I think that my mentor relationship has by far been the most reliable and strong relationship I have at my PDS. I have had a wonderful experience gaining insight and suggestions from my mentor teacher, and I hope I have extend new techniques and different strategies or technologies to her classroom. Many times we will both construct a lesson for a day that I visit my PDS, and we will collaborate by fusing our lessons together or choosing which lesson the students are better prepared to learn. She has also set up an account on the site Delicious that allows both of us to bookmark useful websites and share them with each other. I believe this type of practice is extremely helpful in a mentor and student relationship; it extends outside our meetings together and outside the classroom, but still allows us to connect our ideas. I also believe my mentor teacher is extremely receptive to what I would like to do for a lesson and allows me the freedom to teach my lesson. I have never had felt stepped-on while I am teaching a lesson when she is offering more information. Many times I will help my mentor teacher decide what unit is best to cover next. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to have a say in the material and feel like more than just a pre-service teacher in the classroom.
I am also appreciative of the respect that she demands from the students when I teach a lesson or I am briefly in charge of the class. It is often extremely difficult to gain respect from students when they know you are young and inexperienced to some degree. It seems at times it is students' only goal to take advantage of their student teacher's authority. Every single time I have had difficulty maintaining my classroom, my mentor teacher has helped by reminding them of my authority. I am so thankful for this support, as I believe it really has contributed to my development as a teacher this year.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Creating a Wiki
Wikis can be incredibly beneficial to use in a classroom for multiple reasons. Developing a wiki creates a wonderful opportunity for students or teachers to work together and grow as team members. With a wiki, collaborating on each different element of the website is required. Creating a wiki allows each student to have one area or page to complete, and therefore encourages all students to cooperate and pull his or her own weight. Having this area of specialization gives the student a responsibility and accountability for the rest of the group that is absent in many group project. Wikis also allow for a great deal of creative freedom that many students yearn for in each lesson, while also giving them experience in a form of technology many students may have never used. With wikis we as teachers allow students to express their ideas and visions while also sharing ideas with their peers.
As we worked in teams with our fellow pre-service teachers to create our wikis, teachers in a school can work together to create a wiki. This wiki assignment was particularly help to the participants because working with colleagues and administrators as a team is a constant part of being an educator. The reality is this sort of technologically intensive assignment is that sharing responsibilities, communicating ideas, and making decisions as a group is rarely easy; yet as teachers, whether we want to or not, we must learn how to make collaboration work.
One interesting feature my participant group covered in our Taylor County Middle School wiki is a brief description of the R & R Program on the "School Information" page. The Respect and Responsibility Program, often called R & R, is a program offer by TCMS the rewards students for good behavior and grades by sponsoring trips to movies, dances, etc. This reward is an effective incentive for students to improve their performance at TCMS.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Journal: Week Ten
What are your experiences with using rubrics (being graded by them and/or using them to grade students)?
-What do you see as strengths and limitations with using rubrics?
Almost every class I've had in high school and college has included a rubric to assess work. With social studies, much of the work includes presentations and papers, and these assignments are often graded using a rubric. I have recently used a self-made rubric for instruction for the first time in my class with the 21st Century Individual Lesson plan.
I generally like rubrics for assessment in high school and university classes. With rubrics, teachers are held accountable for the grades they give and must explain why they scored a certain way. I also believe it gives teachers a more structured way to assess the students with the learning goals being more concrete. Without rubrics, I think some teachers grade with their present emotion or judging by how they feel about the student. Rubrics also help students know what is expected of them before they do the assignment and which areas are worth more points or need more focus on completion.
Though I still feel that rubrics provide the teacher's expectations and allow for explanation of grades, I left out some of the weaknesses I have discovered with rubrics. With rubrics teachers must grade all students exactly the same, which may sometimes be helpful, but hinders success in some students. More advanced students may need to be graded on a more difficult scale based on what they are capable of doing. However, I believe many IEPs may lead teachers to use different rubrics for certain students. Also, I think rubrics may sometimes prevent students from being rewarded for work that is not a criteria on the rubric. Although there are limitations, I think that the strengths of rubrics greatly outweigh the weaknesses.
-What do you see as strengths and limitations with using rubrics?
Almost every class I've had in high school and college has included a rubric to assess work. With social studies, much of the work includes presentations and papers, and these assignments are often graded using a rubric. I have recently used a self-made rubric for instruction for the first time in my class with the 21st Century Individual Lesson plan.
I generally like rubrics for assessment in high school and university classes. With rubrics, teachers are held accountable for the grades they give and must explain why they scored a certain way. I also believe it gives teachers a more structured way to assess the students with the learning goals being more concrete. Without rubrics, I think some teachers grade with their present emotion or judging by how they feel about the student. Rubrics also help students know what is expected of them before they do the assignment and which areas are worth more points or need more focus on completion.
