Naiku Coach
Coach’s Corner: Creating Strong Teacher Teams
Writer and business manager Patrick Lencioni notes that “great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.” Teaching can often feel like an individual sport. As leaders in our classroom, we need the support of the other teachers around us both emotionally and professionally. Teams of teachers who are able to share their work and get feedback grow and teach better. There is no surprise to that and no … Read More
Grading Projects and Presentations in Naiku
Naiku is great for typical assessments that in the past were given with pencil and paper, bypass grading, and obtain meaningful data to inform instruction. There are ways to also get all of the data Naiku provides instantly for your projects and presentations as well! Here is an example. While I was teaching middle school mathematics, my students completed a fractal project on posters towards the beginning of the year. It was their first grade that was assessing something outside of the box of the typical mathematics assignments and the … Read More
Coach’s Corner: Student Expectations
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Coach’s Corner. Today we are going to look at student expectations for learning. As teachers, we have heard countless times that we are to have high expectations for students. The idea is simple. If we expect students to perform at a certain level, they will more likely than not meet those expectations. But how do we measure how students understand our expectations? More than that, Hattie (2009, 2012) notes that one of the most important parameters for the influence of student success was … Read More
Teacher Self-Evaluation
Welcome to this week’s edition of Naiku Coach’s corner. Today let’s discuss end-of-year teacher self-evaluation. Unlike most professions, teachers get to start with a clean slate from year to year. Reflecting on the previous school year can be a great way to find out what worked, and what didn’t work. These year-to-year reflections can help fine tune your practice for years to come. This week, I offer 3 ways to help teachers effectively evaluate their teaching. Students’ feedback on teaching: Students’ view of their learning experience in class is often the most … Read More
Keeping Students Motivated
Welcome back to this week’s edition of Naiku’s Coach’s Corner It is that time of year when standardized testing is looming or may have already passed for some. I have found that after standardized testing has passed, students become more chatty and restless. Much like teachers, students can feel the year coming to an end. With the school year shortly coming to a conclusion, as teachers, we have two big challenges ahead of us: keeping students motivated and making sure we successfully cover all of our standards or learning targets … Read More
Importance of Summative Assessment
Welcome back to this week’s edition of Naiku’s Coach’s Corner This week, I want to further discuss assessment, specifically summative assessment. The primary goal of a summative assessment is to help us measure a student’s achievement at the end of a dedicated instructional period. For example, we aim to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a chapter, unit, etc. In most cases, summative assessment results are recorded as scores or grades that are then factored into our students’ academic record. Below, I discuss 2 other … Read More
Importance of Formative Assessment
Welcome back to this week’s edition of Naiku’s Coach’s Corner. This week, I want to discuss the importance of incorporating formative assessments into your classroom assessment practice. Formative assessment is a great way to measure a student’s performance during instruction, and usually occurs regularly throughout the instruction process. When we assess student learning for formative purposes, there may be no final mark on a student’s paper or summative grade in our grade book. Rather, formative assessment can serve as practice for our students, much like a meaningful homework assignment does. And the … Read More
Importance of Pre-Assessment
Welcome to my inaugural post of Naiku’s Coach’s Corner. In this bi-weekly blog, I’ll share my thoughts on educational assessment practices and stories from my work helping teachers across the country improve student achievement through learner-centric assessment practices. This week, I want to discuss the importance of incorporating pre-assessment into your classroom assessment practice. Pre-assessment, sometimes referred to as diagnostic assessments, assesses a student’s strengths, weakness, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. If used correctly, pre-assessments can be a great tool to help us identify the needs of our students. Below, I share four ways … Read More
