Understanding the Grading System: Traditional Grade VS Standards -Based Grade

 

The state has created a grading system for the schools’ districts to use. The teacher will use the grading system to measure what students have learned. For this week's readings, I learned about what is standard-based grading and traditional grading. So, what exactly is standard based learning. Author Matt Townsley believes that Standards -Based Grading System is based on learning goals, performance and one grade entry given per learning goal. Also including standards or proficiency -based criteria, and criteria goals are made available to students in advance. It measures achievement and selected assessments that are used for grading purposes and emphasizing the most recent evidence of learning when grading. Another thing that I didn’t consider was converting the TEKS into a friendly understandable TEKS. The video I analyzed was created by Veronica Lopez called, “What Every Teacher Ought to know about TEKS”.  This video insighted good information that stressed on the importance of changing the TEKS to be more understandable for the students, parents and even teachers.  Veronica Lopez mentioned in her video that changing the TEKS is time consuming and bit hard and can be very beneficial.  Changing the TEKS to be called “Things Every Kid Studies”, is a bright idea for students. When it comes to traditional grading from my understanding, It is based on assessment methods which includes quizzes, tests, homework, and projects. According to author Townsley, he believes that assessments are based on percentage system and take into consideration of achievement effort, behavior, extra credit, late penalties and mix assessment. I will provide some link below for future references.

                                          

     

References

Scriffiny, P. (2008). Seven Reason For Standard Based. Educational Leadership. 

Townsley, M. (2014). What is the Difference between Standards-Based Grading (or Reporting) and Competency-Based Education? Aurora Institute. 

What every teacher ought to know about the TEKS. (2014, August 8). YouTube. https://youtu.be/_jo1sQw5ybc

Photo link https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/hand-draw-vector-grades-results-circles-297479735

Video Link part 1:  The Why https://youtu.be/v8cPaA8qgkI

Video Link part 2: understanding your grades https://youtu.be/f5zg-ARxkDU  

Video Links part 3: Problem with traditional Grading   https://youtu.be/ALVX1WHJot8

Understanding What is Assessment and Accountability

Standardized testing and assessment will always be part in the education system.

Assessments play an important role for schools, teachers and in student lives; they collect data for the teacher and measure the students’ knowledge in a specific content area. Assessments can usually be done after a lesson and be in the form of a presentation, portfolio, multiple choice quiz, or group work. Standardized testing happens every year and provides useful information for the education system and for families such as measuring a student’s learning and school performance.

 Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) is there to help improve students’ outcome. The four goals are to recruit, support, and retain teachers and principals, to build a foundation of reading and math, to connect high school to career and college, and lastly, to improve low performing schools (TEA, 2017). The ESSA gives Texas Education Agency (TEA) different options on decision making when it comes to accountability, school improvement, teacher quality, and funding back to state and local level. The good thing is that TEA is trying to do their best to come out with a system that support ESSA implementation with the new TEA Strategic Plan. The plan is to lead greater levels of student’s achievement throughout our state (TEA,2017).

During Obama’s presidential years, he announced a testing action plan to restore balance in classroom by ensuring fewer, better, and more fair tests (Every Students Succeeds Act, n. d). The outcome of the Testing Action Plan that U.S Department of Education supports state in the implementation of the (ESSA) in to promote a well-rounded education for every student while ensuring critical protections and equity of opportunity for all students. In agreement with Every Students Succeeds Act, I believe it is a great idea to provide better and fewer tests, but I still strongly believe that a test does not determine your intelligence; testing is not everyone. It is just a test that the schools need to view how much you have learned. According to Every Students Succeeds Act, too much focus has been placed on the testing, educators, and parents. Students have the right to highlight the need for more creativity and innovated learning.

The ESSA also provides several new flexibilities to help states develop innovative approaches to assessments and reduce duplicative and unnecessary testing. There is still much more that I need to learn from assessment, especially accountability. I will provide some videos that could help me better understand this topic of accountability. 

  

References

Every Students Succeeds Acts  (n.d.). U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/essaassessmentfactsheet1207.pdf

Answers in about a minute: A-F closing the gaps domain. (2018, August 8). YouTube.

            https://youtu.be/-5xjO10MESM

Photo  https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/assessment-calculation-estimate-evaluate-measurement-concept-294781811

Results driven accountability (RDA) 2021 rule proposal overview. (2021, June 23). YouTube. https://youtu.be/7lLyryPR_Sg

TEA. (2017, July 27). Every Student Succeeds Act - State overview. YouTube. https://youtu.be/h_uLySg9o1Y

https://youtu.be/n5fq1OoTjc8

https://youtu.be/-5xjO10MESM

https://youtu.be/7lLyryPR_Sg

Digital Assessment Resources

    While this pandemic changed the world, it also changed the forms of technology with it. Digital technology has been evolving for quite some time and has a vital role in our daily lives. During our day jobs, it can be used at work to communicate, gather information, or solve problems. It also helps individuals connect with their family and friends or play games and interact with people through social media. Leading technology has also become essential in society and any job field, especially in the education system. Technology has brought a new lifestyle to humankind with its many advantages, such as communication. For instance, schools are using technology for learning purposes and can create lesson plans, communicate, and even conduct digital assessments. A digital assessment is a form of communicating with students to receive instant feedback about their learning, which further guides and helps students understand their knowledge. Edpuzzle, Go Formative, and Explain Everything are assessments that can help track student progress, intervene when needed, and observe what they learned (Bell,2021).I will provide some link for each digital assessment under the references that will have more information on how you can use it in the classroom. 

Allows you to choose any video of your choice and trim it. Turn it into a quick assessment by inserting a quiz and tracking students’ progress. . I found this blog that was interesting called 6 way to use Edpuzzle in elementary classroom I will provide the link https://blog.edpuzzle.com/edtech/edpuzzle-for-elementary-students/

Go formative

Is a free online assessment tool that is very robust. Formative allows teacher to choose premade assessment and edit to fit their student’s needs, create their own from scratch, or even upload a PDF or doc to create. they also offer some fantastic data that you can track intervene when needed. I will provide a link under references on some tips you can you use Go Formative https://help.goformative.com/en/articles/3873194-tips-for-engaging-students-in-live-virtual-instruction

Explain Everything

 is an easy-to-use online white board program that can be used on any device. students can quickly create a video summary in which they can present the most important things they learned and what questions they may still have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Bell, K. (2021, July 6). 27 formative assessment tools for your classroom. Shake Up Learning. https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/20-formative-assessment-tools-for-your-classroom/

Formative for teachers - www.GoFormative.com. (2016, January 7). YouTube. https://youtu.be/keB7CkAgT5E

Getting started with "EdPuzzle" Tutorial. (2020, March 25). YouTube. https://youtu.be/emS5JGciwuI

The tour of explain everything interactive whiteboard. (2019, April 29). YouTube. https://youtu.be/FTCxtUyPZHk

Explain everything how to video for the classroom. (2017, May 1). YouTube. https://youtu.be/1J4ZDB327IE

picture https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/magnifying-glass-showing-assessment-word-600w-142827652.jpg

video link for Go Formative https://help.goformative.com/en/articles/3873194-tips-for-engaging-students-in-live-virtual-instruction 

Video link for Edpuzzle https://catlintucker.com/2015/06/flipped-classroom-engaging-students-with-edpuzzle/

https://support.edpuzzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012143932-How-to-flip-your-classroom-with-Edpuzzle

https://blog.edpuzzle.com/edtech/edpuzzle-for-elementary-students/

My Multimedia Reflection

                

This blog is a reflection on the endeavors of my five-week summer class called “Advanced Applications of Media and Technology”. We all know that technology is being used in everyday life, and we know that students and schools are now using laptops, tablets, and even smartphones to help with learning. This class was perfect for me because it taught me different ways to use technology. 

