I honestly learned so much this quarter. Even though we aren't actually in the classroom yet, there has been so much information. I learned about formal vs informal observation, the different types of assessments; pre-assessment, formative, summative and self-assessment. I think the most important thing I took away from this class is the need for alignment. The purpose of assessing students is to make sure that they are learning their learning targets. Formal assessment requires the teacher to record their observations whereas informal is just for them to check on it to adjust their lesson. I also liked the portfolio that we created, it was great experience creating assessments and I found it difficult but rewarding. Again, the alignment was tough for me, the questions have to match the learning targets. I looked back on my own learning experiences and the test questions I remembered, and tried to connect them to what we had been taught. When I was in school I don't ever remember my teachers clearly stating our learning targets, or for that matter reviewing them, I think this is important when giving students an assessment so they know exactly what is expected of them. I'm really looking forward to next quarter, and learning more!

  This week I learned a lot more about differentiated learning. The case studies were fun, coming up with strategies and thinking about the pros and cons for each was a new experience for me. I also enjoyed learning about Universal Design and MTSS. I found our conversation in zoom very helpful, I think it's important to understand that the 3 tier system has more to do with interventions and time in the classroom than whether or not a student has a 504 plan or IEP. Some of those areas on the lesson plan are a little harder to understand, the ones that we didn't always have to fill out, and this week really helped me understand them a little better. 

  I definitely need to work on my lesson plans still. My feedback was a bit of a shock to me. It all makes sense, but I thought that I had done better and it was a bit of a reality check for me. I am still working on alignment and assessments are still a challenge for me. I look forward to even more growth and learning in these areas. It's a journey, not a race! I'm confident we will get there even with all the changes we are experiencing at this time in our lives. 

How are you growing as an educator?

I feel like my knowledge surrounding culturally responsive teaching and assessments has really grown. I am gaining a better understanding of how I need to interact with my students and monitor their learning. I've found this quarter very challenging so far, but also so full of knowledge. I am learning that lesson plans require lots of practice and that it isn't as easy as I thought. 

What do you still need to know to work towards as you continue your growth as an educator?

I definitely need more practice with lesson plans and I really look forward to observing in person teaching. I need to practice my lesson plans, so that I can find things that work and some that don't. I know there is still so much to work on and so much room to grow, but I am looking forward to the rest of this journey. 

• What growth did you experience as a future teacher this week?  

I actually feel as if I experienced tremendous growth! As far as assessments go I really enjoyed a few things from the lecture, I think that it is wonderful that you suggested we work "please" into our directions on tests in order to make students feel less pressure and create a sense of invitation rather than obligation. I also feel like I grasped the concept of formative vs summative assessment. I thought that if it closed a lesson and was measurable it was considered summative, however I understand now that summative is specifically things entered in a grade book and often times not included in lessons. I also taught a lesson to my 4th grade children and then again to peers in other classes and honestly it did so much for me, it helped me see many flaws in the way I wrote the lesson vs how it played out and also gave me many ideas on improvements. 

• What challenges are you facing in your growth as a future teacher?

I am finding myself a little intimidated by the idea of writing assessments and rubrics. The portfolio assignments seem challenging to me. I enjoyed listening and reading about writing good tests and good assessment questions, but since I have not practiced yet, it all feels new and quite foreign still. I also had the pleasure of going to a small Halloween party and observed a child with more energy than I could imagine, he was literally bouncing off the walls and could not sit still. I found myself thinking "what bad behavior," and then I realized I needed to check myself. That is not the perspective I want to bring to the classroom and it really made me stop and think. I am looking forward to further growth and lots more experience!

What areas of growth are you experiencing in regards to assessment?  

    This week has really helped me understand the difference between reliability and validity, and also that both are necessary for an effective assessment. Any assessment can be either, but an effective one must be both. I liked the questions from Wiggins, "the quick and dirty 2 question test of validity" in the lecture, 

1. Could the students do a great job on the task, but not meet the goal of the assessment?

2. Could the students do a poor job on the task, but still prove lots of evidence that they can otherwise meet the goal of the assessment?

