Myron Dueck |

Myron Dueck

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Myron Dueck
Biography

During his 23 years of teaching and administration, Myron has developed a
number of grading, assessment and reporting systems with his classes in
which students have greater opportunity to show what they understand,
adapt to feedback and play a significant role in the reporting of their
learning. He shares his stories, tools and first-hand experiences with
educators around the world, and recently his presentations have diverged
to include global education trends and change. Myron's published work
includes articles in EL Magazine and his best-selling book, Grading Smarter,
Not Harder- Assessment Strategies that Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn
(ASCD, 2014). His second book, 'Giving Students a Say! Smarter Assessment
Practices to Empower and Engage' was released in January of 2021.
Videos include a project based in his own school district, 'Smarter
Assessment in the Secondary Classroom' and 'Ask Them'.
Myron lives in Summerland, BC, Canada with his family and is serving as
Vice-Principal, and teaching a class, for Summerland Secondary during the
COVID pandemic. Otherwise he is Vice-Principal for Assessment and
Innovation in his local school district - Okanagan-Skaha 67.

Myron Dueck
Featured Videos

Current: (Re)TOOL

Time 57:24

More Videos From Myron Dueck

(Re)TOOL
Time 57:24
Grading Smarter, Not Harder: Tooth Brushes and Penalties
Time 03:22

What Educators Might Learn from Advertisers

Novelist Norman Douglas wrote in 1917 that, ‘you can tell the ideals of a
nation by its advertisements’. Whether humorous or dramatic, subtle or
loud, by some estimates we encounter somewhere between 300 and
6000 ads each day. A staggering 600 billion dollars are spent annually
trying to influence what we purchase, what we think and how we act
(O’Reilly & Tennant). 
 
 We in schools might have something to learn from the world of
advertising. By using actual ads and digging into the design-thinking
behind them, some key themes will be investigated. For instance, we may
want to…
 
 Design experiences that invite curiosity rather than demand
attention. 
 Be clear on our purpose of education.
 Ensure that we create a feeling or culture that supports learning.
 Spend time and energy creating our own ‘elevator pitch’ for what
we do, and why we do it.
 
The best advertising firms understand that success is born through
establishing a feeling, or culture, around a brand. More recently, in light
of avenues such as YouTube and Instagram, some suggest that it’s the
consumer who defines the product, not the producer. Could the same
changes be occurring in our schools? Participate in this keynote to
explore why education may want to take a page from advertising’s
catalogue.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes & CONSTRAINT - The Upside of Uncertainty and Restrictions

Perhaps David Bowie sang it best, ‘Times may change me, but I can’t change
time.’ We’ve been through some pretty big changes in our collective past,
and clearly 2020 is a year like no other in that department. There’s no
denying that transformational forces are at play in the global education
arena - not least on account of COVID. Unlike the pandemic 1919, our
readily accessible digital technology (the biggest change agent since the
printing press,) has allowed us to reach across the street, into our homes
and around the world… to connect, communicate, learn. Education has
mutated as of late, and there may be no going back.
We’re also getting weary of constraints, the daily inability to do things the
way ‘we’ve always done them’. Here too we might take a page from a rocker -
Mick Jagger. Apparently, the small stages of the Rolling Stones’ early days
are to thank for his unique dancing style. Perhaps Jagger epitomizes the
adage, ‘creativity loves constraint’.
So as the ground moves beneath our feet, let’s be mindful that changes and
constraints can be forces for good. In this keynote, Myron will argue that
instruction and assessments that include inquiry, differentiation,
exploration and problem solving may prove more effective for an uncertain
future.

Failing IS an Option! Space travel, music icons and harnessing the power of ‘desirable difficulties’.

Legendary NASA Flight Director, Mr. Gene Kranz, famously declared
that ‘Failure Is Not an Option’ while engineering the safe return of the Apollo
13 crew. Though this approach is essential when lives hang in the balance,
it may not be the mantra to adopt when designing deeper learning
experiences for our students. Recent research suggests that creativity and
understanding are the silver lining of struggle. Furthermore, bands like the
Beatles, who took great artistic risks, ended up fundamentally changing
modern music. Surprisingly, immediate feedback models and instant
performance measurements can actually be misinterpreted as true student
understanding, while our own life experiences suggest that difficulty,
uncertainty and mistakes provide the canvas for long-term memory. This
keynote will make the case that if we want to increase student learning and
promote competencies such as critical thinking and problem-solving, we
need to embrace modes of inquiry, risk and exploration in which
failing is certainly an option.

Mixed Messages - The disconnect between what educators say and do, and how grading & assessment changes can help.

Schools have mission statements and an abundance of rules and policies.
What are educators and students to do when the messages embedded in
these established doctrines collide with the very practices used in the
school? This keynote highlights how mixed messages abound everywhere
in our society and that the extent to which our actions contradict our words
ranges from the humorous to the disturbing.  Unfortunately it’s no different
in schools.  From school mission statements to classroom rules and norms,
students certainly feel the brunt of mixed messages.  This keynote not only
addressed the issue of confusing statements, but participants will also get a
few suggestions and hands-on strategies to deal with the most obvious
mixed messages surrounding standards-based grading issues related to
homework, lates and attendance.

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