Field Trip

Earlier in the semester, I participated in the field trip to Hodges Library to attend a lecture from Barb Rentenbach. Barb is an author advocating for people who have Autism. What is more remarkable is that Barb has Autism herself, and requires assistance with communicating, among other things. I was blown away by what I heard in the lecture. During the lecture, Barb sat in the front row, interacting with those around her while her assistant told us about Barb and her book. We all read excerpts from the book, and let me just say, Barb is hilarious. Her jokes were mostly pointed to Autism itself, which I found odd at first, but I realized that she was trying to point out that she is above Autism. I think she wants people to know that having Autism doesn't label her, it empowers her. She wanted to make it known to the world that people can live with Autism, and other disorders, and they can thrive.

I have been working at a facility for children with Autism for almost three years. This was my first exposure to Autism, and it changed my mind about those people who have to live with it. They're just people who sometimes think differently than I do. The children that I work with have many difficulties coping with their emotions and daily tasks. As a staff, I constantly remind them that they can accomplish those tasks, and that they can learn to cope with their anger/sadness/etc. Reading some of Barb's book was another eye opener for me. Now, I can tell the children that I work with, and the children in my future classroom, that they can live with Autism and they can become as successful as they want to be.

Assessment

Here are some of my ideas that could be used for each type of assessment, as Ormrod has listed.

Informal Assessment: Class discussion/questions. For this type of assessment, a discussion between the teacher and the students can allow for the teacher to assess what the students already know about a topic, or how they are progressing. The only drawback to this idea is that there are many students who are anxious or shy about speaking in front of others, so the teacher could not efficiently assess their knowledge of the topic in this way.
Formal Assessment: This could be an end-of-chapter test. The students would know when the test is coming, and could prepare for it.
Traditional Assessment: A traditional assessment would be useful in many classrooms and for many students. For the most part, students know what to expect on these types of exams. In Language Arts, I could assess my students by having them correct sentences, or writing their own. In Reading, I could have them read a passage, then have them answer questions related to the passage.
Authentic Assessment: An authentic assessment could be anything applied to a real-life situation and could be used in any classroom. For my class, either Language Arts or Reading, I could have the students write a letter to a friend/family member, using the appropriate grammar/spelling rules in Language Arts. In Reading, I could have them write a short story using a list of vocabulary words.
Paper-pencil Assessment: For this type of assessment, an in-class assignment or homework could allow the teacher to assess the student in a written way. The students would be presented with a series of questions/problems relating to the topic, and they would respond by writing the answers down or working out the problem (showing their work).
Performance Assessment: Oral exams/presentations would be the best way to assess students in a Language Arts or Foreign Language class. In Reading, the students could be asked to read aloud. In any subject, the students can practice peer-teaching while the teacher observes.
Standardized test: The standardized tests would be the Gateway exams, TCAPS, and the writing assessments in 7th and 11th grade. These grades would stay with the student throughout their educational journey.
Teacher-developed assessment: This type of assessment would be less stressful for the students because the impact would be significantly less than the TCAPS. The environment would be a familiar one, as they come to class regularly, and they would feel more comfortable taking the test.
Criterion-referenced assessment: This type of assessment allows the teacher to know how much the student(s) has mastered the topic/subject. This could be an end-of-chapter test, or it could be an end-of-course exam.
Norm-referenced assessment: This type of assessment compares the results of one student to the results of peers. This could be in a classroom, nationwide, or even worldwide. In a classroom, the benefit to using this would be to see how far behind or ahead the students are.

Ch. 7: Apply and Evaluate

Reading through Ormrod's textbook, I found two quotes that piqued my interest. Taking these quotes and thinking about them with Bloom's taxonomy, I came up with the following:

Quote #1: "Transfer increases when the cultural environment encourages and expects transfer." (pg. 265)

• If cultural  environment discourages instead of encourages transfer, how can we as teachers expect our students to learn the topic?
• The topic that came to mind here was evolution and the Big Bang Theory. Science classes are required to teach these topics to students, but the Christian religion strongly discourages these concepts. If the student believes one thing to be true, whatever the topic may be, how can we expect our learners to actively engage in the topic?

Quote #2: "How students encode a problem influences their approach in trying to solve it." (pg. 269)

• Worded problems can be difficult to "encode"; it is sometimes difficult to really determine what the question is asking. How can students avoid this obstacle, especially during test taking?
• The most common occurrence for this example would be in a math lesson. A word problem requires reading skills and comprehension of the question and the material.
• Sometimes, a question on a test might include words that the student does not understand which will make that student misinterpret the question.
• How can we help students to understand what the question is asking? How can they feel prepared in answering the question?

Motivation

I feel like motivation is one of the most important things to consider when taking on a classroom full of "eager" children. I'm trying to prepare myself as best as I can to enter into a middle school classroom. The middle grades is when self-worth starts becoming more and more important to each student, and it definitely effects how they learn and react to specific tasks. I think improving self-worth in my classroom is going to be a big obstacle, especially in these grades. I would really like to learn different techniques that would help me to enhance self-worth for each of my students. 

Perhaps one way to do this is to help them to succeed in class each day, and therefore improving their competence and self-worth. As we saw in class today, a little competition can go a long way, especially when food is involved. I've always been a fan of in-class trivia games; it fuels my competitive side and allows me to work better with my peers as a team. Participating in these kind of games allows each student to trust their peers a little more. I am also an advocate of extrinsic motivators like candy/cookies/ice cream. While I believe that intrinsic motivation is more important, it is also okay to be extrinsically motivated. Take Ed Psych for example: I enjoy this class on many levels. I feel that I'm learning a lot already, and I am genuinely interested in each topic (so far). However, I also understand that this is a required class for my degree and that I must succeed in it to gain the ultimate prize: a job.

So we, as teachers, need to be careful about the tasks we assign. "Busy-work" is one of the biggest ways to make me feel as if I'm not being challenged, and if I'm not being challenged, what's the point of paying attention in class? If a student believes that a task is too hard, then they will not push themselves to complete it; I know because I've done this many times. On the other hand, if the task is too easy, a student might believe that they are better than the work I have assigned and may choose not to complete it. We need to find a good balance between fun activities and educational ones.

Introduction

       After the first class meeting, I am genuinely excited to jump into this semester. By the end of this course, I hope to recognize my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. With my previous experience, I feel like I know some of those things already, but I'm ready to see how that will carry over to a teaching position. One of my weaknesses that I hope to overcome is my shyness. In class, I discussed how I struggle to speak in front of my peers. This is more prevalent particularly during presentations and class discussions.
      I am very interested to know the kind of tools that I might be using/learning to better myself as a teacher. I would really like learn different ways to keep my students engaged in a class period. One of my former teachers once said that the average attention span of a college student was around 30 minutes. I can imagine it being the same, or less, with students in the middle grades. I'd really like to learn different techniques to use on different types of students that age. I want to be as efficient as possible.