Assessments

Formal assessments are really nothing that I enjoy.  This might be because of my experience teaching in the US.  I know that they are necessary for admin, parents, report cards, and to some extent my practice, and I really try to include them.  For myself, I am doing informal assessing all the time.  I teach mostly in small group, so I get a good idea of where my students are with their learning all the time.  For example, I do running records 2-3 times a week, and do quick adding and subtracting activities during small group.
I use PM Benchmark Kits to assess reading levels at the beginning of the year and at the end.  Sometimes I use it to see if I'm not sure about a student level.  I am also a trained Reading Recovery teacher, so I have that assessment to use if I wish.
The writing assessment can be used in the Autumn and Spring and I have yet to find it very useful.  I use their journals and other pieces of writing to help me rather than the one cold-write.
I am starting to use self-assessments more with my class, and this is an interesting practice.  Many of my students think that they are the best at everything they do (how I wish I still had this confidence), so they give themselves the highest mark possible.  Not very effective.  I find that conferences work much better, but who has the time?  I leave these for bigger projects. Our district love their numbers as much as the next, and we have reading assessments, writing assessments and math assessments at our disposal that are used across the district.  We also have a data bank that the district has developed to enter in all the data.  I am not finding that technology has made assessments easier.