My Catholic Education Portfolio

In education the terms assessment and evaluation are often used interchangably as they are conceived to connote the same meaning. The truth is that their meanings could not be more opposite. The process of assessment is best used to gather data which can be used to formualte plans of action. Evaluation is where value, weight, and judgement is attributed or assigned. In my teaching practice I lead staff professional development session to have teachers and students look at assessment differently, as being more than testing, calculating grades, and evaluation. Past practice has been assessment, the guiding force for what and how teachers teach and students learn. Teachers organized lessons to ensure that students did well on high-stake tests. In teaching and learning we want teachers and students to move away from this trend and focus on the process and not just the end result. I find that students are more focused and engaged in classroom activities when they know when, how, and what they will be assessed on. The important fact that we want teachers and students to grasp is that assessment is not an isolated event that occurs at the end of a unit of instruction. Assessment in the classroom should perpetual taking various forms of diagnostic, formative, and summative. The impact we saw was that when teachers and students focused on the formative (assessment for learning) as opposed to the summative (assessment of learning) this increased teachers internal accountability to observe and provide formative feedback as well as increased student engagement in the activity as they were expecting to receive feedback from their teacher.  
 

I have formulated this tool to be utilized as assessment of learning to gather data to assign value to my work. This assessment tool has helped evaluate my own work as it outlines what my perceived expectations of the portfolio were and how I related OCT Standards of Practice and OCSGEs to the course objectives. Throughout this course of study I have recevied feedback through peers and instructor in the form of assessment "for" and "as" learning which has assisted greatly in contributing to this culminating course project. 

 

I hope you have found this website engaging, informatative, and rooted in Catholic Faith Based Education.