11/18/2012

"Using the web to teach yourself something"

I chose how to make the 'perfect' brownies. I started on my Pinterest page because I knew I had some different recipes on there. It was easy, there were tons to pick from. I picked one from a guy's blog. He even had a Youtube video to watch if the instructions weren't clear enough. He claimed in would take two minutes to make them, which wasn't how long it took me.. I had to go get the supplies and then preheating the oven took a while. I could comment back on his blog about how the brownies turned out, if I had any suggestions for the recipes, if I had any ideas for making his instructions more clear. I could use this for student learning purposes. They can learn about lots of things from class on their own. In the lesson plan, I had them look up information about the dissection. I could use it to teach myself things as technology advances so I don't fall behind. I could also find lots of ideas for lesson plans online.



How to Make Perfect Brownies by Drew Hime available at http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2009/07/how-to-make-perfect-brownies/  

11/3/2012

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may07/vol64/num08/Assessment-Through-the-Student%27s-Eyes.aspx

This article is about using assessment to help students instead of it just being another mark in the grade book. Some students get on a winning streak where they do good on a test and they continue to do well. On the other hand some students fail which discourages them and then they continue to fail. One thing it mentioned was showing your expectations through examples of excellent student work. This way students know what you are expecting so they can work towards that. I remember a few different classes where there assignments that I wasn't sure what the teacher wanted me to do so I did what I thought he/she wanted and I didn't get as high of a grade as I expected. I think if I would have got an example I would have done a lot better.

I liked the part that said you aren't going to keep all failure from happening but you are trying to keep it from happening twice in a row. You can find what the student failed on and correct it. The steps were setting your students up for success and turning failure into success.  I think it is important that your tests aren't just a regurgitation of material.