My Access

My Access is an awesome program to use in the classrooms. I think that this program will really help the students to improve in their written assignments. I am sure that most students would love to be able to use this program to write their essays. This program is great because it helps the students in the process of writing, from the first step of organization, until the last step of giving them a feedback of how well they did by just submitting the essay. When I used it to write my essay, I was a little unsure of what to write, so when I submitted my essay I got a low score. However, when I used the program to revise the essay, I used the prewriting features which in a way guided me in how to write the essay. The amazing thing of it was that when I finished the prewriting, it was posted on the space of the essay. This is great because you do not lose your time rewriting what you just wrote. Actually when I submitted the essay the second time, I noticed that there was an improvement in the score. This program has many features to assist the writers such as a word bank that suggests the use of vocabulary that makes the essay more meaningful. The program is wonderful and if I would have the opportunity of using this program in the classroom, I will welcome it because it is such a great innovation, which most students and teachers would love.

Technology in the Classroom

I do agree with the integration of technology in the classroom because in the society where we are living today, technology has become part of our lives. Students need to be prepared for the use of technology in their daily lives.
I think that in the classroom, there should be a combination of technology and traditional education, where the teacher not only is able to use some sort of technology, but also he/she takes his/her time to use the board and explain a lesson.

I feel that teachers and students should not be too dependent on technology either. It is not that technology is going to go away, well maybe, who knows, but I think that it is necessary to gain some skills without being so dependent on the available technology. For example, in a math class is important that students know how to use a calculator, but it is also important that they can actually do simple math like addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication without depend on a calculator to do all the “thinking” for them.

At the same time, teachers need to know how to apply the technology in the classroom. There are good teachers who teach terrible using technology, while there are teachers who teach fine with the use of technology. PowerPoint is very popular in the classroom. However, there are some teachers who teach using long PowerPoint presentations, which sometimes are boring. While there are other teachers who use PowerPoint, but their presentations are interesting and encourage the students to learn.

Teachers should be aware of the different ways that their students learn. Therefore they should use that information to modify their classrooms. The same method of teaching does not work for all the students, for example, for me to learn math I have to see where the numbers or letters are coming from. I just don’t like to copy what it is appearing in the slide and then have no clue where everything is coming from. I prefer the traditional teacher who writes on the board and at the same time explains me where the numbers are coming from and what they mean. I have been in classrooms where students use the time to copy the PowerPoint presentations, while the teacher is explaining. For me it is very difficult to pay attention, while I am trying to copy all the written material. That is how some students feel in the classroom, they want to copy all the notes, but did they learn something? Well maybe there are students who can copy and listen at the same time, but that is a technique that does not work for all the students.

I had also experienced being in classrooms where the teacher gives the students time to copy the notes and then he/she explains it. If the teacher gives students some time to copy the information and then he/she explains it, it might be a more effective technique. In this way the students are going to have good notes for reference, but also they can concentrate more in the point that the teacher is trying to explain without being distracted by trying to finish writing down the information from the PowerPoint. There are many ways to modify a classroom using technology. Technology is a very useful tool, but teachers need to know how to use it in their classroom. They should use it to do class more interesting, not boring and stressful.

Homework

Some students have a very negative view about homework. They think that homework is boring, takes time and is not worth doing it. Some students do homework because is mandatory, but they do not see another reason beyond that. Yes, I had been in the position where I have felt stressed about doing homework, especially when I have many classes and each teacher assigns a different homework and all of them are due the same day. However, homework is more than a grade because it helps students remember the material covered in class. The purpose of doing homework is to learn, remember material, practice the skills learned, but also do mistakes and learn from them. I feel that homework is important and I can tell this from previous experiences. For me, mathematics and homework have a special link. In high school and in college, I took math classes that were challenging. The only way that I could tell whether or not I knew how to apply the material learned in class was by doing the homework. If I was able to do the math problems assigned for homework, it was a good sign that I understood what was going on in class. However, if I had too many difficulties then, I knew where the weaknesses were. Any class can become a challenge, however if students would practice what they learned everyday, life would be a lot easier for them especially when they have to take tests.

Homework is meaningful when students do it not when they copy it. Students who copy homework do not learn anything. Yes, some students see only the side of getting a grade for whatever assignment they have to do, but what about the knowledge they can get from doing it?

Homework is very important, but teachers also have to consider the amount of homework that they assign to their students. Some students hate doing homework because that is what they do all afternoon long after they leave school. Some teachers just give too much homework. Yes, students need to practice the new skills, but that does not mean spend all the free time after school doing homework. Then that is just like living in school. Students need to be constantly practicing what they learned, but they also need to rest in order to perform well in class the next day. Otherwise, the lack of rest has consequences in the classroom the next day. Some students go to class too tired, and they barely pay attention in class.

At the same time, teachers should go over the homework. If students do their homework, but teachers do not check it that is not meaningful. Teachers need to let the students know their mistakes because that is the only way students are going to learn.

