creative curriculum Gold

[MooseLover]

My school is looking into using the online assessment Teaching Strategies GOLD. Does anyone use it? Do you like it? What are the pros and cons with it? Thank you!

[saralynn2006]

My school was looking into it but the director decided not to do it. I think it was because she didn't know any other school that was using it so she didn't want to be the one "testing" it out. I would love to hear anybody's feedback who is using it though! I am soooo sick of making post it notes for each objective!!!!

[chicagoturtle]

Personally I hate it- as does everyone else in my district I've spoken with.

We see our kids 10 hours a week- just way to much data to get in that period of time.

Plus they have three sections with not much to them- yet it takes 30 minutes per kid to click through (arts, science and social studies).

[saralynn2006]

We see our kids 10 hours a week- just way to much data to get in that period of time.

I see my kids 10 hours per week also ....definitely not enough time for all the documenting that needs to be done for creative curriculum! What happened to just spending quality time with the kids?! I feel like all I do is document their every move!!

[jbrinkm]

I'm using it for the first time this year in a full day Pre-K program. I like that it is online, so I can input wherever and whenever I have computer access. I like that you are given concrete objectives that are correlated with your state standards. I like that you can put in the progressions as you are entering the observation, so it is easier to do reports. I really like all the tech-y features that allow the same data to be used for individual child planning, lesson planning, parent connections, etc. I like all of the activities that are available to meet the objectives you still need to address (although I don't find many of them to be that "creative" - just easily accessible and they make planning go faster.

With that said, it is very time consuming to collect all of that data, and stressful when you feel that you are falling behind. It would be nice to be able to thoughtfully use the current levels of the students to cycle back with strengths and needs into my next round of lesson planning, but the truth is, I'm just trying to get the darn things entered in on time. I also wish there was more of a seemless transition between collecting in the classroom and entering the data into the system (i.e. phone app, or even really good printouts). The printouts for collecting data are limited (called "Assessment Opportunity Cards") and awkward. Since the students are entered into the system, you should be able to print the Assessment Card with the student names already entered, but you can't. You get a generic form with tiny little lines that you have to write all of the names in by hand. Some of the wording for the different levels of progression is unclear and makes it hard to determine what level to enter for the child. So little things like that add up to some frustration.

But overall, it is probably a great system for truly evaluating the children in a fairly objective manner and informative for all the stakeholders, even if it is a bit cumbersome for the teacher.

[chicagoturtle]

Originally Posted by saralynn2006

I see my kids 10 hours per week also ....definitely not enough time for all the documenting that needs to be done for creative curriculum! What happened to just spending quality time with the kids?! I feel like all I do is document their every move!!

Exactly- I feel like I assess - know who can't do rhyming words, count to 20 etc. etc. etc. but I never have time to expose/teach a skill because it gets in the way of the assessments. So what's the point?

[saralynn2006]

Originally Posted by chicagoturtle

Exactly- I feel like I assess - know who can't do rhyming words, count to 20 etc. etc. etc. but I never have time to expose/teach a skill because it gets in the way of the assessments. So what's the point?

I feel like the normal assessment I do besides my million post-it notes would really be sufficient!!!! I assess what I feel are important skills needed before Kindergarten (most match up with the objectives Creative Curriculum has) but my assessments don't require me to waste SOOO much time writing down assessments about 50 objectives!!! I'm a first year teacher so this process has been mind boggling for me!

[chicagoturtle]

Well this is supposedly an "improvement" from the old system- (It isn't).

[saralynn2006]

Originally Posted by chicagoturtle

Well this is supposedly an "improvement" from the old system- (It isn't).

I'm not a fan either!!! I am soooo behind on Spring assessments!!!

[gpsysngbrd]

Moose, I just got back from a staff meeting and it sounds like our center will be piloting this program as an assessment tool as well!