Technology

Over the summer I took EDTC 300 in which I learned about a variety of websites and other gadgets to help engage students.

Twitter– this is both helpful for students and teachers. There are hashtags and pages that share teacher resources and can make a community of teachers from all around the world. Twitter can also be used as a great summary resource. This teacher used twitter as an exit slip to make sure students were summarizing the main learning points of the lesson.

Local libraries– there are so many resources available to people with a library card. Library cards are free within the province of Saskatchewan, and a local library card works at every public library across the province and online. Applications such as Libby can open up the classroom library to a place that was not even possible.

Storyboard That– this is an online story board website. This can be used for brainstorming, especially when writing a story or creating a script.

 Digital Flash cards– these websites can help students practice their information and gives another formative assessment for teachers. It is very beneficial for EAL students who are still learning the language alongside all of the other information they are learning. It also allows for audio and video recording for those who need to.

Assessment

I love to do small formative assessments at during my closures just to see how much students understood from the lesson. This website has a great list of closure/ quick assessment ideas.

My coop teacher has students correct their own work many times, which gives the students a chance to provide their own feedback and understand where they need to improve on next time.

The class still has tests, primarily for math units, but there are other techniques she uses.

Assessment as learning

Within my field experience I did a lot of group work. This is both helpful and harmful because students get to share their ideas but it is harder to know if all the students are understanding the information. To make sure that I am assessing all students, I ask a question to a different student every time I pass their group. If a student is struggling to understand a topic I will as one of their peers to explain it to them (while I am still present just in case they do not say the right thing), this shows me that both of those students now have an understanding of the topic.

Assessment for learning

I was doing this primarily during my lessons to see where students are at when I begin the lesson and where they are when the lesson ends.

For this I use

• Entrance and exit slips
• KWL charts
• Whip it (classroom discussion where students through a ball to each other to answer the questions)
• Having short worksheet in which the students correct their own

Summative/assessment of learning

I have found that I prefer jigsaw style of activities for students to show their understanding. Students will do presentations and artist projects to show their understanding.

• Real world examples
• Plays or acting it out
• Presentation
• Art piece that connects to their identity or an outcome