Message from Principal Collins
Hello Evergreen Friends and Families,
Our iReady and Smarter Balanced Assessments are scheduled to start when we come back from spring break. The Smarter Balanced Assessment is the big state test that all middles school scholars take each year. This is the big state testing that we all remember doing when we were in school. While it might seem a while away, now is actually the best time to start practicing and preparing for the assessment. Getting familiar with the format, structure and expectations of the assessment early helps reduce the stress of taking the test later. During testing students are not only asked to recall and apply their knowledge to demonstrate their learning but they also must navigate the interface of an online assessment. Students can easily get bogged down and stressed by trying to show what they know while simultaneously figuring out how to answer the questions. Imagine trying to learn to drive a stick shift while being tested on traffic laws. You might know the rules of the road but how well would you be able to explain them if you were learning to drive a stick shift in traffic at the same time. In that situation your words might fail you and you would not be able to express yourself as precisely and confidently as you would like. This is where we can all chip in to help our students to feel confident. Together we can support our students with the aspects of what this assessment is all about by becoming familiar with the SBA. Between now and the last week in March, students will have opportunities in class to see practice tests and become familiar with the tools and test interface but there are also resources to help support at home. The more the students become familiar with the language of how the test is written and what it looks like the more confident the students will be in expressing themselves and demonstrating what they have learned.
LOST AND FOUND- Our lost and found is growing! Please encourage your scholar to check the lost and found for sweatshirts, jackets, water bottles, and lunch boxes. When you come to the school during SLCs swing by the lost and found you may find a long-lost jacket of your scholars.
Music in the air-We had a great group of students from Evergreen representing us in the All-District Band concert on Saturday afternoon. They collaborated with students from across the Federal Way middle schools to perform a program of challenging and diverse music at the Federal Way Performing Arts Events Center. The scholars were amazing!
Character Strong is more than a set of lessons - it is a partnership between schools and families to create a place where students feel like they belong and learn skills that will help them be the best they can be! Character Strong has three main goals for students: Be Kind, Be Strong, and Be Well. During advisory our scholars work through the lessons. This week scholars will be working on: Regulating Emotions-Naming Emotions & Conflict Resolutions. As middle school scholars emotions can be hard to identify and we all need help sometimes to help solve conflicts.
Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teachers, counselors or myself if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued support of our collective work!
Thank you for being a part of the Grizzly family.
Your Partner in Education,
Mrs. Collins
lcollins@fwps.org 253 945 5100
253 945 5100
Can computers teach better than humans?
I’m often asked whether it would be better to give students computers that personalize their learning rather than using whole class teaching methods. The benefits of computer-based instruction are numerous. For one, you can ensure that every student is receiving instruction at their level, which is difficult to do with whole class teaching unless you split students up into small groups by level. The challenge of small group teaching is that only the group that is with the teacher will receive supervision and instruction, unless the rest of the class is on computers.
Another main benefit of computer-based instruction is that it gives students a high dosage of the ingredients that we know are effective for learning. The computer will give feedback on right and wrong answers, even though they are not very good at giving more elaborative feedback on open-ended questions. This is changing already with AI. The computer will also give students lots of opportunities to respond (OTR), which means tons of practice and assessment data. With all these benefits of computer-based instruction, why don’t we just go fully computer-based?
Well, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in education, but it also isn’t the best. The pandemic response to COVID shed light on the problems of computer-based instruction, including its effects on attention and motivation. While some students might thrive independently, others need the close supervision of a “warm demander” to ensure they make their best effort. In my dissertation research, I found that students often don’t use computer programs as they are intended, such as clicking through to the end and avoiding the help channels the program provided. For me, creating a classroom culture around hard work and success is only possible whole class, in dialogue with the children. Maybe I’m old school, but if whole class and computer-based methods were shown to be equally effective – and I had to choose one! - I would go with whole class teaching any day of the week.
Zach Groshell, Ph.D.
Instructional Coach
Evergreen Middle School
