Importance of Assessments!

Assessment is the means to determine a student’s mastery and understanding of the information, skills, concepts, or processes.

Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, and curriculum.  There are three types of assessments: formative, diagnostic, and summative.  There are many components to assessments such as feedback (from teachers, schools, and school systems), evaluation/progress, and student and teacher friendly.  It is to follow the student's progress throughout the year by giving information about the student's strengths and weaknesses, and the provision of opportunities to revise or do further learning.

Assessment is not just a matter of grading.  They grade a student's prior knowledge before new content without difficultly to analyze or understand.

What assessments should do: 
Assessment should bring about benefits for children. Gathering accurate information from young children is difficult and potentially stressful. Assessments must have a clear benefit—either in direct services to the child or in improved quality of educational programs.

In The College Classroom

Even though it is a completely different learning experience than at Bishop Dunn, learning in the college classroom I find helpful as we all share ideas with each other.  I also feel that the PowerPoint we go through during the class help me memorize (for example) the different types of assessments and what they contain.  
+Learning all together.
+Sharing ideas and concerns.
+Working as a class.
Wish: Not so much work in a short period of time.

Skyping For Peace- Article Review

I enjoyed the article review assignment as it opened my mind to new teaching strategies and techniques.  The article I read was about students Skyping with other students from different countries to share experiences in learning.  I felt that this was a great idea because the students were engaged in the lesson and enjoyed the experience.  When the students skyped with other children across the world, it opened their eyes to how different cultures, education, etc is everywhere.

Award Ceremony

  For our last lesson, my group and I hosted an award ceremony for the companies to reward their hard work.  We made certificates for the companies for "Best Costume", "Best Animated Film", "Most Cooperative", etc.  The students were all so excited for the awards celebration and acted as if they were real like movie stars.  Aside from some technical difficulties in showing the movies, it was a success! The companies were also given a trophy with their certificate.  BizMovie taught the students new vocabulary words, how to work together, how a company works overall, and much more!  I do believe that the students enjoyed the experience and learned from it.  I would use BizMovie again in the future when I become a teacher.

Movie Making Time!

For my second lesson, our group started the lesson with a quick review of the vocabulary words with words associated with their companies.  Due to lack of time, we soon began filming our movies! My group worked well together as they were focused and stayed engaged in the lesson, because they felt like movie stars and played the part.  The group members and I recorded the students voices as they stated their lines.  To put the movie together, we used still pictures and their voices that we recorded.  The students came dressed in costume and excited for the movie making.  With time and effort, the movie was completed and ready to be presented at the award ceremony.

Now It's My Time (March 11, 2013)

Today was my first time teaching the 4th grade class with my group in front of the class.  I believe that it went very well and I feel comfortable and confident with my lesson!  My group and I started teaching the 4th grade class new vocabulary terms relating to the funding of their companies (starting with the words Asset, Debt, Balance Sheet, etc.)  The students were not as engaged/enthuasiatic as I would have liked them to be, but they still understood the new terms and were able to use them in sentences as we asked them to do.  After introducing the new vocabulary, we assigned the students to continue working on their movie scripts and begin filming the movies.  My group, in particular, was not ready for the "movie making" part as our script is not yet finished.  We will begin the filming the next time we meet. :) 

Ready, Set, Action!

  As the time approaches for my group to teach, I can't help but think (over Spring Break), of what to do, and what not to do when teaching the 4th grade students.  I have seen all my other classmates go and I feel that has definitely prepared me for the experience.  My group and I will continue to work with BizMovie (that the students love) and will begin to wrap up the lesson! Our group will focus on reviewing vocabulary that they have previously learned, wrapping up ideas, and making the movies!

Acting Out The Commercials!

 On Wednesday, our companies acted out their commercials for their movies.  The students were excited to dress up and be movie stars for the day!  My group, in particular, finally worked together and enjoyed this session!  It is great to see the students agreeing on decisions and having fun while learning at the same time!

Here are some pictures from the experience: