Weekly Blog #4

This week has been a waiting week for me, which has been somewhat frustrating missing out on all of that classroom time that I could be getting. I was hoping that I would be placed by now, but apparently it is proving just as difficult to replace me, as it was to originally find a placement. I have been taking the time this week to review my previous lessons and observations that I was able to complete before losing my placement. This week was also the meeting that I had with my instructor for ED 341 where we went over my first TPA lesson plan that I had previously submitted. It was a very good meeting because of the clarity that I gained on the amount of detail that will be required of me from here on out in future lesson plans. I didn’t realize just how specific the grading criteria would be once we submit our final Pearson TPA. I was receiving A’s on my last lesson plans and so I thought that I was meeting all of the criteria, so it was a very constructive meeting. I just finished my second lesson plan for the class with the new criteria that I was given and everything is definitely much clearer for the reader to completely understand all of the learning objectives and various teaching strategies. It took at least an extra hour to complete the lesson plan in the new format, but I think that now I have done it once, the future plans will flow much easier and not take nearly as long. I was also able to meet with the placement advisor this last week to talk about my placement. It seems that I might actually get at the school that I was hoping to get into as long as the teacher is willing to take on a student teacher candidate. I am really looking forward to my new placement and am very excited to start teaching my lessons that I have been preparing. That would also be my highlight for the week if I in fact get placed there because I have two nephews that attend the same school!

Weekly Blog #3

I participated in the Common Core State Standard seminar that was held at EWU on the 30^th of April and would like to talk a bit about it for my blog this week. The information was extremely useful and enlightening to hear it talked about a bit with other educators that are going to be required to teach it. One of my favorite things about the new CCSS’s is how they are aligning multiple subject areas together. I think that English Language Arts is one of the most pertinent subjects for students to master in order to be successful in all subject areas. Students must learn to read and write on a higher level than what they are currently being taught and I think that with CCSS it will assist in them doing so. Every subject and every situation in life requires communication and that one thing that is being stressed with the new common core standards. There were some very good questions that were raised at the seminar too. One in particular that really caught my attention was how these new systems of grading are going to benefit learning. This was brought up because mostly all of the grading is going to be done by computers. It is good that standards are being raised in reading and writing, but how will we as educators fully know whether or not the students comprehension is there, when a computer is grading based on certain words, sentences or format. I think that in order to fully ascertain whether or not a student is “getting it”, then their work needs to be critiqued by an actual person and be judged on their abilities rather than just whether or not they can formulate an argument and put it down on paper. I guess I have some mixed emotions about this. I am really glad that teachers are going to be held more accountable in order to ensure better teaching, but at the same time I think that the grading system to see if that is actually happening needs a little fine tuning. It is good that the nation is heading in a positive direction but I fear that they may be rushing certain specifics. Another good thought that I had after I left the seminar was the issue about the main purpose of these new standards are geared towards preparing students to go on to college. That is great, but what about the students that have no intentions or no means to go off to college after high school. Some may take family jobs on the farm or continue with their passion to be a mechanic, something that doesn’t necessarily need any formal continued education. I am sure that they will still get a good education, but it almost seemed like there was too much emphasis on the after high school years for these students, instead of just concentrating on the present and how to teach them the best for them as individuals. Just a few thoughts…