Edulastic Innovator Spotlight: Melanie Gates

We are thrilled to introduce Edulastic Innovator Spotlight member Melanie Gates! Melanie is a Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Middleborough Public Schools in Middleborough, MA. Melanie supports teachers who use Edulastic for highly engaging assessments. They then analyze the meaningful data and drive their instruction based on their findings. We enjoyed getting know Melanie and hope you do too!

Get to know Melanie Gates

What inspired you to work in education?

My high school Chemistry made me feel empowered as a learner and I wanted to have that same impact on students who are in need of someone to believe in them.

Please sum up your teaching philosophy in a few sentences.

There is good in every student and it is our job to help them shine. When a student puts in a year’s worth of work, they should experience a year’s worth of growth.

How did you learn about Edulastic? What is your Edulastic story?

I learned about Edulastic from my high school mathematics department head, Vicki Miles. Vicki is quite the guru in educational technologies, highly engaging pedagogy, student assessment, and curriculum development. She spoke highly of Edulastic so I decided to make a free account and see what this program is all about. The ease of use, appealing interface, and the fact that Vicki’s students enjoyed using Edulastic prompted me to acquire Edulastic for our middle and high schools. We are entering into our second full year of engaging with Edulastic and I am very optimistic that we will see improved student achievement as a result of our engagement with this program.

What do you love about Edulastic? How do you use it in your classroom?

I only wish I had access to Edulastic when I was still in the classroom. In my role as Director of Curriculum and Instruction what I love about Edulastic is the ability that it provides for our staff to collaborate on highly engaging assessments and the ease of access to meaningful data to drive instruction.

What tips do you have for teachers who are new to Edulastic?

Start small by creating short formative assessments or use some that available through the Library. Just jump in and start using the program because in doing so you will see how easy it is to use.