The event was arranged by Mr Tiong from Sentul Education Dept. with his colleague Mr Nishan Baharum from JPWPKL. It took place on 11-12/5.
When I met the group, I gave my necessary introductions and shout out of thanks to the organisers and attendees. I recognised the personal tragedy of the morning trainer and tried to connect with the group. We agreed to salvage the day. They started to warmup when they saw the intro toon. I did a little more rapport building with the crowd of 27 teachers from various primary schools in KL. There were a few trainers and various administrative officers like Mr Tiong and Mr Nishan in addition to the 27 participants. The multi-ethnic group was predominately female with a ratio of 26:1.
We watched the warmup activity of Jay Walker’s English Mania then they were split into pairs for a brief discussion of English Mania. Next, I elicited main points from the vid through asking questions to the group while various pairs gave answers. The mojo in the room had changed, fortunately I got buy-in from the crowd. I forewarned them this was the most theory-ladened workshop of the training event. So I posed the question, What is the difference between assessment vs evaluation? I let them discuss it in pairs for a few minutes while I monitored the conversations.
I levelled the playing field by commonly agreeing to a set of definitions on assessment and evaluation. It was an aptly illustrated cartoon that read one is to increase quality while the other is to judge. We touched on some of the history of evaluations back to the Imperial Exam of the Tang Dynasty and we figured out why the value of evaluation is embedded deep in Asian society. As a group we applied the set of definitions to numerous tests like UPSR, UBB, LINUS and etc. The group was much more comfortable with the subject matter so we proceeded to watch a short vid on The benefits of Assessment. Next, the teachers predicted the 5 levels of assessment focus then the answers were given followed by the details. We had lively discussion discussing the merits of teacher assessments.
It was time for the teachers to get a task. The learning objectives and the marking criteria were withheld. The task was to draw a dinosaur. Afterwards, the teachers were given the marking criteria and scored their dinosaurs. Then they were asked to self assess the dinosaurs with, What When Well and Even Better If. Afterwards, the teacher assessed their partners’ dinosaurs with the same set of questions. The day closed with some smiles and enthusiasm.
The next day started out with an enjoyable lead-in activity. We did a quick review of assessments and evaluations. I was running a bit behind schedule from the other day, so we continued to complete the first workshop. We highlighted the learning outcomes and the marking criteria, The group project dinosaur drawing required a name and employment. The groups got together and made some very colourful, creative and career-minded dinosaurs. By days end the concept and practice of self and peer assessment was widely accepted and deemed useful.
It was time to jump in the pond of a FrogVLE inspired training. The teachers cringed when they heard Frog, but we reprogrammed our association of Frog with the world’s coolest frog, Kermit. Then we did a demo of SCORM packages for Years 4-6. We highlighted the packages which have transferable skills for UPSR. We also did a phonics related Year 1 package called Sam the Snake (s,a,t,p) for a few of the teachers.
The SCORM packages were a hit so we learned how to build a site. The school was unable to provide a computer lab; therefore, they followed along with the step by step directions provided in their packets. The process of assigning the site to their students was also demonstrated.
The final phase of the workshop was a writing lab. We had a good time using the Simpsons to review sentence variety. Than we dived into the differences between last year’s and this year’s format on UPSR BI P2 Sec C. Writing techniques skills were transferred. The awesome teachers absorbed all the information, tasks and skills with splendour.
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