<![CDATA[Kathy Pina

<![CDATA[Kathy Pina - Blog]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:08:18 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[A Quarantine Driven Reflection About homework]]>Mon, 18 May 2020 10:00:14 GMThttps://www.kathypina.com/blog/a-quarantine-driven-reflection-about-homeworkIf this quarantine experience isn’t the ultimate argument against homework then I don’t know what is.

Teachers are working insanely hard to craft a meaningful home learning experience right now during this quarantine. They are using all kinds of new technologies to make independent learning time for students a success. Google slides, Padlet, NearPod, Kahoot, Youtube, Screencasting and so many more apps and softwares are being used to try and replicate the structure of the classroom - minilesson, go off and try it out, come back together. It is an impossible task that somehow the teachers are managing to create! These, in addition to live Zoom meetings in whole groups, small groups and 1:1 - the effort is incredible!

However, at the end of the day, there is still a major factor determining the level to which our children can access the material, grapple with it, focus on learning and feel a sense of progression and success - support at home. As with homework, each of our own abilities to help our children with their school work varies greatly. In these times, parents are balancing working full time and fulfilling all of our job responsibilities to their fullest (sometimes in fear of losing jobs), managing multiple children doing schoolwork, feeding the family, cleaning the endless mess and doing regular household chores like food shopping, landscaping, laundry and on and on. Maybe sometimes, sitting with a cup of coffee or even feeling the freedom to play.

During the school year, parents are still managing all of these things everyday after school! Each child goes home to unique circumstances and unique levels of support - emotionally, physically, intellectually. Everyone’s hierarchy of needs are met on the widest possible scale imaginable. Everyone has worked ALL DAY LONG - children included! Children have spent 6 full hours learning reading, writing, word study, math, science, social studies, music, media literacy, art and physical education. They have had ups and downs in social relationships, felt success or failure in learning concepts, loved or hated their lunches, couldn’t focus, felt tired, felt antsy...

Why are we turning over our precious family time to homework? Why isn’t our time together with our children coveted more? Why can’t this time be seen as our own opportunity to instill a sense of curiosity, lifelong learning, being a responsible member of the household community, developing our own passions, serving the community with a family project?

Spending this time at home now, even while working full time, makes me reflect on what is essential. We have so little time during our "non-quarantine lives" to have our own impact on our kids in ways that are unique to their needs and interests. We are the ultimate models of being learners. Why are we giving the little time we have with our kids during “normal times” over to homework that so few of them enjoy, or worse, get much benefit from?
]]><![CDATA[Ponderings about assessments and conditions]]>Thu, 30 Jan 2020 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.kathypina.com/blog/ponderings-about-assessments-and-conditionsInspired by a #SatChat on assessment, a podcast by Another Mother Runner about Morning Routines (episode #399) and my newly reenergized running goals…

I have been known to army crawl out of my bedroom so that I could go, undisturbed, into the darkness of my house, like a ninja. I would swiftly change into my running gear in the laundry room and sneak out the door all in an effort to avoid waking my infant and getting my run in. If these had been the conditions under which I was assessed on my parenting skills - conditions under which an exhausted 6 foot tall, typically clumsy woman who regularly likens her level of grace to that of Kramer on Seinfeld was army crawling in the 4am time period in the cover of night - I would have most definitely failed infant sleep training. These conditions are NOT the ones I would prefer to be in to demonstrate what I know about parenting; clearly I raised the white flag on sleep training long ago...

(Fortunately for my mom-self, I am apparently, not alone in these conditions.)

In my newly reinvigorated effort to become a runner (again), I downloaded lots of podcasts to distract me from the regression I have inevitably experienced from NOT running regularly for quite some time. I also downloaded Strava so that I could record my efforts and track my progress. After the #SatChat focused on assessment, I thought about the data I get from Strava and how useless it would be if that data was uploaded to, say, a running coach who would get back to me within the week with some feedback.

How productive would the next run before that week was up be if I am left wondering about how my last run went? What might my coach's feedback be? Is the feedback in line with my own goals? Are my goals within the realm of possibility? Are these the conditions that set me up for success? Is the data for her to measure her own effectiveness or for me?