Students need to remember that homework is just a practice of what they just learned in class and "Practice is the best of all instructors" (Publilius Syrus).

Rubrics

Rubrics are tools that teachers use to grade students. Some of the advantages of rubrics are that they help students to know what the teachers expect in the assignments. Rubrics help students recognize their strengths and weaknesses in their assignments. Rubrics are good tools to grade students because students know where the grades come from, and it gives fewer chances for arbitrary grades. For example, if a teacher is going to grade an essay, he or she needs to know what he/she is looking for in this assignment. It is going to be easier and fairer, if he/she has a rubric rather than just look at an essay and give a grade. Because what happens if she/he just graded an essay, but the next essay it is of a better quality than the previous one?

When I understood the purpose of rubrics, I started appreciating them. I understood what the teachers expected in the assignments, which helped me achieve better grades. I spent more time in the areas which really mattered. As a future educator, I am considering in using rubrics to grade my students.

I found this article, What Students Say About Rubrics where students gave their opinions about rubrics. It is interesting to see that students think that rubrics help them to improve in their assignments. However there are some students who say that "They're (rubrics) not always easy to understand." One of the things that I will consider is the grade level of the students. I do agree that sometimes, there are teachers who give students rubrics to follow, but the students do not have idea of what these rubrics are asking them to do. I will take my time to explain my students what I want in an assignment, but also I will transmit the message according to their grade level.

http://www.middleweb.com/CSLB2CubRub.html

Fairness in Assessment

I found this article, Fairness in Assessment, which highlight the issue of whether it is fair to grade students at the same level or should it be considered the cultural background a factor that might affect the performance of the students. This article, talks specifically about students who are non-native English speakers. Well I am a non-native English speaker, and for me one of the hardest parts of learning English was writing because you cannot translate the language. If you do that, then, it is going to be grammatically incorrect and is not going to make sense at all. It is like adapting yourself to writing in a new fashion. I still have some doubts when writing in English and I am always careful with my grammar. I try to do my best to sound as good as possible when I speak and write. Therefore, sometimes it is a double work, the first part it is putting all my ideas together in English, and the second part is trying to correct the grammatically mistakes that I might had done unconsciously because is a new language, a new culture, a new fashion.

So what is the role of the teacher? Should he/she consider that those students who are non-native English speakers are in disadvantage while writing essays? Should the teacher be harder when grading a native English speaker? I feel that these questions are difficult to answer because the teachers need to be fair with all the students. So what are we talking about when we talk about being fair? Also a truth fact that it is mentioned in this article is that most of the time students compare their works and grades. So what happens if two students think that they did a similar work, but they achieved different grades? This happens all the time in schools, so what can we do to explain them this issue about cultural background difference?

http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~smx/PGCHE/fairness.html

What is Assessment?

When I think of assessment, the first thing in my mind is a test. The simple word test makes me nervous because I feel the pressure of performing one hundred percent even though sometimes I don’t perform well. I think that tests do not prove that students know something. From my experience taking tests, I know that tests are not good evaluators. Sometimes I prepare myself for the tests by memorizing the material, word by word without understanding its meaning and then I have no idea of what I “learned.” The purpose of learning is to understand not memorize, but many students do no find other options to pass with good grades, therefore they just memorize information that they will not be able to apply in the future.

I guess that that is one of the reasons why I prefer math, because with math I know I cannot memorize information. Of course you need to memorize the formulas although you need to understand them in other to apply them. On the other hand, English scares me sometimes because is my second language. I remember memorizing vocabulary words for quizzes or tests, but these words meant nothing because if I memorized them it did not mean that I was actually learning them. Many teachers rely on vocabulary quizzes where students write definitions, but this does not necessarily prove that these students know these words.

Assessments remind me of the standardized tests given by the government, which supposedly show how much students know and what they don’t. First of all they are surprise tests. The teacher can teach you anything that might or might not be on the test, but if it is a surprise you have a chance of passing or failing. At the same time, some students do not do well on these tests because they get too anxious. No everyone is good test taker.

There are other ways to evaluate how much students know and is not just by taking tests. They can do projects where they can use their creativity, while at the same time, they are learning new things. Assessments help teachers to know whether students are learning something or not, it is a feedback. Students can have fun while doing assessments. There are creative projects where students can work as individuals or in groups. Assessments do not have to be boring, but they should be methods to encourage students to seek for more knowledge to build their own futures.

Introduction about Myself

Hello everyone!!! My name is Wendy. I am a junior at Saint Peter’s College. I am double majoring in Elementary Education and Biology. Well yes, the Biology is the toughest major of the two because I have to take chemistry. After my experience in the Sophomore Field, I feel that I would like to teach second grade. I loved all the students they were all very cute, and I still miss them! However, I am undecided about whether being an elementary school teacher, or being a middle school teacher. I am considering in taking extra classes to obtain a certification in mathematics.