Project development

After starting my project as a googleforms assessment tool, I have revised what I am doing. I started out  by making forms for units to assess whether or not children's were demonstrating the components of a physical skill by the end of the unit. I based this on seeing a teacher assessing high school students with a simple drop down assessment. What I noticed upon trying to use the tool was that I struggled with missing things going on in the class because my focus on the iPod. After talking with Meg, my new goal is to use video to assess t the end of the unit. I want the kids to be able to look at themselves and see what they are doing right. I will use iMovie to try and capture kids at the end of a unit showcasing their skills.

Articles and reference links Reflection

I enjoyed reading the tools for the 21st century breakdown on all the different websites/services to search and organize info. The most exciting thing is definitely twitter and I hope to set one up on the 21st. I loved the article on the endeavor of trying to mesh creativity with effective classroom management, to me that is my everyday mission. My other biggest takeaway relating to my teaching area was the last two entries of the 8 ways of looking at intelligence. "your body can make you smarter and relationships can make you smarter". To use exercise and play to enhance the students education as well as foster relationships through gameplay are two things that I would like to focus on in teaching, perhaps I can make these some type of piece of my ipod assessment.

Testing out my ipod touch menus during class was a bit problematic today. The focus I need to have on the class gets split during the large group activities. I am still thinking it will work but I need to come up with the correct times when I could use it. I am already thinking how if I have stations for a couple of classes and position myself at a different station each class then I could stand there, observe and record.

Wednesday Reflection

Today I made a lot of headway with googleforms. I also learned about Kern Kelley and a P.E. teacher who uses google forms to record data during observation. I will create a range of googleforms to observe my students and use the summarized data to reflect on the effectiveness of my lessons.

MY PROJECT: My project goal is centering on reflective teaching. I have been surveying my kids at the end of units and at the end of the year to find out what they liked and didn't like. The challenge I have run into is both the time consuming nature of handing out paper and pencil, along with explaining the survey to very young kids and then compiling/deciphering the surveys. What I want to do is create something where I could project it, bet feedback and reflect in an easier fashion. I am not quite sure what that will look like, it could be an excel or a powerpoint?

EdCafe Takeaway

We listened to a TED presenter who spoke about failing schools and the need for change.
We reflected on what kind of changes can be made on big and small scales.
We came up with some identified problems with what we see as our system failing our students.
We talked about individualized teachers and what flexibility they have for innovation.
My biggest takeaway was the need for student leaders to showcase their skills to other learners.
The two Teenagers in the class reminded me how capable students are and how they can pass on their enthusiasm for a specific area of a subject to other learners.