Week 2 SCED 330 and EDUC 410

Overview: 

This week in EDU 410 we discussed assessments, what they are and why they are important, as well as Laws and policies that govern us as teachers. In Science Methods we looked at phenomena and we have been working on building ecocolumns. This was also our first week at work. So we have gotten to meet our students and get the new year started there.

EDU 410

Like I mentioned we discussed assessments in class this week. Assessments are tools we use to find out how much our students know and understand from what we are teaching. There are formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are done as you are teaching to find out if students are getting it, these provide you with information that helps you decide if you need to change the way you are teaching the material. Summative assessments are given after you are done teaching all of the material. Standard 4h from the NCTCS pays close attention to assessment and how teachers should use them. We also learned about laws and policies, including federal and state. These laws and policies tell us what we can and cannot do as well as what we are required to do in the education system.

Science Methods

On Tuesday in Science methods we talked about phenomena. Phenomena are events that we see happening around us. It could be things that we see everyday or something spectacular that is a very rare occurrence. For example the phases of the moon is a phenomena, or the solar eclipse that happened last week. We learned that it is very important to use phenomena to connect science lessons with because it helps students identify and connect with the lessons. My biggest struggle this week was probably that part in class. We had a short time to research a present information on phenomena to present to the rest of class. With the time limit I could not focus and soak in all of the information to then turn into something that I could share with the class. I am very bad with these short time limits, my brain freezes up and panics, and so this was a very hard assignment for me. I was just glad we were doing it in groups. I think the assignment that I am most proud of this week and most satisfied with is actually this blog. I struggle with these blogs and I am proud with how this one is turning out. However the assignment I have enjoyed most this week are the ecocolumns we are making. I am very excited about these. And it looks like I may be doing some cricket hunting this weekend for everyone in class.

Outside

I have been working at the PEAK program this week at my local elementary school. This will be my third year there, but this is the first year that we are doing PEAK. Before it has just been an after school program, running Mondays through Thursdays from 3-6pm. It was for students who needed extra tutoring after school and students had to be recommended for the program. This year instead of have K-5, we are including 4 year olds, and the days are Mondays-Fridays, as well as all teacher work days and holidays where we will be there from 7am-6pm. This is a huge change for us so we are just sort of figuring it out as we go. The program is also offered to everyone but it is not a free program anymore. This means we will possibly have more kids with a smaller staff, however these might not be the students who really need the after school tutoring because of money issues. I wanted to mention something that I learned this week with one of my students. It is not something that I really learned this week, but it is something that I knew, and got to actually put into practice and see the effects of. This student is a Kindergartener and he has some behavioral issues. He has huge attitude problems and wants to test to see how far he can go with every little thing. Questioning everything you tell him to do no matter what it is. In all of the educational psychology classes we take they always say that most kids respond better to rewards and praise then they do to being called down. This is definitely the case with this student. The first day everyone was having a time with getting him to  listen and behave, but it wasn’t until I took that time to watch every time he did something good to make sure I pointed it out to him, and I started giving him little responsibilities, that he started to make a turn for the better. It has still only been the first week but he has come a long way since just the first day. I want to take note of this, and remember it for future use with students I may get in the future.

Twitter:

This is a very interesting article, advocating for the encouragement of more people to look into vocational jobs. It just stood out to me because just last week we had an article that we read about how a lot of jobs were being replaced by “robots” and that we needed to encourage students to go for jobs that were not likely to be replaced. The articles were kind of contradicting. Here is a link to the other article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/high_school_and_beyond/2017/08/are_you_helping_students_prepare_for_jobs_that_will_be_lost_to_automation.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-FB 

This is the link to this article: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/decades-pushing-bachelors-degrees-u-s-needs-tradespeople/ 

I thought this was something to think about. It is true for most people. When their work is going to be on display or it seems more important to students they will work even harder on it. When it just seems like busy work to them they will only work to “good enough.” I know I do this myself.

After this being the first week of school for most schools around here I thought this was a cool link. It is a few different ice breaker type games. Perfect for most ages. Most of these games I have never heard of.