10.17

Today we started class by discussing upcoming assignments.  We have a newsletter and brochure due at the end of the month.  We practiced making out own newsletter and then looked at others'.  This is a super useful skill to know because it is a very easy and catchy way to communicate with parents.  It is quick and easy and if done well, it will draw parents' eyes to important information.  Moreover, we watched three presentations of websites which are useful to use as a teacher. I really like the idea of using flickr in the classroom because most students are drawn to pictures.  The more pictures I can show in my class, the more interested they will be in the lesson. Visualization also helps them understand and learn the information.

10.10

Today we discussed our Web 2.0 projects.  We have to select from a premade list a single website that we will present to the class through a powerpoint presentation.  We watched an example of a video that another person made about a bookmarking website.  We learned about the factors that must be considered to make a good powerpoint. This is very important because I will use powerpoints in my classroom and it will need to keep the students' attention, but not distract them from the lesson.
Next, we learned about giving the presentation.  It is important to keep students attention and not insult them by reading what is on the slides.
We made our own powerpoints to display our understanding of the important aspects of making powerpoints.

Excel Spreadsheet

Today we learned some some useful tools in Microsoft Excel.  We learned how to make grade books and turn them into different graphs.  When fluent with the program, this can be a very important and useful tool.    It is a good way to keep students' grades neat and organized.  When using the spreadsheet grades can easily be changed and distributed to parents and students.  They can also be charted to see students shortcomings on tests, topics, and individual questions.  With this information the teacher can focus his or her attention on where the most students struggled. For example if all the students did fairly well on a specific test but the graph shows one question with very low marks, that question may be erroneous.  Likewise, if a single student's bar on the class' graph is lower than his or her classmates, that student may need extra help. Over the course of the class I will be able to see whether or not low scores are consistent. If they are, it would indicate a learning disability or other factors leading to low achievement.  I would definitely need to meet with the student in private.

10.3

Today we discussed standards and how to hold teachers accountable for their students.  We discussed formative and summative assessments.  Neither of these, do I feel, are appropriate measures of teacher success.  When a student comes into 9th grade at a 5th grade reading level and leaves at an 8th grade level, the test will reflect failure onto that teacher. However, that is a very successful teacher.  Other classes that pass the end of the year test may not have had as much progress as that teacher.  Instead, we must look at progress made over the course of the year.  To do this would mean more work for everyone involved, but accuracy and accountability would improve drastically.  We must use graphs and charts to display progress made, NOT end of the year skills.   We also briefly discussed the CORE standards which will be put in place soon.  No Child LEft Behind was also mentioned.