Assessment...A Four Letter Word

What’s the most difficult part of teaching? Trying to decide what item of luxury to buy next with the paycheck? That kid that just doesn’t care? Differentiation? Overcoming the language barrier? Parents? The list could go on and many of these are valid answers, but one that comes up frequently for me is assessment. What is the best method of assessment? Is there a best method? Growing up, the only assessments I really remembered were the basic tests…multiple choice, short answer, matching, fill in the blank, essay. Well for me that was just fine. I had one heck of a short term memory, I could cram with the best of them, I could B.S. my way through an essay, and, overall, I was just a good test taker. Could I do well on those same tests 6 months later? A year? Did those facts really mean anything to me or my life? The answer to these questions is probably not. School always seemed to be about facts and memorization. As I’ve mentioned before, things have changed. In a lot of ways, I think the purpose and focus of education has changed.

What’s more important, that you know that Ancient Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period occurred from 1786-1558 BC or that, much like other ancient societies, they had needs that were met by their environment which is similar to the needs we still have today. The focus now is more on skills that will help students with lifelong learning and with fitting into society. The end product is no longer the most important thing. It is often the steps leading up to that final product that are more important. It is because of these facts that along with other changes, we must also change our methods of assessment.

For starters, assessments can no longer just come at the end of a unit. Formative assessments need to be done frequently to see how progress is towards the necessary skills. These can be as simple as warm-up questions, or having students write down any questions they have. Then assessments need to be made as an activity is going on such as observations done by the teacher. Finally assessments at the end of the unit need to be something students can learn from rather than just saying something is right or wrong. This can be a good time to use self-assessment or peer assessments along with rubrics. Ideally there will be further time to redo the activity or a similar activity in an effort to improve.

Now this seems like all a teacher will be doing is assessment. This is why I put this as one of the most difficult parts of teaching. It’s rather difficult to figure out not only what type of assessment to do at what time, but then what do you do with the assessments when they’re done. Like anything, it’s good to have a lot of weapons to use, and it’s really all about balance, but is there ever enough time? Time…another difficult part of teaching!

The Perfect Classroom

What is our job? We're teachers and we need to figure out a way to get our students better prepared for society and their futures. The nice thing, and the difficult thing, is there's help out there. Technology can make lessons better; more "real" for the students. This means we have to access this technology and generally that means MONEY!
In a perfect world, every student would have their own computer with a high speed Internet connection. There would be no more paper textbooks as the textbooks would be interactive programs found on their computer. Every classroom would have an interactive board such as a Smart Board or a Promethian, along with a document camera. There would be a fluid interaction between instruction from a teacher and software programs that can quickly evaluate a student's current level of instruction and can work from there for further instruction.
This is the ideal situation for an ideal education, but were not there yet. Due to the speed at which technology is growing, we will probably never be there, but it needs to be a priority to get as much technology into a classroom as possible, and have enough instruction for the teachers to use it properly.

VISUAL Students

Some teachers teach the same way they were taught. Is that OK? Is that doing the students justice? I think it comes down to the question of, are the students today the same as students when we were in school. Sure there are some similarities, but overall the differences greatly outweigh the similarities. We were much more accustomed to learning from a textbook. Students of today are very visual. They are used to hundreds of channels of television, extremely realistic video games, and the Internet giving them they ability to see just about anything at any time. As a coach I've always heard that your strategies need to fit the abilities of the athletes you have on your team. If you don't have a quarterback with a good arm then you don't focus on a passing game. In the same respect, if students work best with visual learning, then you don't give them everything from a textbook. In fact, to get them to learn best, they need to be able to work mainly with methods that will work with them.
Technology and the Internet must be a large part of the classroom. As a science teacher, the Internet can be a wonderful source of visuals such as interactive diagrams, simulations, videos, and images. Whenever I am teaching a unit I try to incorporate as many of these visuals as possible. In some cases I create a WebQuest for the students to follow as they do the learning. Much like technology is always changing, so is my teaching. I'm always on the lookout for a better way for the students to learn, or a way in which they will be able to use more skills such as collaboration, or evaluating a scenario, or using higher level of thought. Teachers need to be able to shift our styles as better options become available.

A TEACHER'S ARSENAL-Teaching Strategies

Teaching has changed almost as much as technology has changed over the years. The fact is, the old methods of teaching frequently will no longer work for several reasons. First of all, we have a new cliental. Students these days are coming from the television/ipad generation, where everything is presented to them in an interesting often interactive manner. The gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is growing so we’re teaching a larger range of abilities. Finally, what we’re preparing them for is ever-changing. The amount of blue-collar jobs is diminishing, and being replaced by computers and other technologies that people are expected to understand in the job market. This means our teaching needs to change with all of this.

Teachers, more than ever, need to continue their own quest to be lifelong learners. They need to learn new instructional strategies that will better fit the students they are now teaching. Teachers need a large arsenal of strategies as they need to be able to match a strategy with different situations and different content in an effort to best pass on the information to the students. Some strategies may be the same ones frequently used in the past, while others are still being developed as newer technology comes out.

Is there really a purpose for an overhead projector now when there is the availability of such things as document cameras and interactive whiteboards? The answer is in the learning. Which will be better to get the information to the students? A teacher cannot ignore certain technologies that not only make learning better, but also introduce students to technology that they may need in their futures. In fact, a teacher is doing their students an injustice if they don’t attempt to learn about these resources. It is not to say that technology should always be used. There are times when a basic worksheet or a textbook can be the most effective tool. It should not be forced. Technology needs to have its place along with all other tools available.

Overall, it is up to the teachers to find the best method available to teach the students we now have. Through the years, the students will continue to change, and along with that more forms of technology will become available. Hopefully education will be able to keep up with technology to best prepare students for their futures.

Catch 21

Teaching is a tough job, just ask a teacher, but technology has changed the world and this makes teaching even more difficult. The job of a teacher is to prepare students for their future. With ever-changing technology, we don't even know what that future will be like. We do know that it will involve technology and the price of technology is steep. So how do you prepare someone for something you're unaware of without the necessary funds? I'd love to know.