Journal Entry 2- Objectives and Assessment

These past two weeks of class have gone by so fast! I feel like I am traveling in the fast lane. Well, I guess three classes, a part time job, homework and the rest of life can make you busy! I have no idea how the students who are teaching and have families do it! It’s all part of the job, huh? Albeit a busy two weeks, I have learned a tremendous amount of information that will certainly help me in my future career. Our week three class focused on the learning cycle, Bloom’s taxonomy and writing performance objectives. All of these topics were evident in our class readings, especially Bloom’s taxonomy.

The one quote from our reading that I truly loved was “real learning occurs when a student can transform his/her understanding in a different form of content interpretation: visual, verbal, tactile, etc.” That couldn’t be more true. The reading then goes on to say that learning is active and interactive. I think that this is also important to remember when teaching- if your kids aren’t interested, there will be no learning. But this is somewhat of a catch 22- If the kids aren’t interested, then they won’t learn. But, if they are not paying attention, they won’t know when (or if) the lesson does get good! Dr. Hall said the trick is to plan, plan, plan and make sure you have everything prepared in advance. Indeed, transition is a time when you can loose the kids and possibly waste more time getting them back; I have seen it time and time again as a Teaching Assistant. These are the lessons they really need to teach in school, and I am so glad Dr. Hall gives us those little tidbits of information. She is saving us a lot of aggravation by preventing us learning these things the hard way!

Our February 7th class began with microteaching on performance objectives. Marcia had made a “Jingle” that gave an example objective. I think the clapping rhythm definitely helped everyone remember the objective because we were repeating the phrase while we were clapping. I also absolutely loved the witch and frog example! The microteaching team definitely did a good job engaging the whole class, and I also thought that students would love how she made it “more fun” with speeding up the rhythm. That is another excellent teaching tool! Their anticipatory set definitely did get the class started. Their presentation explained Bloom’s, which I believe goes hand in hand with objectives, and also gave us a great working model to work on improving an objective. Our class also worked on an objectives worksheet that contained several objectives that needed tweaking. Many of these objectives were written in the special education format, which I think I am prone to writing because I just took Teaching Students w/Disabilities I last semester and I am in II now. I have written lesson plans for other classes before, and I do feel somewhat comfortable writing goals and objectives, but I think I can always use more practice. I need to get into the habit of writing objectives differently based on the needs and abilities of my students so I know this activity definitely helped me start to distinguish between a special ed and a general ed objective. In class we also did some exercises identifying standards- which are directly related to goals and objectives. I think the key to a good lesson is incorporating content from other areas in an interesting way because it helps kids make connections. As I quoted above, learning is when a student can take information and make it their own, Only when they can relate information from one source to another do they really understand it. Using multiple content areas in a lesson definitely sets up the ground work for doing that. Also, another reason I was happy to discuss standards in class is that I had to find out the hard way in Methods for Adolescence (ED5251) how to properly write standards in a unit plan. I did not know that you had to write national and state standards, and also include performance indicators, and I lost major points because of it. This was one of my first classes at the Mount, and I did a lot of learning as I went. Ooops. But, I was glad that we went over it now for the students who were in m shoes that day in class and also for the review. Our class also reviewed the MSMC lesson plan format, which is long but thorough. I always appreciate the recaps of what goes where, mainly because I still have my special ed lesson plan hat on. Switching gears keeps me on my toes! Our final class activity for the evening was determining how much of any given information someone remembers the next day. As a class we guessed percentages for discussing, reading, seeing, hearing, doing, and teaching information and we were surprised at how low the actual numbers were! The best way for someone to remember information is to have them teach or do it, which is incredibly important to remember for the classroom.

In our February 14th class the class discussed assessment and evaluation, and we also reviewed the different between the two. Assessment involves collecting information, and evaluation involves interpreting it. In order to tailor our instruction to the students’ needs, we need to do both of these. Our microteacher, Kristina, also mentioned the three types of assessment (diagnostic, formative, and summative), and when and how to do each. This was great information to know before our direct instruction lesson plans are due! Her anticipatory set included an extremely difficult test and a student who was upset that it was so unfair. This does happen in classrooms, and it was a great example of what not to do. The skit was funny and it actually relaxed the class as well. There are also two types of assessment, traditional and authentic, I think both are valid in their own way, and we should offer both to our students. There are so many learning styles in any one classroom that we absolutely must offer more than one means of testing to see what kids know. I like that we also discussed rubrics, because I think I can definitely use some practice on how to do them., In class we also discussed resources that have pre-made rubrics online, which is excellent to know. I have learned from experience with other classes that it can be very time consuming to make a rubric! I also had a lot of trouble deciding what number scale to use, what aspects to evaluate, how many aspects, etc. The list goes on. Being able to get a pre-made rubric (or even just using one to give you a basic frame to construct your own) is extremely helpful. By giving us these resources, it is also more likely that we will use them as teachers. I absolutely love the idea of rubrics- this way, the student knows what it expected of them before the project begins, and they also know how they can go above and beyond. Teachers can easily award points for areas where the student performed well and also make comments on areas that need improvement. I prefer this opposed to assigning one flat grade on an overall job. Rubrics give kids more feedback, and also a chance to improve (or supplement) areas of weakness. Another activity we did in class was watch videos on direct instruction. Our first video was on a second grade math teacher. Her lesson was a fabulous example of direct instruction, but the lesson itself was incredibly long. Our class also discussed transitioning during a lesson and what could have been done differently to make the lesson more “student friendly”. It was good to see some examples of DI before we prepared our rough draft of our lesson plans. The second video we watched was a definite non-example. This teacher cramped her kindergarten students in one corner of the room and was not engaging to say the least. I was happy that Dr. Hall gave us a good example of DI and also a bad example because it set the bar on both ends. It kind of created a high and low point in my head where I should fall between. That in itself was a good lesson for teachers- the power of providing non-examples as well as examples. Kids need to know both in order to do well.

