Assessment

This quarter is quickly coming to an end and I am thankful that UWB has given us the opportunity to visit local schools within our community and work closely with students attening them. I have been working closely with 2 students, one a Kindergartener and the other a third grader. Both experiences were rewarding but to be fair they were both extremely opposite experiences.

My Kindergartener was shy and we were lucky to get a few words out of him. The 3rd grade student was talkative, energetic, and could talk to us for hours. With my experiences in mind, I hope to always remember how these experiences gave me the opportunity to work with different types of students. We must all try to remember that as teachers our instruction must be differentiated in order to meet the needs of all students. Always easier said than done, but this is the ultimate goal. With this as a key point in my mind, I can't help but wonder what else I musn't forget...

Assessment can be given and seen in a large variety of ways. Not only should our teaching be differentiated, but our techniques for assessing should be as well. We are not robots, we don't learn the same, and we definately do not function on the same page. So what should we keep in mind as we assess our students without forgetting that each student learns differently?

Key Points:
Not one assessment method works best.
A differentiated classroom is also one that has differentiated assessment.
Comparing one student to another is NOT assessment.
Assessment can tell us more about what a student does know than what a student doesn't know.
Assessment can direct us where we need to be focused.

Blogging Community & My Comments

Commenting on other public blogs is something new to me. As I've been reading through a few blogs about teaching and technology, I've also been introduced to many helpful resources as well as some controversial activities.

These are the comments I made to two different blogs introducing two very different topics.

The first image that captures my comment in regards to a blog highlighting technology and the types of programs we can use to create videos within our classrooms. Because they did not include PHOTOSTORY3 as a resource I suggested it. It was wonderful to read about all the other types of programs out there. I plan on looking over the ones included in the blog to see how user friendly they are.

The second image captures my comment in regards to a blog topic on technology, vandalism and what we can do to protect tour resources from being stolen. The blog sugggested an art type expression be painted in a chaotic way as to make the laptops appear "ugly" and "unwanted." My initial thought was that this statement appears to resemble vandalism but on the other hand it was a community based problem solver.

Technology

Here is a snip it of my Weebly site. It includes5 pages: Home, Wikiwork, Tools, Literacy, and iGoogle. It has been fun to learn more about the free technology available for teachers.

Writing Conferences

I've had a busy few weeks during this lovely, rainy month of November. I can proudly say I have successfully planned and taught three lessons all on my own! I am so thankful that my Dyad teacher was as supportive and positive about the entire unit, she really is an amazing teacher.

This weeks prompt for blogging specifically asked us to elaborate on our writing conference experiences. It just so happens that two out of my three lessons invovled a great deal of whole-class sharing. My main objectives for this was to get a better understanding of how well the students could adapt the lessons into their own writing. To create a better picture of this environment, let me explain. I taught three lessons, or one unit if I may on Onomatopoeia just as I had planned. One of the lessons was centered around a poem I found and as I was teaching the poem I thought it would be fun and meaningful if I prompted my students to creat a final verse all on their own as long as it included at least one Onomatopoeia. Once the students had completed this task I gathered everyone on the rug and had each student indivudally read aloud their verse. As Regie Routman explains in his book Writing Essentials, "Students just learning to write need and benefit from having their efforts celebrated" (p. 207). I have learned that when students are given the chance to stand out, even if its for a few mintues it allows them to feel capable, succesful, and appreciated. Having them share, allowed me to listen to their writing and get a better understanding of who got the lesson.

I really enjoyed Routman's use of the word celebrate because I think that that is how we should look at the hard work our students have been doing, otherwise they may not feel motivated at all. I was also able to address the differences expressed it the writings. I made sure not to make any comments such as "Wow, you really did a great job" or "Wow, maybe we can work more on that later." I've learned from my dyad teacher to just keep my comments low key yet accepting. Words like "Thank you" and "I like how you did this because____" are much more meaningful. I would never want to highlight one students success more than the others. It's also important to me to make sure that not just one example is correct. If I can highlight the many possible ways that one assignment can be done, I hope to be more encouraging towards their own creativity.

Because I am working with such young students it's important to not discourage their love of writing, they are just learning and beginning to explore what it is all about. No negative comments are necessary. Positive reinforcment is what I am working with, nothing less.

