Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Student-Centered Assessment

This module has helped me think about student-centered assessment. The discussion about rubrics was helpful because I find them to be useful in helping students be more focused on the task at hand. They can see specifically what the teacher is expecting and exactly how the assignment will be graded. Student-centered assessment reminds me of how we focus on the learning process today. Project based learning is another type of student based learning. Being a teacher in this day and age is about what students can learn from us through our facillitating the learning process. So much can be done when learning is student based, such as with projects and assessments, rather than teacher based. EDM

Friday, October 9, 2009

Your Teaching Job Will Change

There are four seasons in a year. Whether or not you experience four seasons depends on where you live, if you are affected by climatic shift due to humanity's influence on the environment and/or if you choose to pay attention. Those who have been paying attention seem to be at the top of the presenter's class. Now we have another season, and it's not associated with sports...the season of SHIFT. But it is more that just moving around in a chair. Because in the world of education you shouldn't be sitting down anyway!
But wait...we can see the world from our chairs, at our desktops, all at our fingertips...carpal tunnel syndrome be darned. And according to the video it can even be personalized. What more could one ask for on your own PPC? Your "personalized" personal computer.
Well it is here. It talks, doesn't walk(maybe it does in Japan) and is here to revolutionize education. So I guess we will have to make the adjustment as teachers, become more like facilitators or coaches, rather than traditional educators.
"Show me the beef!" shouted the woman in the Wendy's commerical. Now in education it will soon be, "Where's my PC!" For it seems that computers will be the "meat" in education.
Teachers will now show students where to find knowledge rather than be the pervaders of knowledge. We may have to fill this role as "Masters of Media" rather than Masters of Education.
EDM

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Is It A Unit?

When we start with a question, that must mean there are answers to be found. Yes. Yes. Yes! And so we start with the creation of this Unit and it is not one of measurement but one to provide knowledge that will be measured...thus the rubric. Essential question? Aren't all questions essential? Well we tell our students, "there is no such thing as a dumb question." And yes it starts with the essential question. Perhaps we can equate the essential question to the essential vitamins...got to have them. Essential to life and essential to knowledge, or to the growth of knowledge in this Unit. "How did America's relationship with Western & Eastern Europe and China change because of the Cold War?"
EDM

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Design T2TF- Module 1 Reflection

We find reflections in mirrors, and if you look closely enough...ah, there it is...the reflection in the screen. The eye of the beholder in an electrode. At least our students are still living, breathing and thinking beings.

Designing instruction has always been important; presenting even more so and involving the students in the learning process is part of project based learning. Computers give them access to such a wide variety of resources that they would not have available to them otherwise.

So this too matters.... It matters to the gray matter. EDM

Monday, September 14, 2009

Yeah!

It is here, it is completed and was easier the second time. This did not work for me the first time...second time a charm. EDM!