Many new initiatives come and go or do not garner the results once hoped for at inception. This failure to mature into the productive educational programs creators once hoped for can be attributable to many things. Often that critical component of planning and implementation that is overlooked or not emphasized enough is the monitoring piece. Effectively monitoring implementation of educational initiatives adjusting protocols and procedures over time to maximize potential is critical to the success of any new program.
With the introduction of Common Core, we have received many inquiries regarding how eWalk can be used to monitor the implementation of the new CCSS.
The ability to create customized templates in eWalk to monitor and collect data on our implementation procedures has provided us with valuable information that we use to continuously review our process and improve our practice.
The process begins with collaboration among professionals.
Teachers operate in small learning communities that are based upon common courses. Teachers frequently meet to discuss the CCSS critically analyzing each and every standard. During this meeting, teachers formulate instructional strategies that best meets the needs of their students. Teachers also formulate assessment strategies that are designed to ensure students will appropriately progress toward mastery of the standard.
Completed standards based walk-through template
We have designed an eWalk template that allows us to conduct walk-throughs during SLC meetings. If you remember, the monitoring piece associated with new initiatives is often overlooked. During these meetings we record data associated with purpose, utilization of standards, assessment of standards, methods used to analyze student performance data, and several other key components associated with student mastery of CCSS.
Most of our work is done in the classroom as teachers teach and students learn. Our focus in the classroom is student learning. Specifically, we want to know the “What†and the “How†of student learning. We want to know what things are we doing each and every day to effectively deliver standards based content to our students and how they are progressing towards mastery based upon standards based assessments of their performance. We do this through eWalk.
Our standards based eWalk template was designed by us to focus on those critically important instructional components we value in our building. Our standards based template provides us with an effective tool to monitor and improve the standards based instruction we desire for our students. The ability to conduct a walk-through using our existing technology devices, upload it to the web site, and produce real time data reports in a matter of minutes provides us the opportunity to make data based instructional decisions in real time.
No longer do we have to spend hours compiling data. I can visit a classroom, upload the completed walk-through template, run a report, and adjust instructional practice in a matter of minutes. eWalk allows me to have real time data regarding the instructional climate of my school right now so that I can make the necessary improvements.
One component of an eWalk report
The eWalk platform allows me to effectively monitor the implementation of CCSS in my school. I encourage you to take a few minutes and view the Power Point Show that accompanies this article. The show will describe our monitoring process and provide you with more detailed examples of our templates. I have also included several pictures of actual artifacts from our classrooms that our teachers use to implement the CCSS. I hope you find this information useful.
If you would like to see the process in action, please download the PowerPoint Show I produced that outlines the entire process.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
In addition to the Media-X Blog articles, I am available if you have any questions or comments regarding our eWalk templates or our practices. I would welcome a conversation, a consultation, or even a discussion of a visit if you are interested in our work.
Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly at sean.kelly@douglas.k12.ga.us if I can ever be of any assistance.