Today was not my first time to go to a conference on Professional Development Day. However, it was my first time to go with so many “coworkers”, other teachers from the same school.  This morning session was hold by Tom Shimmer. It was a great session on assessment. I think it was quite helpful for us to really think about how we would assess our students: what should be assessed formatively and summatively. Right now I feel like I am on the right track; thanks to UBC’s assessment course. I also learned that it might be a good idea to not give 0s. Some students may just need the extra time to complete the assignments; however, it does not mean that they do not understand. They just need more time than other students to digest the information. Originally during that section, I was having a question in my mind about fairness. And yet, when I think about it now, I think it is still fair. Students can take the time to do their assignments and I will grade them based on the content. At the same time, I will set up a deadline. Students who complete the assignments on time will have high grades on work habit; meanwhile, students who need to take longer may have to come to finish their work during lunch time or after school. Shimmer pointed out something that I thought was very true: teachers need to react to a situation immediately rather than letting students take advantage of the no-0 system. We will have to be proactive.

After that, another session focused on inquiry and argument. The speaker was encouraging teachers to shape their unit based on a general guiding question. Everything that students are going to do in that unit will be revolving around the question and helping students to develop skills and knowledge that allow them to answer it. I thought this workshop was really helpful because he gave me a lot of ideas for the final project that I would give to my students and some creative activities that I would do to prepare my students for writing a persuasive essay. I think the way that he scaffolded students to form arguments was so interesting. He got students to critically think about the process of an argument. For example, students needed to imagine themselves as detective to solve a mystery case. They needed to provide support as to why they thought it was just an accident but not a murder. Hopefully I will be able to apply the things that I have learned from the workshops to my classes. 🙂