As a future educational instructional technologist, this class of technology has made my learning more enjoyable. I have learned about many different kinds of applications of digital media as well as models and video, audio, visual and software applications. This class has helped me on how to use technology effectively and how to help students be engaged while presenting information to them and stakeholders. My philosophy of technology integration is to help stakeholders improve their knowledge and understanding of media and also the material being presented. This class has showed me how to show students or stakeholders the different uses of digital applications and program softwares. It will help the student be more involved with technology, which in turn, allow them to have endless opportunities in the work field as well as for me. I learned so much and I’m still learning how to use all the material that was presented. It could be a bit overwhelming but taking it step by step is the key.

While working on my multimedia project, there were vast number of software to use. It takes time and effort to explore the endless possibilities and my weakness will become my strength through my trial and errors. The tools I decided to use to help aid for my project were two application. One was Microsoft’s PowerPoint, and the other was Prezi. Both applications were friendly and guided me on the concept and ideas I want to implement. The Mayer’s Principle I decided to use was my voice instead of a machine voice. Mayer’s suggest the people learn better when it is a human voice. This is called voice principle. The next principle I used were words and pictures, Mayer’s principle believes that people learn better from words and pictures than rather just words alone this called the multimedia principle. The last one I use is breaking everything into smaller chunks which is called segmenting. Also, the fonts, color and spacing all have an important asset to the presentation as well. It is crucial for me to know how to use technology to help facilitate learning. Like Benjamin Franklin said, “He that can have patience can have what he will”. Here is my multimedia project and I hope you enjoy it.

References

Benjamin Franklin quotes (Author of the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin). (n.d.). Goodreads | Meet your next favorite book. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/289513.Benjamin_Franklin#:~:text=%E2%80%9CTell%20me%20and%20I%20forget,involve%20me%20and%20I%20learn.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CHe%20that%20can%20have%20patience%20can%20have%20what%20he%20will.%E2%80%9D

How to use mayer’s 12 principles of multimedia learning [Examples included]. (2020, July 24). Water Bear Learning. https://waterbearlearning.com/mayers-principles-multimedia-learning/

Shutterstock https://image.shutterstock.com/image-vector/abstract-multimedia-background-connected-color-600w-281256962.jpg

Learning Andragogy A Different Way of Learning

Learning is part of life and is something that everyone needs in some way or another for the rest of their life. Adults and children have a unique way of learning. Studies about how learning occurs is something that will never go away. There are many theories that are excellent tools that can help adult learning in many different ways. For example, Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn. Malcom is the father of adult learning and laid the foundation which are Self -Concept, Experience, Willingness to learn, Orientation, Motivation to learn, the need to know (Malcom Knowles, 2006). 

There are three articles I found that could be useful for the future. The first article is called “Adult learning Strategies to Improve Knowledge Retention”. It explains how to improve knowledge retention for adult learning and is broken down into four sections which are “How the brain works”, “The Theory of Andragogy”, “Strategies to Aid Retention”, and “Last Experience”. The second article is entitled “Andragogy Theory”, and it is an outline of Malcolm Knowles's main point assumptions about adult learners which are the desired outcome of adult learning and the key factors found in successful adult learning programs. The last article is called “What is Andragogy”. This article is right to the point of what Andragogy is and briefly talks about the implications for the adult learner and for facilitators for adult learning. 

Overall, adults have a different way of learning and it could be because they are older, but the desire to learn will always be there in some way or another. The way learning information is received is part of the learning process and can be used throughout life for overall success. Like Michelangelo said, “I’m still learning”. I will also provide a links to the article and including the videos below for future reference if needed.  

