Evaluating Bias

Now, I understand that nearly, if not everyone that will see this post is studying in education or has studied education. However, I just really want to write about this absolutely awesome concept that I heard about in one of my classes. The concept that I am talking about is that of assessing students completely based on the outcomes that are outlined in provincial curriculum. 

The idea is not to grade students on assignments, concerts, or projects but instead by to assess whether they have reached, exceeded, or have failed to reach outcomes. Genius!! Whoever thought of this deserves a gold star! Not only does this provide teachers with a method to justify their marks but it also moves away from teachers handing out percentage based marks that could have easily been 5% either way of the given mark. With this idea you can look through all of the different outcomes and say that this student is either meeting or not meeting these outcomes quite definitively (some people may include exceeding and other stages too). If our jobs are to teach the curriculum then we would probably assume that it is the job of a student to learn the curriculum. If this is the case (and some people may say that it is not) then why would we not assess and grade based on the curriculum? To me it seems obvious. However, maybe I'm missing something. 

The whole point of me bringing this method of assessment up is that I had been functioning under a bias that I did not know that I had. I was working with a bias that had me believing that assignments were just a thing that we teachers hand out in order to give our students marks and that these assignments were out of a certain amount marks simply based on how much work that was needed to be done to complete them well. I had been functioning under this bias because, as far as I could tell, many teachers that I had functioned under the same one and used marks simply as a tool to assign us grades so that they could keep their jobs- I hope that this was not the case. 

After reflecting on realizing my bias towards evaluation I did come to the conclusion that there are so many things that we teachers do for reasons that I don't really understand. Meaning that I must always be thinking critically and challenging what I do believe and why I believe it. Sometimes we think that we have the whole picture figured out but it always seems to turn out that we really don't. We may have a photograph that looks good from far away but is missing pixels when you look up close. Or you may have a picture of something that is put together quite well but then you realize that it is all part of a larger puzzle and that some pieces just aren't making sense. This evaluation method was not only an awesome skill to learn but it was also a good reminder that we never really know everything about anything- even if we are trying to learn about ourselves. 

Lesson for the week: There are many great ideas that are waiting for us to simply challenge our own thinking and functions in order to find them. 

"Everything is Amazing"

I thought of this video about halfway through my last post and thought that I would share it.

This is a segment of the Conan O'Brien show that I found on Youtube.

The World of Technology

Right now, I am exploring what seems like an entirely new world on the internet. I am finding out about all of these incredible pages, tools, and methods of teaching that are just blowing my mind! Today, when sitting in one of my classes, I was shown this amazing resource for teaching physics by one of my friends. This site lays out the high school physics curriculum in a very manageable and interactive manner- making it a great resource for teachers who may be having difficulty planning their own course or for students taking the course through distance ed. Overall the site was very impressive and made me understand that there are absolutely incredible resources out there just waiting to be found.

Too often we take for granted the things that we use in our everyday life- especially technology that we are used to. How many resources and collaboration opportunities are available through technology? How many do we actually know of and/or participate in? If teachers are to be providing students with the best education possible should we not try to know as much as possible about this world of technology that we are able to access?

It is easy to keep up with the new developments in education when one is in university, however, will I keep up once I begin to teach on my own? Or will I stick with the methods that my teachers used on me and the technologies that I was shown how to use when I graduated? Statistics say that the latter is much more probable. Meaning that many teachers will be teaching a generation behind where research in education is. Bringing me to the realization that I may one day be teaching a generation behind (even if it is unknowingly). Taking this ICT class has exposed me to a number of different sites, tools, and technologies that I never knew of- making me realize that one can miss a lot if they are not paying attention. Also, it has only been a couple of weeks into the course- I think that there may be a few more things that I don't know up ahead.

Lesson of the day for future me: Pay attention and stay connected. 

The Journey Begins

For a long time I have been a consumer of the internet- using some of the various knowledge, resources, games, and communicative tools that the internet has to offer. However, this era of my cyberspace citizenship has come to an end. Today I cross the line from being consumer to contributor. Today is the day that I begin to put some of my own thoughts and resources out there for people to view, share, and adapt. 

I am currently enrolled in a course that will teach me how to use technology in order to enhance the learning in my future classrooms. One of the things that I get to do in this class is construct a blog as a central spot where I can group all of my resources. More importantly, this blog provides me with a place where I can reflect and evaluate all of things that I am learning about as I go through this course (and the many others that I find myself in). I am a very reflective person and greatly benefit from the act of writing about what I learn. Meaning that this blog will probably be one of my greatest places of personal learning. I only hope that my own learning can be beneficial to those of you who read my posts and follow me on my journey.