Learning Measures Archives - The Torchbearer

21st Century MV Mindsets / Badging / Differentiated Instruction / Learning Measures / Learning Outcomes / PBL: Passion Based Learning Posted on: January 2, 2017January 2, 2017

Introducing Faculty Badges: Winter Edition 2017

Today was the grand unveiling of the new suite of badges designed for faculty by Amy Wilkes and Katie Cain. Like a kid at Christmas, I still get excited when new badges are designed and introduced. These badges are only available through the end of April, so don’t let them pass by you. Remember, a badge has six elements to its design. Although the artwork is often the most visible and appealing aspect of a badge, it is only 1/6 of the design. Like a quarterback who gets all the credit when a team wins, the artwork can overshadow the […]

Badging / Learning Measures / Professional Learning Posted on: January 31, 2016

The Power of the Scoreboard & Accountability

The Power of the Scoreboard & Accountability Badging interest exploded with the faculty program’s initial launch in August. After months of plateauing, another spike occurred when we measured progress in December and January through a series of infographics and charts. We teased prizes, but as of yet, we have not even specified what those prizes might be. Therefore, it isn’t clear whether the hope of winning prizes has any impact. The scoreboard, and the accountability that comes with it, seems to be the driving force behind this second surge in badges earned. Perhaps accountability coupled with time of year? Badges […]

Badging / Faculty Meetings / Learning Measures Posted on: January 20, 2016

What Does This Badge Get Me?

Badges Earned (1/20/16)Create bar charts What Does This Badge Get Me? Continuing to explore how a badging system can be used to communicate and measure learning, we conducted an analysis of each individual and team’s progress. There are 11 possible badges that any individual can earn including: Blogger, Clear Touch, Drone, Folio, Innovative Formative Assessment, Innovative Technology Integration, Presenter, Summer Learning, Teaching Through Art, Twitter Chat Moderator, Create Your Own Badge. The Summer Grant badge was omitted because not everyone had the opportunity to earn it (only 8 grants were awarded last summer). Some badges afford the opportunity for multiple […]

eportfolio / Learner Engagement / Learning Measures Posted on: November 1, 2015November 1, 2015

Hacking ePortfolios

Hacking ePortfolios (cue sudden, startling music) There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it? Our school launched eportfolios a few years ago. Feedback from students and teachers confirms we have not yet cracked the code on how to use them effectively. Why not? Lack of clear purpose Middle School kids don’t have to be coaxed into seeing the relevance of Instagram or Snapchat. It’s social. It’s about them. It’s a way to share and be ‘in the know.’ In fact, not being part of it leads to a desperate feeling of being on the outside. The purpose of eportfolios has […]

Digital Citizenship / eportfolio / Formative Assessment / Innovation / Learning Measures / Progress Monitoring / Reflective Practice / Space Configurations / Technology / Visible Thinking Routines Posted on: October 23, 2015October 23, 2015

10 Ways e-Portfolios Increase Learning

10 Ways e-Portfolios Increase Learning In schools, the use of e-portfolios is increasing as a way to enable learning, as well as a means to measure it. See Admissions Revolution (80 colleges and universities move towards use of online portfolios). There are a variety of types and purposes of e-portfolios including workspace, showcase, academic, employment, etc. This post focuses primarily on the blog as student workspace – designed as a tool to accelerate learning at any age, as well as to build capacity for being globally competitive beyond schooling. How might e-portfolios increase learning? 1) Writing – Does the importance of […]

Entry / eportfolio / Faculty Meetings / Formative Assessment / Learning Measures / Learning Outcomes / Professional Learning Communities / Teamwork / Vertical Teams / Video Posted on: October 22, 2015October 23, 2015

Building Our Learning Measures

Building Our Learning Measures This morning, our monthly vertical team meeting focused on building our capacity with two of our ‘expanded learning measures’ – formative assessment and e-portfolios. Here is the agenda with some data added… Essential Questions What are the limitations of numerical grades as a single measure of learning? How will we develop our understanding of e-portfolios as an effective measure ‘for’ and ‘of’ learning? Desired Outcomes Vertical Teams collaborate to implement formative assessment and e-portfolios. Learning Opportunities In advance, read Edutopia article: 11 Essentials for Excellent Eportfolios Entry Ticket: Upon arrival, write on 3 separate post-it notes… […]

Badging / Collider Conference / Innovation / Learning Measures / MVIFI Posted on: October 14, 2015October 14, 2015

Scaling Up Badging

Scaling Up Badging In a recent professional learning workshop (at #MVCollider), our team made new strides in the pursuit of badging and micro-credentialing. 3 significant insights have got our team thinking. The first insight revolves around how to create a badge using the 6 components of a badge. A second strand fuses badges with vertical learning progressions. The third one envisions taxonomy or a framework for organizing badges and ‘permission’ for ‘local level’ badge building by anyone in the learning community without diluting the quality of the overall badging program. Build a Badge At the start of the session, participants […]

Assessments / Badging / Entry / eportfolio / Exit Tickets / Faculty Meetings / Formative Assessment / Learning Measures / Progress Monitoring / student led conferences / Transfer Posted on: October 8, 2015October 24, 2015

Formative Assessment Tickets

Formative Assessment via Entry, Transfer, and Exit Tickets Formative Assessment = a range of formal and informal assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. This morning’s faculty meeting was a lesson in formative assessment. We started the meeting with an entry ticket – a Poll Everywhere survey (thank you Alex Bragg!) about our team’s wildly important goal of ‘expanding the learning measures.’ The original agenda for the meeting was sent to faculty in advance indicating the bulk of the time would be spent on teachers earning badges. After assessing […]

Learning Measures / student led conferences / XLR8 Summer Grants Posted on: August 31, 2015September 19, 2015

Launching Student Led Conferences

Launching Student Led Conferences One of our major initiatives, Student Led Conferences, is about to debut. In order to prepare, conference mentors will meet with their mentees this week instead of Advisory. The purpose of the second meeting is two-fold… 1) Cultivate deeper relationships with your mentees (get to know them well) 2) Coach them in revising their 2 goals (1 academic, 1 personal). Try SMART goals OR challenge them to pose their goals as questions (How might I {action} in order to {significant impact}? To truly make this debut a success, mentors and students will meet a total of […]

Badging / Drones / Learning Measures / Technology / XLR8 Summer Grants Posted on: August 19, 2015August 20, 2015

Unleash the Drone!

Unleash the drone! A crowd of over 350 students and teachers cheered and watched in awe as the DJI Phantom 3 drone was unleashed on middle school during chapel announcements. The drone is the newest piece of interactive technology to be purchased for student and teacher learning. While many fascinating learning opportunities exist with such tech (students will learn to fly, as well as design new uses and explore ethical decision making in current events), our drone has become a vehicle for introducing another emerging technology: digital badging. Unleash the drone! As a way to expand the learning measures, Mrs. […]