I have been in training this morning through my district on technology. I found a great program that would be great in the classroom for any subject. It is Google Sketch up and Google Earth as a help mate for Google Sketchup.
It was a great basic course, and I am looking forward to adding it in to our goodie bags as a MTT student!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Automated Essay Scorer-Paper Topic
I love being an English teacher most of the time. The time where I really hate being an English teacher is when I have to grade 150 essays in less than a week. I think that the creation of the Automated Essay Scorer is a wonderful invention, but this is also without using it, researching it, or seeing how user friendly it really is.
I have chosen this as my topic becuase there are a lot of teachers in my building that are leary of an automated scorer, and it if will help our middle school students with thier 7th grade TAKS scores. FOr the few that I have looked out, there are a lot that focus more on writing traits, and less on the 1-4 scale score that TAKS uses. We just adopted new literature textbooks in our district, and one of the items that was brought up in supplementary materials.
While the thought is impressive, the question comes, does it work? I am hoping that at the end of this class and through my research, I will be able to see if this is an accurate for of assessment for my building.
I have chosen this as my topic becuase there are a lot of teachers in my building that are leary of an automated scorer, and it if will help our middle school students with thier 7th grade TAKS scores. FOr the few that I have looked out, there are a lot that focus more on writing traits, and less on the 1-4 scale score that TAKS uses. We just adopted new literature textbooks in our district, and one of the items that was brought up in supplementary materials.
While the thought is impressive, the question comes, does it work? I am hoping that at the end of this class and through my research, I will be able to see if this is an accurate for of assessment for my building.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Current Assessment Practices
Assessment is critical to the field of education. Without assessment, we do not know where are students currently are, or where we are to take them in the future. In my classroom, as well in our district, are key on assessment.
Standard testing occurs in my classroom at the end of units to see what the students know and what needs to be retaught. In the 5th and 6th six weeks, we work on building background knowledge of WWII and read literature to help with grammar aspects. In the first four six weeks, when my focus in solely on grammar, after we get through parts of speech, there will be a test to see what is known and not known. We then reteach in mini lessons throughout the school year.
Benchmark testing is essential in my district. These are called TEKS checks and are given on a monthly bases. In my content area, the test in one passage long and has six questions. In my personal opinion, there is not enough data that can be drawn on six questions to truly tell a teacher what a student does or does not know. I am hearing that this will be changing next year, and we will go back to having one a six weeks and then having 12 questions on them. Our curriculum is being rewritten, so our benchmarks will have to allign to those as well.
As a writing teacher, I use portfolios for their writing. We call these, their writing folders, and I add all essays to these folders. If we do a creative writing, I will also add these in. I also let the students determine what they would like to add to their portfolios as well. At the end of the year, I conference with students about where they started and where they currently are and what is needed for high school. This is done within the last two weeks of school.
Project based learning is still something that is rather new to me. We do currently do this in our curriculum when we teach WWII in the 4th six weeks. The students complete a research topic on WWII, and then create a multimedia presentation to show to the class while giving an oral presentation, and then create an expository essay for their topic. I also found this cool website that helps make checklist for PBL. http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/
Technology used for assessment comes in the form of our benchmarks which can be taken on paper or in a digital format. We can also use blackboard to give quizzes or test. The issue with this is more the lack of availability with computers, versus a desire to want to do them. We also have a way to create our own assessments in TEKS Check, but it is currently only available to reading and math.
Technology standards that are currenlty assessed are:
1) how familiar they are with different applications
2) Copyright information (especially in expository research essay)
3) Solving problems in the programs
I know that I do a whole lot more as well, but those are the three big ones.
My three assessment related goals for my classroom and building are how to add more assessments through technology, focus on PBL for cross-curricular, and to make assessment something that students understand.
I think each of these goals will not only benefit me this next year in the classroom, but also for long term goals of a PhD program.
Standard testing occurs in my classroom at the end of units to see what the students know and what needs to be retaught. In the 5th and 6th six weeks, we work on building background knowledge of WWII and read literature to help with grammar aspects. In the first four six weeks, when my focus in solely on grammar, after we get through parts of speech, there will be a test to see what is known and not known. We then reteach in mini lessons throughout the school year.
Benchmark testing is essential in my district. These are called TEKS checks and are given on a monthly bases. In my content area, the test in one passage long and has six questions. In my personal opinion, there is not enough data that can be drawn on six questions to truly tell a teacher what a student does or does not know. I am hearing that this will be changing next year, and we will go back to having one a six weeks and then having 12 questions on them. Our curriculum is being rewritten, so our benchmarks will have to allign to those as well.
As a writing teacher, I use portfolios for their writing. We call these, their writing folders, and I add all essays to these folders. If we do a creative writing, I will also add these in. I also let the students determine what they would like to add to their portfolios as well. At the end of the year, I conference with students about where they started and where they currently are and what is needed for high school. This is done within the last two weeks of school.
