Katie White spends her days working to transform the educational experience for teachers and students. She has been an integral part of her own school system’s multi-year journey through educational reform and has assisted systems worldwide in their work toward approaches that honor learning relationships.
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This entry is the 15th in a blog series called Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP), which aims to highlight and further the important work educators are doing amid the worldwide COVID-19 crisis.
I begin this blog post with an acknowledgment that I come from a place of privilege. My upbringing, my educational experiences, my career path, and my daily life have been shaped by opportunities afforded me because I am a white Canadian of colonial ancestry. Read more
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Based on Unlocked: Assessment as the Key to Everyday Creativity in the Classroom
Lately, I have found myself becoming increasingly antagonistic toward the word “ability.” I hear it used almost daily in my work with assessment and learning in a variety of educational settings, but rarely do I hear it used without experiencing a flash of frustration.
Because I am not usually prone to this kind of negative response to a commonly accepted term, I have decided to “unpack” the word and why its use in an educational context bothers me.
When I examined the literal definition of the word, I found nothing that immediately explained my questionable response: Read more
Teaching is a human endeavor, and it requires the complex planning inherent in any successful human relationship. It is critical that teachers feel free to structure classroom experiences and environments that address the specific needs of the learners they serve. One process that benefits from this kind of freedom and flexibility is assessment. While assessment is often viewed as rigid, it can, in fact, be differentiated. Read more
You know that feeling you get when you rush, rush, rush to get to a conference after a long day of travel, compounded by months of trying to cram teaching, family, and personal care into an already too-fast-paced life? Perhaps you check into your hotel and unzip the suitcase you packed at home, wondering if you even packed the right clothing. You might ask yourself when you should get breakfast, who you will sit with, and how you will ever manage to relax and learn. You might begin to wonder if attending was more effort than it will be worth. Read more
When you think about it, our education systems are incredible things. Consider it: we place groups of our most important citizens (children and youth) in rooms for hours at a time with adults who truly want to support them and who are charged with developing their potential; showing them not only who they can be, but ensuring they believe in themselves and their ability to get there successfully. Read more
Katie White
