Chapters 11 and 12

After reading chapter 11 and 12, I would like to inform you of my thoughts on the materials I have just read. I will inform you on the connection that I have with these two chapters, of the new ideas that I got from reading these chapters and of what I think will be challenging for me to do in the classroom.

First, I made a connection with the teacher assessments and performance evaluations (p.278). I am all for evaluating the students to see how much they have learned in a particular subject. Students and teacher should be held to a higher standard. I have issues with a teacher performance evaluation being based on the assessment of the students. Their jobs could depend on this evaluation of the students learning ability. What if the student does not want to learn and has been disruptive for the majority of the year? Why is the teacher performance evaluation based on the performance of a student that may not put any effort?

   

Second, it is not a new idea but, it is something that I have witnessed firsthand in a science classroom. On p. 288, the text talks about reasons for teaching with clickers. The students were working on a science activity that required a lot of reading. So the students were becoming bored with the lesson and not staying on tack. The teacher began handing out the blue clickers and the students had no idea what the clickers were going to be used for, but they began to pay attention. Then the teacher announced that they had to complete the assignment. But instead of writing the answer on regular notebook paper, they were to input there answer with the clicker which showed on the overhead projector. The students loved it and they were almost immediately engaged again in the assignment. This was a great way to open up the interaction with a game like activity.

Lastly, something that I think will be challenging to me would be involving student in learning through feedback. On p. 294 it talks about asking the students for their feedback so that they can feel a part of something. It also talked about BYOD (Bring your own device to school). This is something that will be challenging to me, allowing the students to have a cell phone out in class. The students will often say they are using the phone to research some things, but in all reality they are on Facebook or some other unauthorized website.

Yes Mr. Groce, I am just doing research...(Yeah right)

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.