Project based learning is still something that is rather new to me. We do currently do this in our curriculum when we teach WWII in the 4th six weeks. The students complete a research topic on WWII, and then create a multimedia presentation to show to the class while giving an oral presentation, and then create an expository essay for their topic. I also found this cool website that helps make checklist for PBL. http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/
Technology used for assessment comes in the form of our benchmarks which can be taken on paper or in a digital format. We can also use blackboard to give quizzes or test. The issue with this is more the lack of availability with computers, versus a desire to want to do them. We also have a way to create our own assessments in TEKS Check, but it is currently only available to reading and math.
Technology standards that are currenlty assessed are:
1) how familiar they are with different applications
2) Copyright information (especially in expository research essay)
3) Solving problems in the programs
I know that I do a whole lot more as well, but those are the three big ones.
My three assessment related goals for my classroom and building are how to add more assessments through technology, focus on PBL for cross-curricular, and to make assessment something that students understand.
I think each of these goals will not only benefit me this next year in the classroom, but also for long term goals of a PhD program.
Welcome to Assessment
Good Afternoon! I am looking forward to learning more about assessment this summer and how it can be added to my technology and classroom environment. I am going on the assumption (and yes, I know what assuming does :)) that our essays for this class will be blogs like in the first two classes.
I will be gone on a Mediteranian cruise from June 12-20, so I am trying to go ahead and get a head start on what I can do for the class! Looking forward to meeting/seeing everyone on Friday.
Newby
I will be gone on a Mediteranian cruise from June 12-20, so I am trying to go ahead and get a head start on what I can do for the class! Looking forward to meeting/seeing everyone on Friday.
Newby
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Website
I truly enjoyed creating my own website. I would like to have more control over what is put on my website, but to do this, I haven't found a free way to do it. I like my website becuase it is completely me. While there isn't a lot of background and color changes, that isn't how I run my classroom. I run my classroom to help prepare my 8th grade students for high school and the real world. While I get that you need to keep students engaged, they also need to recognize that life isn't always fun.
There are a few items that are coming soon on my website that I will continue to fix for next school year. While I see this as a great resource, I am not sure how many of my students or their parents would actually view this. Great in theory, but I am not sure about practice in my school.
Overall, I know that I could add more multimedia, but I feel like this assignment, is a growing product as you continue to grow as a teacher.
I hope that you enjoy the website.
http://mrsnewby2010.wikispaces.com/
There are a few items that are coming soon on my website that I will continue to fix for next school year. While I see this as a great resource, I am not sure how many of my students or their parents would actually view this. Great in theory, but I am not sure about practice in my school.
Overall, I know that I could add more multimedia, but I feel like this assignment, is a growing product as you continue to grow as a teacher.
I hope that you enjoy the website.
http://mrsnewby2010.wikispaces.com/
Monday, April 26, 2010
Content Video
While I enjoyed creating the content video, I wish that there was a way that I really knew how to edit and create beyond free editions of items. I think the one thing that I would have changed is the background in the actually shots that I took. Taking them at a soccer game allowed me to complete the video with something my students would enjoy, but the sound did make it harder to create an overlay of voice to read what was going on when the writing went up. The writing is also a little fast at points, but due to the length of the shots, that was unavoidable.
Overall, I loved creating this video and see me using it with my students next year. For the students that will need more time, I will create a still shot or a few from the movie clips to have them on paper to create thier exampes of prepositions.
I am still unsure if the music clip would work but with royalty free, this was the longest clip I could get, then just had to reenter, so it is not perfect, but the music that fit the best to my liking.
Overall, I loved creating this video and see me using it with my students next year. For the students that will need more time, I will create a still shot or a few from the movie clips to have them on paper to create thier exampes of prepositions.
I am still unsure if the music clip would work but with royalty free, this was the longest clip I could get, then just had to reenter, so it is not perfect, but the music that fit the best to my liking.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Digital Data
This past week, I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get in touch with the correct people at the district trying to find out how IISD stores, organizes, and protects digital data.
Out of the four people that I have tried contacting, only one has contacted me back. I have found out that IISD does a lot to store digital data. This comes as a surprise becuase we have had issues in IISD with breach of confidentiality on teacher's side with financial aspects.
The person that contacted me back dealt with how our district handles secure testing materials with our online curriculum system. Our district specifically makes sure that with our digital data that it is protected. Within our Testing Program each teacher is only able to see only thier students materials. There are sections on the program that also allow for the information of complete school, but with no specific information on any students. Each teacher and student has a specific login and ID that are required to be changed every three months.
Storing our digital data is on a remote server. Confidentiality within our district is important and everything is serviced through passwords.
I was dissapointed in the fact that I tried through multiple channels for days to get the information, but was not available for comment.
Out of the four people that I have tried contacting, only one has contacted me back. I have found out that IISD does a lot to store digital data. This comes as a surprise becuase we have had issues in IISD with breach of confidentiality on teacher's side with financial aspects.
The person that contacted me back dealt with how our district handles secure testing materials with our online curriculum system. Our district specifically makes sure that with our digital data that it is protected. Within our Testing Program each teacher is only able to see only thier students materials. There are sections on the program that also allow for the information of complete school, but with no specific information on any students. Each teacher and student has a specific login and ID that are required to be changed every three months.
Storing our digital data is on a remote server. Confidentiality within our district is important and everything is serviced through passwords.
I was dissapointed in the fact that I tried through multiple channels for days to get the information, but was not available for comment.
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