Perspective

Imagine yourself a teacher, if you aren't already one. Imagine yourself entering your classroom on the very first day and you find yourself surrounded by twenty-four round little faces. Some of them are beaming, some of them appear nervous and shy, and then the rest appear a bundle of emotions you haven't quite figured out yet. It's September and right away you feel a longing to get to know each and everyone one of them. In the back of your mind you fear that 10 months wont be nearly enough time to get to know them as well as you hope but you remind yourself that your job is to be there for them, to listen to them, to teach them about life and learning to get a better sense of how their own life journeys have helped create the little people that they are today.

Isn't it interesting to think how each and every child can enter your life with a truely unique personality? We all come from different families, cultures, neighborhoods, experiences, and beliefs and with these differences we find ourselves coming together in one room aiming for one goal: education. We cannot ignore these differences and we must therefore embrace them. With our differnces we realize that there isn't one way, belief, solution, or answer because there are many. We realize that we adapt and exerpience differently than others and learning is an entirely unique situation for all who experience it. We must learn how to be open minded and willing to listen if not agree with all that makes us diverse. What better place to create a smiliar representation of a diverse yet functioning community than what you promote within your own classroom.

I want to revist the importance of getting to know your student and how such a connection can enhance the learning relationship you help build with them as their teacher. If we great a positive learning environment full of students that are comfortable being themselves and able to express the way they see the world I believe that this environment provides an optimal learning opportunity for all. In Anne Lamott's book, Bird by Bird she explains how one situation can be easily depicted and experienced in a number of different ways. Lamott writes "If I tell thirty students to write me a story about two married people who are considering divorce until something unforeseen happens, they'll give me thirty wildly different stories, because they will have thirty different personal histories and sensibilities" (p. 58). I feel that this particular vignette in which she tells the reader is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, I appreciate how she introduces the possibility for many different ways one story could play out. For one person divorce may have a particularly negative connotation and elicit horrific memories. For another, it could bring about a positive situation, the beginning of a life of freedom and happiness. What I see to be significant here is that no matter what story is told we must remember there is a person behind each and every one of them. It is the person who we must pay attention to, their life, their experiences and all that they can teach us about perspective and personal reality.

I'm working at remembering that behind each face is a story and I need to come across as that teacher who is willing to listen.

Literacy Vignette 1

I can remember the very first play I ever decided to be a part of in elementary school. I was unconfidently standing on our gymnasium stage, it was the biggest most frightening stage I had ever had the privilege of appearing on. I was a young and innocent twelve years old and new to the acting gig. I stood there shaking in my boots for most of the rehearsals and what went through my mind as I continued to rehearse is beyond me. My choice to be there was purely based on peer pressure. I wasn’t getting paid, and with what very little talent I thought I had, it definitely wasn’t worth bragging about. Wait a minute, it’s coming back to me now, I am slowly remembering how horrific of an age being twelve really was for me. I was at the stage in my life where I was unsuccessfully trying to discover, or uncover, or recover my true identity….I guess I am still trying to figure that one out. I was still defining myself as an individual, but we all know how that story goes…many of us struggle to find who we are by following the lead of everyone else. I was trying to do whatever it was that my friends did, and at this time they were performing on stage, so yes, you guessed it, I too was performing.

You never would have guessed just how well I was at accidentally acting. I call it accidentally acting because the part I was about to play required me to be a hopeless, frightened and lonely child. Perfect! There was no better part to play than one that directly correlated to myself at that very moment! My attempt at costume and makeup was tragic. The truth was that during my efforts to look like a castaway I ended up looking like a kid who took scissors to her clothing and cut out perfectly round circles in the knees of her sweat pants. I cut up one of my beloved t-shirts, and in order to look dirty, I simply covered my face in a ton of makeup. How entirely cliché!

My wardrobe was misleading, my confidence was non existence and my acting skills were less than recognizable. I was the epitome of many who believe but cannot do. I was setting myself up for failure and in the biggest most public form imaginable. I could have done many a things to accomplish a sense of failure within the privacy of my own room but no, I had to do what my friends were doing. I grinned and I bared it because the show had to go on. The lights were so bright they reflected right off my face and most likely blinded many of the brave onlookers in the audience. I was sweating and pale and sick enough to vomit but I kept with it despite my reservations. I dragged my limp body out onto stage stared my costars blankly in their make up covered faces and I pitifully begged them for their lines. I could have sold my right arm at that very moment for just one hint. Nothing. All I could hear was the deafening silence of pure and utter shock of a blank mind. My lines escaped me as if the fear they felt mirrored my very own. I was alone on stage and the world stopped spinning, the seconds felt like hours and my very last time as an actor haunts me to this day.