when it comes time to write report cards or have handy for parent interviews; having photos of student work readily available on the iPad eliminates the clutter.



Document Camera: You can purchase dedicated document camera’s for your classroom. However, if limited the iPad can also double as a document camera if you have a stand for it to hold above the item you are viewing with your class. Using a document camera is very handy when providing whole class feedback for something most students need to improve on. Show them examples, write or highlight the text, place stickies near key ideas. All of this is projected to a larger screen when using a document camera, making it easier for students to see.


Lino: Lino can be used in many ways for assessment. Lino is an online tool that allows for collaboration, brainstorming, and sharing of information through sticky notes which can include text, hyperlinks, images and video. In our class, we used lino by having students post new learning on the board. Lino could also be used as exit cards or as a way to share level of understanding of concepts being taught in class.



OneNote: We have spoken of how OneNote can be used in a previous post. OneNote allows students to place all their work in one area and allows teacher access to the information anywhere. Teachers can monitor student progress and give instant feedback. OneNote could be used to take notes during guided reading. Pages could be set up for each student and using the audio/video tools, could capture student reading. A quick note could be added to the reading that might include observations about the reading including strengths, needs and next steps.

Video Feedback: There are several tools available that can be used to give video feedback to students. The value of recording the feedback you give students is that students who need additional support can view the feedback multiple times. As well, if you are giving whole class feedback, students who were away can view the feedback that was given and not be left behind as the rest of the class moves forward in improving their work. Video feedback also has the advantage of being easily viewable by parents so that they are more aware of what their child needs to work on. Here is a link with a sample of how video feedback was used to take an assessment of learning task and turn it into an assessment for learning: Why Feedback Needs To Be Integrated Into Flipped Classrooms
What other technology tools do you use to help you be more effective in giving feedback and evaluating students?

Reflection on Sal Khan's One World Schoolhouse

It seems only fitting that as I get ready to hand out progress reports to my students this week, I read through a chapter titled Tests and Testing in Sal Khan's book One World Schoolhouse.  In this chapter, Khan suggests that educators need to question what level of learning is demonstrated through tests and what do test marks truly indicate about a student.  These are interesting concepts considering my last post, Evaluation, Reporting and Technology I suggested that an assigned mark ends the learning process for a student.  Testing, according to Khan, is a snapshot of the student's learning and for a variety of reasons they do not truly represent the student's potential.

Khan questions the validity of tests as they do not give the full picture of the student's learning.  For example, he wonders howl long the learning is retained after a test.  While reading this, I reflected on how often I remind students that they need to carry skills learned earlier in the year forward and apply them to current work.  The students seem to miss the idea of connecting what they have learned to real life applications.  Khan also wonders if the tests actually show what is important.  Tests created by teachers differ and as a result what each finds to be an important concept may differ so student knowledge may differ.  A final thought is that tests isolate subjects and that learning is not connected to larger concepts.  As a result, Khan feels that testing filters out the creative thinkers who must focus on answer questions a certain way in order to meet the teacher's requirements.  If they student does not meet the teacher's expectations then the student will receive a poor mark.

This leads to Khan's to further questions about tests, how valid are marks and what is an acceptable grade? First off, Khan questions what correct and incorrect answers tell the teacher.  A correct answer may be a result of deep understanding, a result of rote memorization or a lucky guess.  An incorrect answer may be a result of lack of understanding, missed lessons or careless mistakes.  The teacher must assume that when a correct answer is given in shows an understanding of content while errors means a lack of understanding.  What we need to remember as educators is that students are being given greater opportunity to show their learning in a number of ways.  Students can display knowledge through displays, pictures, models, use of technology. As educators we need to give students choice on how to express their learning and knowledge.

A final  interesting concept presented by Khan is what is an acceptable mark.  I know that when I was going to school I would be happy with 75% mark.  Khan flips this acceptable mark by stating that the mark indicates that the student is missing 25% of knowledge needed to be successful in this area.  How can a student possible move forward in their learn when they are missing a quarter of some concept that they will need to build upon in the future?  Khan feels that students should go back to review and then be retested until they gain all the knowledge that is needed to move forward.  Khan even questions a student who receives 95%; this means that the student has missed 5% of some key learning.  Again the foundation for future learning is not fully there.  Is it realistic to expect that every student reaches the mark of 100% on each test before they can move on?   At what point does a self paced classroom not meet the needs of the student?

A final thought, grades often define a student or it gives the student a label.  With labels, expectations and limitations are often attached.  How do we assess and evaluate students without giving grades?  Does the mark of an A truly mean that the student has a deep understanding of the subject or have they just mastered test writing?