Recently I have become more aware of the "data" that we collect at school as well as home. I have started to wonder if we really use it appropriately. I have heard teachers in the past look at a classes unit test and say, "Wow, half failed. These kids just don't study/get it/pay attention..." It makes me wonder why we don't look at the data and say, "Wow half the kids failed, I really need to try something different to reach this group." I am guilty of this too. I collect data for the alternate assessment and IEPs and then I put it in folders. If the kids don't acheive mastery then I do more skill and drill. I don't use any variety of teaching techniques or try to teach the concept a different way.
This really came to light yesterday evening when my younger cousin came to school to hang out and look at my resources while I was working in the evening to have today off. She was looking at an Informal Reading Inventory and asked if I do running records. She is currently in school and teaching provisionally at a nonpublic school for ED kids. I said not really (as I thought to myself, I probably should do them occasionally). She said that she did and I asked her what she did with them. She said nothing really, just put them in the kids file and work on some of the things they had trouble with. I cautioned her that we should always have our data inform instruction. Of course I need to practice what I preach.
On the topic of data...I do the same thing at home. I write down spending and keep a detailed record of spending. I don't change my spending habits or estimated budget based on it. I barely look at it once it is on the spreadsheet. I can't even say that I follow the estimated budget. I am starting to realize that it does no good if I do nothing with it. Keeping a record of what I eat is also the same way. I can see the pattern. I do well for a week and then fall off the wagon. I really need to look at what is going on and make changes based on the data.
So the moral of the story...Data needs to be used and not just taken for the sake of taking it. I am working this weekend on getting my plans written for school using my data that I currently have. I am also working on getting additional data that will be useful. For the month of March I am going to track what I spend. I can then look at the spending and write my budget for April based on that. I can then try and follow it.
I was guilty of taking data and not doing anything with it, until I went back to school for my Masters. As an administrator you learn how to disaggregate the data to help figure out where your school is at, where it needs to be, and how to get it there. I have been more conscious of using the data to help my students this year. I use my running records to drive my instruction during my guided reading, and I use test data to find what I need to teach before the big state exam. I need to track what we spend also and figure out how we can make changes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I took my administration stuff, I realized a lot about my classroom teaching. When I came back from maternity leave I seem to have fogotten it all. I think coming back in the middle of October totally threw me off. I feel like I am always playing catch up. I am revamping my planbook this weekend to make myself a bit more efficient. There is that time spent organizing that would be better spent planning.
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