Thursday, March 5, 2009

what kind of teacher do you want to be??

The way i see it it's very important to give homework to your students as practice for what they learned in class that day. However i don't think it's necessary to assign more than 5 to 10 problems. When i was in 4th grade my teacher would assign 60 math problems a night and math is not my strong point so i was struggling with getting that done and getting the rest of the homework she assigned. My thoughts on homework is that if it's math for example, if they can do 5 problems then that means if needed they can do 60 or even 100 and there is no reason to assign a ridiculous amount of problems for homework. Teachers are all different some will agree with this and some will disagree and it's all dependant on how high their expectationsa are set. As a teacher you want to have high expectations but you don't want to be too hard on your students and drive them away. Going back to my 4th grade teacher, obviously she had high expectations for her class but she was assigning soo much work that it was making alot of the students struggle. As a teacher you need to realise that yea if you don't assign homework then you will be the so called "favorite" but then if you'r class is struggling because they aren't taking work serious then your expectations for the class aren't set accordingly, and if you do give homework and some think it's too much you're considered the "mean" teacher. You need to find the middle and be reasonable.

Rubrics & Rubistar

I happen to love rubrics. I feel it is very helpful when a teacher gives an assignment and hands out a rubrics to follow as a "guidleine". It may not seem like it could help you alot but when you think about it rubrics allow you to follow exactly what should be in the assignment. I never really use to find rubrics helpful until maybe the end of middle school begining of high school. Now i've learned the importance of rubrics and how to make one when i was introduced to the site called Rubistar. I think that it's a really great and helpful site. I've actually used it when i did my lesson plans to teach for two of my education classes and it came in handy! I also plan on using it when i do my sophmore field teaching, hoping that i get to do a lesson for the class i'm in! I'm so glad i was introduced to Rubistar and i'm also glad i understand the many uses for rubrics better than i did when i was younger because they really are helpful!
*i showed the site to my mom who is a fifth grade teacher and she fell in love with it and uses it to make rubrics now!*

Friday, January 23, 2009

introduction and my outlook on assessments

hey everyone as you know in my last blog i introduced myself but ill go a little more into detail now =] my name is marisa and i'm a transfer sophmore at SPC. i love the school and the professors are so nice and helpful! my major is elementary ed and psychology i would love to teach either kindergarten or first grade. I realised i wanted to become a teacher when i started babysitting. I always get along well with children and i always find myself teaching them things even if i'm not trying to. I've been working at a nursary school in a pre-k class for the past year and a half and i absolutly love job. I have a close bond with the kids so they are very comfortable to talk to me when they have a problem. Having a passion for kids is a bigggg thing for people who want to become teachers. If that's not you then the profession isnt for you either.

To me an assessment can be really anything. I learned that it doesnt have to be just a test or a quiz. Assessments can either be a test, quiz, homework, or something as simple as oral questions in class. I think it's important to rememebr that assessments shouldn't jsut be based on test and quizzes because every child is different, some are great at those and others do better with verbal questions and answers.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Hi! =]

Hey everyone i'm Marisa and this is my blog! This is my first experience with blogging and an online class but im excited!