Information on Arkansas Public School Resource Center's Fall Conference

posted by: Ruthie | November 05, 2013, 04:18 PM

Dear ASTA Members,

We want to encourage you to attend the Arkansas Public School Resource Center’s Fall Conference on November 12^th and highlight the keynote speaker, who will also provide two breakout sessions that day. APSRC is honored to have Dylan Wiliam present at our Fall Conference. He is an international expert on formative assessment. As we all know, formative assessment is a critical piece of a successful classroom. Since Next Generation begins with PARCC next year, it is important that we develop our skills around formative assessment. Here are the summaries of his keynote and breakout sessions:

Keynote: Why classroom formative assessment should be a priority for every school? (45 minutes)

Education matters, for individuals and for society. With more education, individuals are healthier, live longer, and earn more money. For society, the benefits include lower healthcare costs, lower criminal justice costs, and increased economic growth. For these reasons, in the United States, improving educational outcomes has been a priority for many years. However most of the policies that have been pursued have been directed at the kinds of schools students attend—policies that, even when well implemented (which most are not) would have limited impact on student achievement. What matters for student achievement is what happens inside the classroom, and what matters most is the quality of interaction between students and teachers; teachers finding out what their students know, and making appropriate adjustments to their instruction as a result.

Breakout 1: Leadership for teacher learning (55 minutes)

There is now substantial evidence that there is a “knowing-doing” gap in education. The problem is not that we do not know how to improve schools. The problem is implementing what is known to work in more classrooms. This is why approaches based on “sharing good practice” have been relatively ineffective. Teachers do not lack knowledge—rather they lack support in putting into practice changes in what they do in their classrooms, and this requires time. This is a particular problem in education because almost everything that teachers do in classrooms benefits their students. We cannot therefore create extra time by stopping teachers doing bad things—they aren’t doing any. The essence of effective teacher leadership is stopping people doing good things, to give them time to do even better things.

Breakout 2: Classroom formative assessment: Digging a little deeper (55 minutes)

As every teacher knows, students do not learn what we teach. That is why classroom formative assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning. It is only through assessment that we can find out whether what we did as teachers resulted in the students learning what was intended. Far from being an optional “add-on” to instruction, therefore, classroom formative assessment is at the heart of effective teaching. In this session, participants will learn about the five key strategies of classroom formative assessment, and a number of associated practical techniques that teachers can use immediately in their classrooms.

As always, APSRC will also have several other sessions that will provide information you will want to hear, including presentations on Best Practices in the Online classroom, TESS Portfolios, TESS Tips for Passing, Common Core and Blended Learning. Also, you will not want to miss the legislative panel discussion. It’s important educators have a strong presence when given the opportunity to participate in legislative discussions.

Click here to register.

We look forward to seeing you in Hot Springs!

email to friend