Digital Blog #J - Chapter 11 - Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning

In perusing Chapter 11, Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning, I was first the most interested in Portfolios and Reflection. 

This is very important as teachers in that we must be reflective learners, ourselves, and evaluate our own performance as well as have that performance assessed regularly (whether intentionally or as a matter of being in such a role of teaching, mentoring, and authority). As part of this process, as schools become more and more technologically advanced, teachers are judged on whether they have a portfolio with digital access, whether it is current, authoritative, accurate, detailed, and whether it is attractive and engaging to the reader or reviewer. For example, as a parent, I have seen teachers who ~ s e e m ~ completely uninvolved in teaching outside of the classroom and who don't bother with being accessible after school hours whether passively through materials or actively and directly. Sometimes, this assumption or opinion has been inaccurate, and sometimes it has been correct. Then again, I have seen teachers who have websites with homework, curriculum pointers, practice, kept current in the curriculum per class, and more! Usually, there is a W-O-W and I feel like this teacher cares and knows what they are doing.
As a student, I have one teacher that is completely inaccessible outside of class, except for the occasional announcement. There is no way to reach him outside of class, or to obtain information about assignments, expectations, or progress. In the 21st Century, this leaves a bad taste in ones' mouth and defeats the curiosity and desire to learn that come naturally to me; I imagine the same response in others who are less interested or dedicated in the outset. Peers and mentors review our entries and our insights to determine whether or not we understand a concept, and determine, in their own minds, whether or not we will be good teachers. The latter information isn't always available to us.

With these things in mind, creating a Portfolio, reflecting on the feedback and insight we are given on that web-based portfolio, and reflecting on it with self honesty, we can self-assess as well as allow others to assess our capabilities, and take that insight and reflection to modify, adapt, and improve our teaching abilities, moving forward. This task; however, can be daunting, when faced with those with far more technological talent and practice. I'll close on this topic with a final thought - as teachers, our online presence, which includes a portfolio, can take our students to places and heights that we haven't thought of, and we can help them on the journey they are seeking - especially as teachers of middle and secondary students.Web 2.0 tools such as Storybird can make portfolios interesting - but be sure to utilize regular, non-school, non-student accounts to embed!

Destined to Learn by H. Kuri via Storybird

In another area, technology for civic engagement and service learning, there are so many valid points to reflect upon and discuss. The best point to be made about this also draws from personal experience for me. My eldest son was attending a school in which one of the best teachers my son had.  I believe it was his middle school Science teacher, but perhaps it was his Linguistics teacher. In any case, she had many assignments that she had her students work on, indepdently, cooperatively, and collaboratively. She gave them student directed learning and gave them framework through teacher directed learning, sometimes, too. In her free time, she wrote grants. Why is this important or pertinent to this subject? YES! The grants she wrote were for the school grounds and improvements and the students worked with her on landscaping, grounds management, and more! They did evaluations, and reports in the real world out side of her classroom doors. This is a perfect example of civic engagement and service learning. These are two key concepts for teachers. At the time, there was limited technology to assist her, but students worked outside on a makeshift watershed and much more. Service Learning is defined by our Maloy, et al in Transforming Learning with New Technologies (p. 282, 2014) as "outside-the-classroom experiences by students that feature both service and learning... students work to improve the community while learning academic concepts and skills..." This teachers work with my son and his classmates on developing the grounds, increasing the habitat for wildlife, improving water and air quality and more definitely addressed state standards for curriculum as well as taught the students new skills and concepts while serving the school they were part of and, as civic engagement, the community as a whole through the improvements of the grounds. Additionally, the teacher modeled these behaviors for her students by learning about writing grants to bring money to the school and exemplary students, winning awards that brought money and attention to the better of the school, and to assist them in securing more land. She was truly an inspiration! I observed for a few minutes in her class, and her students absolutely loved her class! They were themselves in her class in between periods, and they talked to her like a peer - with respect! They changed when they entered her classroom. 
Our book indicates that these types of experiences "exert powerful impacts on K-12 students." Maloy, et al (2014, p. 282). I agree - in fact, they had powerful experiences on me, a full grown adult and mother of two (at the time)! Though the teacher had projectors and different simple technological tools, including advanced PowerPoint presentations that she paired with question and answer, it would have been amazing to have video cameras and smartphones to record some of the community building events they were doing out-of-doors. Imagine grants proposals with pictures and videos of the students working together while learning the curriculum. Imagine utilizing Facebook, a social media tool, to rouse other teachers and students to action, garner support, and more! There are so many opportunities to do this, as long as your administration is behind us as teachers. How can we best improve our teaching, schools, and communities?! As a soon-to-be teacher, I am slightly anxious about how to become the teacher like that - the one that I want to be. Would I be daunted under the pressures of the state requirements, school administration, parents, and students? -- too daunted to become exemplary through the use of advanced technology and civic engagement and service learning? I wonder how to get started...

Lastly, preassessments can assist both students and teachers not only in determining what students already know and can do, but also assist the teacher in how to connect their lessons to these things. Online surveys  are delivered and tabulated online and can identify both what the students already know and what they can do, but also what they are desirous of learning and doing. The teacher can draft their own questions on an online survey and most people like to take online surveys to evaluate themselves (without correct/incorrect answers, without penalties, providing insight into ones' self). In fact, in my psychology classes, the students seem to love taking the quizzes and doing the practices in the books. Being in any medical waiting room will find most magazines open to the quizzes one can take, with answers often circled. Preassessment tests show students the teacher is interested in them prior to entering class or a new unit. Online surveys as preassessment tests allow students the freedom to express themselves, their capabilities, and their interests as well as assist the teacher in development of the unit. They can become a collaborative project if there are comments or suggestions that are shared, or help increase expression and authenticity through anonymous testing - both of which are available online through a number of widely available tools such as Polleverywhere or Polldaddy. Polldaddy is frequently used by many large businesses and corporations and allows for polls, quizzes, and more... for a fee. Polleverywhere seems worthy of a try - and even allows your classroom members to submit answers and polls utilizing smart phones, texts, social media sites and web browsers... What a wonderful utilization of technology across devices and platforms. Besides reviewing results, they can be seen or reviewed on the web or in a PowerPoint presentation for overhead use, depending on the ranges of questions, for a democratic classroom. 
Students and teachers can save classroom time for curriculum, projects and activities and assist the teacher in tailoring projects to the students. My idea for doing this is as an online poll a teacher could place on their class Wiki or webpage provided to students over the summer, and for the students for the first few days of class. This would enable the teacher to understand the needs and backgrounds of the students prior to final curriculum design and submission.
  
For fun, you can see Pollanywhere for my anonymous test poll.

Resources

15 Great Free and Easy Survey / Polls Creation Tools for Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25,
     2015, from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/05/15-great-free-and-easy-survey-
     polls.html

Kuri, H. (2015). Destined to Learn [online image]. Retrieved March 25, 2015 from
     http://storybird.com/poetry/poem/bs6rhryau8/

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park
     (2014). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson. 

Poll Daddy. Create stunning surveys, polls, and quizzes in minutes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25,
     2015, from https://polldaddy.com/features/
 
Poll Everywhere. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://www.polleverywhere.com
     /how-it-works

LittlePinkPebble (2013). Sam and George [online image]. Retrieved March 25, 2015 from
     http://storybird.com/littlepinkpebble/artwork/sam-and-george/