Books and Daydreams

This may be due to my content area being ELA, but I found that creating a performance assessment was the most difficult for me. I think it's hard for me to imagine students doing something that isn't writing based given my content area. So, it took me a lot more time to not only come up with a performance assessment but how to properly grade said assessment. In the end, I feel like I came up with something measurable however, I still feel like I will need to work on performance assessments in the future as I continue on my path to becoming an educator. I found the selected response assessment to be the easiest. I feel like coming up with good and thoughtful questions was probably easy for me because I'm very inquiry-based in my teaching. So, it felt very natural for me to generate questions from my students to answer. I think what surprised me most about creating these assessments is how different they all were even though they all connected to the same learning target. m...

I already have a topic for my lesson picked out and a standard as well as a good target. I'm just unsure of how it would work in a real classroom. I think the lack of a placement just has me thinking about the aspects of teaching that I may be missing out on. I can't predict how a class would actually receive my lesson and if I could/need to make it more engaging. I feel like I would feel more comfortable with my lesson plans if I could imagine myself actually teaching them. Lesson plans feel too impersonal, and teaching is really supposed to be the opposite of that. Creating these plans is like staring at a blueprint of a house that isn't built yet. Can I imagine what the house looks like, and can I see if it's been planned out well? Yes, I can but other than that I just can't seem to really connect to it. It lacks that real-life connection for me. It just feels like I'm filling out paperwork if I'm honest.

I think all our students struggle with different types of assessments. From test to performance anxiety to lack of confidence, students can have several different roadblocks. I believe it is up to educators to have open lines of communication open to their students so that they can help students succeed. By discussing what issues students may have when it comes to different assessments we can create proper supports for them to succeed. So, it is not only important that we do a variety of assessments in our classroom but that we work with students to help them achieve their best with assessments that they may struggle with. I think it is deeply important that we have clear expectations for our students and that we are clear about why they are doing the things they're doing. I think this helps minimize a lot of anxiety for students and shows that we are willing to work with them. I plan on giving students extra time to complete performance tasks in my classroom as well as extra testi...

What part of deriving a learning target was challenging for you?  What connection does the learning target have with assessment? I believe the most difficult part of crafting a learning target is creating a target that is not only concise but accurate. My instinct is often to overwrite things. What I mean by this is I tend to not know exactly when to stop writing. I often find myself having to go back and edit down emails and papers because my natural instinct is to over-explain. With learning targets, you need to create something that is easy for students to understand. it should only be one sentence. This is doable, however, it will often take me a few tries before I get the verbiage in the target just right. I tend to overthink what I'm writing a lot of the time as well. So often I'll construct something perfectly passible but I won't be able to shake the feeling there is something wrong with it. So I try and give myself a limited number of re-reads otherwise I'll ...

I feel that standards are a great way to ensure that our students get a comprehensive and well-rounded education. I personally moved to several different states when I was younger and experienced several different school environments and curriculums. I think standards are a great way to ensure that our students who may have similar experiences don't fall behind their peers or repeat information. As a teacher, I feel standards are a good way to start building lessons as well. It's nice to have a place to start from and look to when I need to create a unit as well. I feel that content standards will help my students get a comprehensive education in all their classes, not just mine. However, I feel having strong standards for English will allow them to develop good communication skills and well as excellent reading and writing skills. I feel that standards are well thought out and are achievable for a large portion of the students we will be working with.  I'm pretty confi...

   I know that I tend to be a more observant learner. I enjoy watching and listening to my classmate's discussions and chiming in only when I feel really compelled to make an observation. When I was younger I was a much more outspoken and inquisitive learner much to the annoyance of several of my teachers. I later found it was easier for me to play the game of school if I was quieter and answered a lot of my questions on my own. I eventually just became genuinely curious about my classmate's ideas and observations. So I liked hanging back and learning about the different thought processes my classmates had. This ended up being one of the major factors in my decision to become an educator.   So, many things have impacted me as a learner. Me, feeling like I was better off answering some of my questions on my own being one. However, I would say my experience with several different schools and districts growing up influenced me the most. My family moved around quite ...