I Think I'll Put My Thinking Cap On For This One!

This week in classes involved a lot of thinking, in my opinion. The first reading that I read on moodle involved the topic of assessment. It was a good read for me because it refreshed my memory on the types of assessment and the different methods of going about assessing children to find out what they have learned as a result of the teacher teaching. The internet also has a lot of resources to help a college student understand assessment. The link provided is a slideshow from slideshare.net that talks about assessment. This slideshow helped me to even further understand assessment and how it is being used in the 21st century.

I also read about Models, Strategies, and Methods. From reading the chapter I was able to give my own definitions of the following words:

Model- The broadest approaches to teaching (Behavioural, Information Processing, Social Interaction, and Personal).

Strategy- A set of steps that the teacher needs to follow in order to reach a goal.

Method- The most specific way of implementing a strategy.

Skills- are the learned capacities in order to carry out pre-determined results.

These four words are very important when it comes to teaching, in my opinion.

Lastly, this week i learned about the differences between aims, goals, and objectives. I got to work on formulating my own objectives using the Mount Saint Mary College's CBC format. I have to admit this is something I struggle with. I did feel that the more practice I had formulating objectives, the better I was becoming at it. Some of the objetives I formulated were:

1. Given twenty cubes, the student will practice counting by fives, with no error.

2. Given a microscope, the student will examine two slides, writing atleast five differences between the two in their science journals.

3. Given pictures of the planets, the student will create a poster, displaying the planets in correct order.

Overall, I walked away from the second week learning a lot and I am excited for the weeks to come.

Born to Teach, Eager to Learn

This week I was one of four volunteers to teach the class about Direct Instruction and the Behavioural Model with Dr. Smirnova. The process was time consuming but enjoyable. I enjoyed meeting with Dr. Smirnvoa and my team mates on the computer to discuss the roles that would be assigned to each person. I decided I wanted to add more to the slides that were provided, so I added two videos (video 1 and video 2) and group work.

On the day of the presentation I felt pretty confident about the material and what I was going to have the class do but, I decided to meet with Dr. Smirnova anyway to be sure that I was all set to go.

Overall, I wanted the class to enjoy the presentation and I wanted to engage them in learning more about direct instruction and involve them as much as possible. I think it is important to do these things when you are teaching a class because it helps the student to learn and makes it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

When we finished the presentation I got to see some of the feedback that was posted on moodle from my peers. Most of it was positive which made me very happy. I did agree that the group needed to be louder and go a little bit slower because the class was trying to take notes. For me personally I wish I had spoken a little bit slower.

I had the time of my life being able to teach. Something happens to me when I am up in front of the classroom. I am usually such a shy person but when I am teaching it makes me feel like someone else. It is the most fun and enjoyable experience to be in front of the classroom speaking and it is even more amazing when you know that your peers have walked away from it learning something.