Though I still feel that rubrics provide the teacher's expectations and allow for explanation of grades, I left out some of the weaknesses I have discovered with rubrics. With rubrics teachers must grade all students exactly the same, which may sometimes be helpful, but hinders success in some students. More advanced students may need to be graded on a more difficult scale based on what they are capable of doing. However, I believe many IEPs may lead teachers to use different rubrics for certain students. Also, I think rubrics may sometimes prevent students from being rewarded for work that is not a criteria on the rubric. Although there are limitations, I think that the strengths of rubrics greatly outweigh the weaknesses.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Journal: Week 7
* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach "responsively" by… (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 6).
* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach for (deeper) understanding by … (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 7).
In my lesson, I am planning to be a responsive instructor by allowing them to choose their own topic for the assignment I will give, making it possible for them to choose the topic of most interest to them. I also would like to encourage writing in my assignment so I plan to do a RAFT assignment, a strategy recently discussed in the seminar. The students will be able to choose their own event that affected the formation of the U.S. Government, and write a mock Facebook invitation asking a certain group to attend the event.
The lesson will encourage deep understanding by forcing the students to ask questions such as: Why do I want people to attend this event? What is important to know about this event? The point of using the Facebook idea for this assignment is that it allows the students to apply the events of the past to a setting they are familiar with and ultimately increase understanding. The students will then respond to each others' events as a critique to their events.
Looking back on this idea and after a little research, I now realize that the event invitation portion of my idea is very difficult to implement. I never intended to allow students to use Facebook for the assignment, but rather an online template not connected to the site. Unfortunately, finding this type of document has been impossible, so I am now changing my plans.
Is there a different way or medium I can use to carry out the original plans for my lesson, or would a simple writing assignment be more suitable? Will the RAFT writing technique be appropriate for a seventh grade class?
* In the lesson I teach at my PDS, I hope to teach for (deeper) understanding by … (make reference to topic of your lesson and concepts from chapter 7).
In my lesson, I am planning to be a responsive instructor by allowing them to choose their own topic for the assignment I will give, making it possible for them to choose the topic of most interest to them. I also would like to encourage writing in my assignment so I plan to do a RAFT assignment, a strategy recently discussed in the seminar. The students will be able to choose their own event that affected the formation of the U.S. Government, and write a mock Facebook invitation asking a certain group to attend the event.
The lesson will encourage deep understanding by forcing the students to ask questions such as: Why do I want people to attend this event? What is important to know about this event? The point of using the Facebook idea for this assignment is that it allows the students to apply the events of the past to a setting they are familiar with and ultimately increase understanding. The students will then respond to each others' events as a critique to their events.
Looking back on this idea and after a little research, I now realize that the event invitation portion of my idea is very difficult to implement. I never intended to allow students to use Facebook for the assignment, but rather an online template not connected to the site. Unfortunately, finding this type of document has been impossible, so I am now changing my plans.
Is there a different way or medium I can use to carry out the original plans for my lesson, or would a simple writing assignment be more suitable? Will the RAFT writing technique be appropriate for a seventh grade class?
Friday, February 5, 2010
EDUC 400 Journal - Week Four:* When reading the book chapter, what attitudes and skills of a responsive teacher resonated with you? * What do you feel are the important aspects to consider when writing learning objectives? * What has been enlightening to you so far in this course?
The attitudes and skills that resonated most with me were to accept responsibility for learner success and to build awareness of what works for each learner. As a tutor, I already feel extremely responsible for each student that I give help to; if he or she didn't improve or at least learn something from our time together, I feel that I didn't do my job. Also, I think we should all take time to get to know our students' learning styles and try to incorporate that into our tutoring to make them feel comfortable and noticed so that they can learn.
I think that an educator should take learning styles, abilities, CSOs, the literature, and time into consideration when making learning objectives.
I feel that the most enlightening activity during this class has been the procedure to make learning objectives and the many factors one should take into consideration.
Though looking through the many CSOs for each subject is quite daunting, especially for social studies classes, it does make the many things to teacher seem more doable. In addition, I think that learning objectives should be made to hold the highest expectations for the students rather than to make objectives that can easily be met by all students.
How important are the curriculum standards and learning objectives to lesson plans? Is the required textbook an influence on your lessons? Is it alright to teach topics that do not fit into the CSOs simply to engage the students? What else should I take into consideration when making learning objectives?
The attitudes and skills that resonated most with me were to accept responsibility for learner success and to build awareness of what works for each learner. As a tutor, I already feel extremely responsible for each student that I give help to; if he or she didn't improve or at least learn something from our time together, I feel that I didn't do my job. Also, I think we should all take time to get to know our students' learning styles and try to incorporate that into our tutoring to make them feel comfortable and noticed so that they can learn.
I think that an educator should take learning styles, abilities, CSOs, the literature, and time into consideration when making learning objectives.
I feel that the most enlightening activity during this class has been the procedure to make learning objectives and the many factors one should take into consideration.
Though looking through the many CSOs for each subject is quite daunting, especially for social studies classes, it does make the many things to teacher seem more doable. In addition, I think that learning objectives should be made to hold the highest expectations for the students rather than to make objectives that can easily be met by all students.
How important are the curriculum standards and learning objectives to lesson plans? Is the required textbook an influence on your lessons? Is it alright to teach topics that do not fit into the CSOs simply to engage the students? What else should I take into consideration when making learning objectives?
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