Was my third run of the year in January against the wind, in the rain turned sleet the optimal time/condition for an assessment of my potential to make it through that half I am set on doing in May? Maybe to measure my perseverance...but overall? I’m thinking no.

So in reflecting on assessment practices in our classrooms while all of this is swirling around in my head, I wonder:

What good is assessment if the learner isn’t given feedback immediately?
How do we know the conditions are optimal for every student to truly show us their understandings (or lack of?)
How can we better involve the student in the assessment process so that they see it as a tool truly meant to support their growth and NOT to judge their performance on ONE assessment? (see army crawl above)

#SatChat about assessment (1/11/20) tweets/ponderings:
A2: Asmnt is the vehicle that frees us from delivering instruction our Ss just don’t need. If we truly evaluate all the info asmnt outcomes offer us, we can meet Ss at all levels of learning exactly where they are & maximize their potential. #satchat
A3: The most important stakeholder to communicate asmnt data w/ is the Ss! Through post-asmnt conferring, Ss get 1:1 coaching towards the class/unit goals & get opp. to own the goals more deeply in relationship to their own understandings/abilities. Set their own goals! #satchat
A5: Ss need to be the center of asmnt process! Ss should be armed w/ expectations & goals given & developed by themselves, clear about the path to understanding & hv ample ways to demo their learning. They shouldn’t be doing asmnts for us - for themselves! #satchat
@mssackstein
A5: Ss don’t need grades but some indication of progress (best done on coaching conferences!) . Shifting to prog. rep. w/ terms like not yet, approaching, meeting (standards) has positively impacted conversations w/ Ss & is promoting a stronger growth mindset. #satchat

]]><![CDATA[the perfect storm of inspiration & motivation]]>Sun, 19 Jan 2020 11:53:23 GMThttps://www.kathypina.com/blog/the-perfect-storm-of-inspiration-motivationStacy Reiber’s post about the vision for her week off over holiday break and the reality of what really took place was my first source of inspiration. “Here’s the dream I had laid out… Here’s what actually happened...” Her blog for The Family Keystone is anchored in the belief that each family can develop a mission statement and use that as their guidepost when things get off course. Her writing is authentic and relatable. She inspires me every time we get time to sit and talk and with every post and blog she publishes. The below text messaging helped too.

Clearly I had to stop waiting for the “dream I laid out” and simply accept the inevitable imperfection.

Next was the application submission to Tomorrow’s Classrooms Today 2020 Conference at Rider University. It is an energizing, immediately applicable experience that myself and two instructional coaches want to be a part of by sharing our own story. There was a field in the application for a website/blog... Could I leave it blank?

It was superb timing when I received a text from my super motivating friend Ozzy who is the brainchild of the START institute. “What’s the one small step you can take today towards your goals?” Domain name, purchased. Home page, “developed.” It's amazing what a check in text can do!

While cooking dinner that same evening, I synced Google home up with my phone and chose a brief podcast by George Couros about taking risks. “I have released episode 1 of a weekly podcast that I have planned for years but, finally, have taken the initiative to put together and release it to the world.” Well, it hasn't been years, but this blog has been a conversation with my "support team" for quite a while.

Last Saturday morning, I was able to secure 50 whole minutes while my 5 year old son watched Rescue Riders. This opened me up to participate in a Twitter chat made up of thoughtful and passionate people in education called #satchat. Sometimes I follow chat threads without participating and always soak up little gems. The chat on this particular Saturday was on assessment. It drew me in and I threw my thoughts out to the chat. The responses and messages to some of my posts fueled my fire and firmed up the purpose of the blog. I realized that when I tweet or (now) blog, I am throwing it all out there in an effort to: reflect, engage with the thoughts of others and grow in my own learning.

In my final conversation about the WHY behind this blog, my wonderful colleague Erica guided me: read blogs you love to get a feel for their flow and just start writing. Since Teacher Tom's was the first blog I read following this conversation - and it was about BLOGGING - I knew...it was time.

Although I didn’t think this blog post would be my first blog post, I am putting it out there and taking the risk. Inspiration, motivation and gratitude.

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