Day Away From School

So it's been about a week since I have posted last, and due to only a 3 day week last week and two of those days involving my students taking their unit test, not much has come of instructional insights. However I have found that I can point to two developing insights in my teacher education: the use and implications of summative assessments and the incorporation of technology into the classroom.

In light of my students taking the summative assessment on the unit that I taught over the past 3 weeks, it made me think about how well this test assessed the learning that actually happened. I was given the test from my cooperating teacher, and tried to make sure my students were prepared for the exam. Surely there was plenty of content that we covered that was not on the test: it will be important in the future, either in school or in their own life. But what about beyond that? What about skills that students need to, or at least should, be learning from their instructors? This includes problem solving skills, social skills, behavioral skills, and beyond! None of this was addressed in the test, it was purely content.

Some may argue that students may use their problem solving skills on an exam, but to what extent? Is it to the extent that they could then use those skills in their own life? Developing strong problem solvers is what we need to be doing as educators, and unfortunately teaching to the test and telling students that the answer is the most important part of mathematics is incredibly disastrous to their problem solving skills and their outlook on life. I think that this mindset brings forward a generation of students that want an answer....and they want it right away. I think I will think abut this issue for a few days and add to this post, I feel strongly about this. In one of my classes I have even told students that when they get an answer, they have to wait 30 seconds before they can tell me what they found. I've found that some students go back into their work and correct mistakes since 30 seconds is a long time to sit there...which some students do just sit there and squirm uncomfortably, but i think this is a good thing: sometimes the gratification needs to be delayed or they get bored or disinterested very quickly. There is a fine line with this tactic, appropriate for one class will not be appropriate for another. To be continued...

The second piece I have been working on is technology in the classroom. Before getting into the classroom, I thought that possibly it could be a hindrance. Now this may be true, but I was also completely naive to the incredible resources that are out there. Creating usable content online, developing incredible lessons with resources online, posting online for students to access, and reflecting with others are all examples of incredible tools that I was not very familiar with. However after jumping head first into these technologies, I have fallen in love. I can see how students could become so interested in these materials and they can be so readily edited and adapted, it's fantastic, and so user friendly! After knowing how versatile these technologies can be, and how many technologies there are, I have completely changed my outlook on them and am striving to understand what is out there to assist instructors and students for alternative educational experiences.

With everything going on, sometimes I find myself in the following predicament...and I've come to realize that that is okay and can sometimes be much more beneficial than always knowing the answer!

Support

So I've thought about posting everyday, but then life happens and I completely forget so I devised a very clever plan: post once a week or so.

With that said, it has been a crazy week! Teacher assisting is going well, almost done with my first unit and am kind of excited to have a few days to rest when I won't be teaching. Everyday is a new adventure and any plans I have of how I think the day is going to go usually change as the day progresses.

The week of teaching culminated on Friday with one of the most amazing lunches I've ever had and I have been inspired and humbled ever since! It's nice to have colleagues that support you and can relate to you in so many ways. Knowing the community that surrounds me makes it that much easier for me to try and help others; it's never bad to try and pass along the good feeling that someone gets when they know that somebody out there cares about them or is willing to help them.

Related to school, it is becoming more and more apparent how much of an influence you have on students AND how much of an influence that they have on you! Everyone has an off day or has a tough time or makes a bad decision, but the most important part of these situations is the way that an individual handles the outcome and the consequences. If a student is having an off day, wait to talk to them and see what they will do to prevent it from happening again. Instead of punishing so quickly in the classroom, why don't we discuss with students what is going on: they're people too!!

So how about the other way around? This has been about how we can support our students. How can our students support us? Why this question is even asked is crazy, it should be obvious!!! The students that I work with on a daily basis can bring a smile to your face at any second! Can make you realize that in some way, you can always do more good than harm, and that someone out there really counts on you! For some students, you may be the only support they receive in their life, and they will try as hard as they possibly can to reciprocate! They will talk to you, they will ask you questions, they will tell you jokes, they will try to influence your life in as many ways as you influence them, and they may not even know it!

This whole teaching thing is amazing. I had a conversation with someone who did not understand why I would want to be around kids all day: kids don't know anything! This is so upsetting to me, how could you think that? Kids are creative, innovative, think outside of the box! Just because they don't have the same experience that I do in life, in many ways they prove to be smarter than any of us!

So let's learn from each other, let's stop dwelling on why things are so bad and start looking for what we can do about it, and let's start showing those around us how much we really care! Let's start acting like we're on the same team:

Starting!

Now I can finally get my thoughts online...it started with google docs and now it spills over into explaining my thoughts and life online. Can't wait to be able to look back and see how I change over the craziest semester I've ever been involved with.