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FINAL BLOG POST - OUR "DAILY TRIPLE" (DUE 12/1).
This week I would like you to use your imagination. You have just won the lottery and will leave your teaching post immediately to travel around the world. As you leave your keys you meet your replacement. You are asked to give this new teacher just ONE piece of advice. What would that be, and why? Enjoy your world expedition!

Blog Post - Week 7
This past week in my own teaching I felt a little disconnected which prompts my question to you, "What was the moment (or moments) when I felt most disconnected or disengaged as a teacher - the moment(s) I said to myself, I'm just going through the motions here?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 6
For the past couple of weeks you have experienced asynchronous online learning (doing modules by yourself). Previously this semester you have experienced synchronous online learning (all together in the Collaborate room). Which do you think is more effective and why do you think that? Which do you like better, and why?

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 5
This week we have what we call "open mic." You can write a post about anything related to your teaching that you would like responses from your classmates.

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 4
Here is this week's question: "What was the event that most took me surprise this week - and event that shook me up, caught me off guard, gave me a jolt, or made me unexpectedly happy?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 3
Please write a post about the following question, "In thinking about my past week teaching what is one thing I would do differently, and why?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 2
Please write a post about the following question, " In thinking about my teaching activities this past week, of what do I feel most proud? Why?"

Fall Semester 2016 Blog Post - Week 1
Describe something you used in your program in the first weeks of school that you learned in the summer NTI program. How did it work? Did it get you off to a stronger start than last year?

Friday, February 12, 2010

What I Believe ?

As a new teacher I have been quickly and deeply plunged into the world of standards based education. Know your standards, teach to the essential question. Standard based grading is on the way for most of us. It seems to me that what we value, how we like to evaluate, does not matter.
What matters is that we have covered the standards, and given the evaluations that measure how well the students have learned the material in the standards. I believe that we really have to use a variety of evaluations. No one type of evaluation can measure how well a student has learned the required material. That is the the only value that enters into it. If you really consider what an evaluation is, it must be as objective as possible, or it carries very little value. We are not judging the student, but rather how well they have learned - or how well we have given them the information they need to know.

4 comments:

Scott said...

Emily,

I like your issue of using different ways of evaluating. I try to do that as we go so it does not appear that I am doing it. I have one student that will know the material better than she knows her name, but when she takes a test she falls apart. I use different methods so for those students that don’t test well they don’t “fail” due to poor test taking skills. This leads to the standardized test, what do they accomplish or not accomplish?

Hal said...

Amen, Emily. We have been thrust into a world of standards based learning. Sometimes, I feel like I miss the point because I am so busy trying to cover my butt worrying with a standard. I try to develop different evaluation methods, but in the end I lose focus because I'm trying to conquer the standard. In my line of work, when a student "masters" a standard, I'm not always convinced they can do the job in the real world. When I try to bring my personal values in, I usually end up setting the bar too high and begin to lose sight of the standard. I work to find that happy medium between which I have fulfilled my obligation to a standard and stayed true to my personal values...maybe next week.

Tonya said...

I agree with you Emily. I believe that when our students are required to take an EOCT for our classes, things will change drastically. Too much emphasis is placed on that one test. Right now I try my best to teach my students in a way that they enjoy and can understand. I dare to think about how our program may change if put under the pressure of the EOCT. I have taught a CNA class where I knew that my students knew the material. They did a great job in their clinical rotation and there was no doubt that they would make fantastic CNA's, however, if they failed that one exam at the end of the course then they would not be certified. I found myself teaching to the test so much of the time. I felt like that was the only thing that I could do so that the students would feel comfortable during their evaluation.

Jennifer said...

I have found it difficult at times to find a happy medium between the Standards that students must learn and what I believe are important aspects for students to master. I do believe that we get so caught up in trying to "master" an Standard or "answer" an Essential quesiton, that the students miss the point of the lesson. I have found myself reteaching something because the students didn't understand a concept the way I thought they should. So while I feel there is a benefit to Standards teaching in that all students statewide are learning the same information, I do think sometimes that we have to learn how to incoporate what WE feel to be important into our teaching as well. We also should be aware of how well students are understanding concepts. In a sense, we should be open to reteaching something IF we give students evaluations and the majority of them don't get it or master it.