These past two weeks in class have gone by incredibly fast, and have been saturated with information on writing goals and objectives and assessing students. I think it is great that we are learning these two skills at the beginning of the semester because I think they will have a tremendous impact on how we construct our lesson plans and also our webquests. So much of teaching depends on what we expect from our students, and we also need to make sure that our assessments are designed to measure our objectives accurately. We have actually covered almost every single component of our MSMC lesson plan in just these two weeks! All in all, I think our class is going well and I feel like I am definitely getting the tools I need to effectively and creatively teach my students.

ED5921 General Methods of Instruction Journal Entry 1

Two weeks ago a new semester started at MSMC and I have begun three new classes. I am excited about that, because it means I am well on my way to finally student teaching and finishing my degree. The first night of my Methods class was a nice, relaxing overview. My class is using WebCT again, which I know how to use but find can be a pain to deal with at times. I could tell that there were a lot of people in the class who have not had much internet or WebCT experience before, which I understand can be scary. I always try to remember how hard it is to try new things, especially since I am going to one day be a teacher myself. I always want to have that empathetic element for my students so that I can create an ideal learning environment. There does seem to be a lot of work involved in this course, but I have heard from many people who have taken the course that you learn a tremendous amount of information on preparing lessons, which is definitely what I need. I feel that I do not have the creative mind to make interesting and engaging lessons that will make kids want to learn. I do think it’s silly for me to feel this way- every teacher I know never has enough time, yet I am scared that I will have nothing for my kids to do!

I thought that the questionnaires in the week 1 readings were both informative and interesting. I think that a lot of people don’t think about what and how they are, and how it differs from who and what they want to be. Maybe that’s the secret to being a good teacher- constant metacognition and evaluating personal performance. I found that the age groups I prefer most (almost equally) were the 5-6 and 7-8 year olds. Both were approximately 70%. I work with first and second graders in my teaching assistant job and I have found that I really like second grade; first grade is a little too low in the beginning months for me. But, now that the year is half-way over, first graders are not too bad either. I would take any teaching job for any grade level. I like the academics of the older grades and I just like kids in general. So, any job would be nice. As far as educational philosophies go, I am a cognitvism/constructivism and information processing educator. I have always thought that any individual will only retain information he or she finds relevant to themselves, and have always been a huge advocate of authentic learning. I also believe that the human mind is a sieve for information ; our minds have countless capabilities and if a person understands the underlying concepts in any given situation, he or she will be able to remember it. I scored lowest in the behavioral philosophy, and I am actually happy about that. I studied behaviorism in undergrad (I was a psych minor) and I also did some research on behavioral theories in ED5210 in January. I think that a behaviorist theory is results-driven and is all about shaping individuals to conform to a pre-determined outcome. I cannot teach or learn like that. I also am somewhat reassured that my test scores are accurate because I knew I did not like that teaching style from the get-go, and I was happy to see my scores reflect my true feelings. I think that the study skills survey also helped me evaluate how I am doing in the schoolwork area. I think that study habits are definitely something that changes over time- and it should be evaluated periodically. I am happy that I took this survey and thought about how I am performing academically; this semester is going to be a busy one and I need to stay focused! I definitely cannot work unless I am organized- and this survey allowed me to “re-center” my thinking cap.

I enjoyed our second class meeting as well. I like learning about the basics of teaching- basically the “what” of the job- before I learn the “how”. It helps form an organized mental picture of what is expected of me and helps me to strategize the best way to do it. I also liked that there were visual diagrams along with the reading materials for the class- I am a very visual learner and I think that the pictures help my “mental scaffold”. I liked the lesson plan project very much as well. I liked that we god to brainstorm with a partner- I think the best ideas are generated this way . My partner, Kristen, and I came up with a lesson plan for measuring ingredients that would be used for making a casserole. She came up with the idea, and I thought it was fantastic. What is funny is that I also was glad we got to remain in our seats to present our lesson plans. I know it sounds funny, but I think all graduate students get nervous when they need to present to the class. And we are all going to school to be teachers- I think it is so weird! But, perhaps it is just being amongst peers, its more of public speaking than teaching- I guess. I am not a teacher yet, and speaking in front of the class does not bother me. But, I did think that the assignment was more relaxed and comfortable for the class because Dr. Hall kept it “low key”. It was a great opening assignment that got creative and collaborative juices flowing. I also think the class’s attitude towards WebCT changed a little bit- I think once people begin using technology it helps them to realize that it isn’t so bad. All in all, it has been a great first two weeks in class, and I am excited to begin doing more!