How Teachers Use Data

During the course EDAD 602, this video really stood out to me. I shared it with multiple staff members at my school site. With the power of technology, teachers have access to more data than ever before. As wonderful as it is to have access to tons of data on our students at our fingertips; it can also be overwhelming. It can make it hard to find a starting point and to weed out what is effective data and what is non-effective data when it comes to making instructional decisions for our students. It made me start thinking about the pieces of data I have for my students and what is the purpose of each piece. Am I giving assignments just to collect a piece of data I can show my administration; or to check off a box on a required district assessment. I started to re-evaluate what assignments I was giving; how I was checking for understanding, and how often I was assessing; making sure that I was collecting data that was worthwhile instead of just collecting data to collect data.