Rubrics

Last week in class we talked about the rubrics that Mr. Simon has added to the my grades section of our Marshall Online account. For me, this is the only teacher that had ever made rubrics for every piece of work that we will be handing in. Personally I really like the rubrics because when you are working on something you can refer back to the rubric to decide whether to add or subtract something from your work. Many teachers just dont add rubrics to anything, or at least one that students see, because they are just lazy or dont have the time. I think that if teachers would begin to integrate rubrics, a little at a time, into their class room than students would do much better at the task at hand. Here is a website, called RubiStar.com, that anyone can go to and fill in the information boxes and it will generate a rubric for you. This would be a good thing to use in our unit plan, one could include that rubric that they might use to evaluate their students.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Here are some examples of rubrics that could be used for the elementary grades:

Hands On Assessment

We had our first Hand On Assessment last week in class. I was very impressed with this assessment. I have never had one like it in any of my classes. This is a very good way to assess students progress throughout the course so far. Thank goodness it wasn't a multiple choice or essay type test. Most of the professors here at Marshall only use essay or multiple choice test. I really like this hands on test because we were able to create anything we wanted as long as it followed the guide lines. This let us use our imaginations and prove that we know the information. A hands on assessment is a great way to break things up in classroom and to give the students a break from the standard multiple choice test.

Here is a link to a lesson plan where a teacher uses hands on assessments:

http://www.coe.uh.edu/archive/sstudies/sstudies_lessons/ssles5/lessonplans.html

It a teacher was teaching electric circuits to students a great hands on assessment is to use this kit book:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kitbook.com/uploads/images/teacher%25201a%2520(400%2520x%2520267).jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kitbook.com/index.php%3Fpage%3Dteachers&usg=__9XnsemHCHcALGo-PIp4dQo0-uV8=&h=267&w=400&sz=37&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=WmzeotMgxfaTGM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dteacher%252Bhands%2Bon%2Btest%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

YouTube and TeacherTube

YouTube and TeacherTube are very well know around the world. Many people use these sites to post videos of stupid things that they have done. But others use it as a learning tool. We watched the video of the 44 Presidents last class, that is something that could be helpful to students to learn the presidents. TeacherTube is a great thing for teachers to integrate into their classroom with 21st century learning. Having the student video themselves and put it on the internet gives them a sense of accomplishment. You can also set it up to only certain people can see your video. Like if you only want the parents of children in your class room to see the video they made, than you can do it. Here are a few links to videos:

44 Presidents - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITdakRPwI-U

Toolkit?

What is in our tool kit? Well, there are many things that consist of the tool kit. Some are: user generated content, wikis, blogs, social networking, mobile connectivity, web standards and peer-to-peer. One might ask...how does one keep track of all of this? The answer is simple. You could use netvibes or igoogle to customize your content. Soshiku is great for someone to keep track of their assignments. Or even use 30boxes, a free calendar that you can share with others, it's also ad free! If you want to use an office application to keep track of everything try using google docs or Zoho, which works on your mobile device.





http://www.soshiku.com/- use this to keep track of assignments

Here is an example of what igoogle looks like:

21st Century Education

I think that 21st education is a great thing for students and teachers. It gives us, as new educators, more options and ways to teach students. No longer do they want our classroom to be teacher based but student based. This will give the student more opportunities to learn and ask questions. Instead of being text book driven we now need to be research driven. Give students the opportunity to go to a computer and research the topic they are learning about. I am very glad that they want us as teachers to move outside of the classroom with desks and chairs in rows. We should take advantage of different styles of rooms and the outside environment. My favorite thing about 21st century learning is that the students get the chance more often to work in groups. I think that this is the best thing a teacher can do for their students. As students they will learn from each other and take away new knowledge that they might now have known before.
Here is West Virginia's vision for using 21st century skills:












Here is a link to a list of 21st century standards:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.marshall.edu/harless/images/rainbow.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.marshall.edu/harless/president/21st/&usg=__vnQcLq09LuRbgctT8__ktEO3DnM=&h=320&w=500&sz=26&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=r4Mqt_1EPFdFJM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3D21st%2Bcentury%2Beducation%26ndsp%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Shopping List:
Bread
Eggs
Caprisun
Bagel Bites
Pizza
Noodles
Italian Dressing

Registration for Spring Classes

This is the most hectic time in a college students life. I hate having to register for classes at the end of the fall and spring semesters. Usually before I even get a chance to register all of the classes that I need are filled up. I have no clue what I am going to do for the spring semester ahead of me!