References

Adult learning strategies to improve knowledge retention. (2021, July 27). Sales Enablement PRO. https://salesenablement.pro/expertise/adult-learning-strategies-to-improve-knowledge-retention/

Kurt, S. (2020, July 11). Andragogy theory - Malcolm Knowles - Educational technology. Educational Technology.https://educationaltechnology.net/andragogy-theory-malcolm-knowles/

Malcolm Knowles. (2006, January 24). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved August 3, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Knowles

Michelangelo | Famous last words. (2013, April 13). Sites at Penn State - WordPress | powered by WordPress. https://sites.psu.edu/famouslastwords/2013/04/13/michelangelo/

What is andragogy? Less than 100 words. (2020, October 26). Roundtable Learning. https://roundtablelearning.com/what-is-andragogy-less-than-100-words/

Video link https://youtu.be/UgNeWsbKDUY

Video link https://youtu.be/oqNflAZAiJQ

 

My View on Professional Developemnt

 

                   

            

When reflecting on my student teaching experiences, I did get the chance to go to a professional development. I did overhear teachers complaining that they did not want to go and that it was a waste of time which lead me to think that is was going to be boring. However, beside all the negative thoughts, I was still was excited to go. This was because it was a learning experience.  As I arrived at the professional development, I noticed that each school was divided into sections. I also noticed that not everyone was friendly, and their egos were very high. I see can why teachers did not like going. In my opinion, attitude is something that is so important. For myself, having a positive attitude changes the environmental setting. The information that is presented is so vital, you want it to be engaging, fun, and focused on the need of your students. In my opinion, it is important to learn to problem solve and work together to ensure all students achieve success.

Looking back on the professional development, the lack of engagement is awful for teacher as well as for students. I believe teachers needs to the be engaged just like students so that educators can provide the same level of engagement to their students. Teachers are the same as the students, they learn in many different ways and will respond differently to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning.

 As for it being my first time going to a professional development, I may have not learn much, but I can honestly say that I took with me different ways on how to improve a professional development. One thing is by conducting a survey for teachers to see what they would like to learn in a professional development. I will also have the teachers break into groups based on subject area or grade level, so they can brainstorm and talk about ideas such as how to apply what they learned to their specific department, make sure that the professional development is geared to what is developmentally appropriate for that group age, and lastly, help personalize the teacher’s learning with a professional development plan. Those are some ideas I learned just by observing the professional development. Their still many more ideas out there that the school district could help improve professional development. I will provide two  link to professional development.

  

Reference 

photo link https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-vector/skill-chart-keywords-icons-flat-design-371705140

photo link https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-vector/personal-growth-chart-keywords-icons-498037825         

professional development link https://youtu.be/Cj0_Be2MqHs         

professional development link https://youtu.be/mG7fXp5BmOE

Incorporating Technology with Administrators

 

 

When reflecting on my past experiences, which is my student teaching, all I can say is that technology was not emphasized as much as I would have liked it to. I felt that the focus was more on getting the students ready for the STARR exam, which is important, but I believe there is much more to it than that. I do believe that, if the school would prepare students more with the use of technology, the students would not have struggled as much during online learning when this pandemic hit back in 2020. 

I believe technology being integrated into the curriculum is a wonderful idea, but I also believe everybody on the school staff has to be on board especially our leaders because they are the ones who can do anything for our students, besides educators. One way our school leaders can start is by purchasing learning software to improve learning and emphasize computer learning skills. In my opinion, leaders should lead by example and have strong characteristics such as being compassionate, trustworthy, having communication skills, and being able to inspire and collaborate with others. Once that has been set teachers would be able to be integrating technology into the curriculum. 

I will provide a video link on how learning is happening right now. This video for me proofs that there is still more to learn about technology, the need to teach our future students about technology and the importance of getting educators on board on this journey with technology.

 

References

picture link https://image.shutterstock.com/image-vector/remote-support-online-remotely-access-600w-1331918702.jpg

Video link https://youtu.be/nA1Aqp0sPQo