A former high school principal, vice principal, secondary teacher and instructional coach, I am currently teaching Grade 6 Language Arts and Social Studies at HW Pickup School in Drayton Valley. My career-long passion has been to develop instruction and assessment approaches that better inform students and parents, a focus that began when I moved from high school to elementary and learned about outcomes-based assessment. Once I returned to high school, I looked for new ways to incorporate assessment practices that reflect outcomes and show a more accurate and detailed breakdown of student performance. My master's degree capstone focused on how grades can interfere with feedback uptake, explored ways to use grade categories to give a more detailed picture of student achievement and challenged the traditional practice of using assessment type (unit exams, assignments, quizzes) as the foundation of grade categories. My presentations are based both on current research and my own classroom and leadership practice and I strive to use presentation strategies that I developed as an AAC contract presenter and an AISI instructional coach. Being passionate about assessment and instructional design doesn’t exactly get me invited to a lot of dinner parties, so any chance I get to present and engage with educators who are interested in assessment and learning is fantastic!