    These questions seem like a great way to check the validity of a test, if either is a yes, then it is probably not a valid assessment. 

    I also found it really helpful to learn about assessment bias, I had spent some time learning about bias in regards to culture, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and other aspects of student life, but this was a new thought for me. I learned that this assessment bias can come in many forms, materials, activities, content, processes, and previous knowledge. 

How does your understanding of what you have learned impact your work as an educator?

    I have known that lesson planning is a process, and I assumed assessments were important, but I didn't realize that both of them had so many components. I felt intimidated while reading the book, and again while watching the lecture, however the zoom conference helped me put things in perspective. Both processes take effort and focus, but as we continue to learn and practice, I believe that it will just become a routine for us, the goal is to get it right from the start so that we always produce quality work. 

    As far as assessment bias goes, I am so grateful that these things are being taught to us, I think it is beyond important that we all learn to be self-reflective and aware, this week certainly highlighted that for me!

    

Blog #3

1. How did you grow as a teacher this module?

 I feel that I have grown in my understanding of how to write lesson plans, and why specific steps in the process are necessary. In the reading, they talked about standards, benchmarks, goals and learning targets and some of the differences between those. They also went over blooms taxonomy and how as educators we need to keep the different steps in mind when writing our lesson plan. We aren't simply giving them information and hoping they remember, we need to make sure that they are comprehending, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating their knowledge. The chapter also talked about gathering evidence based information on our students and the ways to go about that. We can use different observational techniques, questioning, student work, and more to assess learning. 

    It seems to me that there is a lot that goes into teaching, and I always knew that, but now I feel like I am gaining an understanding of how to accomplish many of those things and breaking some of the tasks down into more manageable processes. 

2. What goals do you have around lesson planning that you want to focus on as you move through the program?

    I would like to focus on deconstructing the standards still, I need to become more familiar with the process. I also want to learn how to integrate some of the higher level thinking from blooms taxonomy. I think familiarizing myself with the entire lesson planning process is a goal or focus of mine, I'm a firm believer in practice makes perfect and mistakes are really new opportunities to learn and grow. 

Blog #2

 1.    On a personal level how do I feel about standards?

    At first I thought the standards were quite intimidating, there are a lot of them, and some of them are just jam packed with content. Once we learned how to unpack them and I realized that they are end of the year goals meant to be learned over many smaller lessons, I felt a lot less intimidated. I think that it is necessary to have standards, I also think that it's important for them to be nationwide, everyone deserves an education and an equitable one at that. National standards mean that everyone will at least receive that basic level of education and so far what I see looks great. I am excited to dig deeper and learn more. 

2.  As a future teacher, how do I view content learning standards?

    As a future teacher I view content learning standards as the basic goals that we as teachers need to accomplish with our lesson plans, they are the minimum knowledge that our students need to attain by the end of the school year. I view them as a great tool to build our lessons around along with our districts curriculum. I like guidance, I don't want to "fly blind" as the article stated. For me personally it is reassuring to know exactly what direction I am to take my students in. 

3.  What did I learn about deconstructing standards and how confident am I about being able to do so?

    I learned that there is a verb or multiple verbs, in every standard and that is the process we want to teach; analyze, predict, compare, contrast, demonstrate, model, and so on. We don't want them to simply "understand," or "learn." We need to actually see that they can understand, a measurable way for them to demonstrate that understanding. I learned that standards aren't just taught in one lesson, we deconstruct them so we can make multiple lessons because they often contain many things a student is required to understand before they can actually meet that standard. I also learned that we have to deconstruct the standards because there is implied knowledge in there as well. In order for the students to identify plot and setting, they first need to know what those words mean. For students to demonstrate knowledge of decimals, they first need to understand place value. This week helped me become much more confident in deconstructing standards, though I know I still need some work!