Blog Post #F

          Assessment is a daily task for teachers. Teachers must acquire the ability to asses not only their students but themselves in order to be successful in teaching education. Assessment features three interrelated elements  

1. New teacher assessment (how supervisors will assess your work). As you prepare to become a teacher, professors and supervisors are continually evaluating your academic and classroom performance. Before getting your first full-time job, you will likely have to pass a state teacher license test, be observed teaching in a classroom by mentor teachers and college supervisors, and complete written summaries of what you have learned about academic subjects, teaching methods, classroom management strategies, and the ability to relate to students, families, and colleagues. 
2. Student assessment (how you will assess students learning and your own effectiveness as a teacher). As a teacher, you will be expected to provide ongoing, data-driven, evaluation about the learning progress of every person in a class throughout the school year. In most schools you will be expected to assign grades, complete report cards, conduct meetings with families, and provide oral and written feedback to individual students and families in the form of written comments and suggestions about their academic work. Evaluating students as a teacher also includes personal self-assessments in which you ask “are the students learning?” and if they are not “what can I do to change this?”. 
3. Student self assessment (how students will participate in the assessment process). As a teacher, you benefit greatly when students are not passive recipients of your assessments, but active partners in the evaluation of their own learning. Student involvement in learning gives students meaningful roles to play and is powerful way to build their commitment to the school curriculum.

(Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 277, 278) 

Photo Credits to Krista Di Lello on Blogspot

The key to success as a teacher is applying the ability to engage in self-reflection about ones own work. In order to make improvements on your lesson plans, classroom structure, and  student success you as a teacher must continually evaluate yourself. 

Classrooms are constantly shifting in nature and this require teachers to be an ongoing self-evaluator, asking: what strategies worked well? what strategies did not? why did an approach succeed with one student but miss the mark with another? what activities best introduce a lesson or bring to an end? (Maloy, et al, 2013 p. 278).

          Technology is an important aspect to the classroom environment and technology can help new teachers in two ways: 

1. As part of projects that show evaluators your skills as an educator
2. Through tools that evaluate what the students learn and are able to do 

Technology used these ways brings teaching and learning to a full circle, supporting teachers as they plan lessons, deliver instruction, and evaluate performance, and supporting students as they participate in activities and evaluate their own efforts and outcomes in learning (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 278).

          Self-assessment is not only critical for success as a teacher and your students, but self-assessment is critical for all aspects of life during any stage. I currently use self-assessment in my part-time retail job. I use self-assessment on a daily basis to think “what is going well?”, “what can I improve on?”, and “what can I do differently?”. Self-assessment is key to personal improvement. I have learned through past experiences that self-assessment leads to personal improvement which leads to improvement in all aspects of life. Self-assessment has lead to increased job efficiency, repeat clients, and raises in my job. Through these experiences I know that when I continue to use self-assessment during my college years and then in my professional job I know I will be successful. 

          A digital teaching portfolio is a collection of educational and professional materials stored in an electronic format. It serves as a organized collection of materials that shows a teachers growth and development over time (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 279). A digital portfolio may contain digital copies of paper materials but can also include video, audio, Power-points, photographs, and other multimedia materials. As a aspiring teacher, one should begin to build their portfolio as soon as they start taking courses toward a teaching license as a way to use all the activities and ideas from classes, field experiences, summer work, and community volunteering as sources of materials. Teachers can also make e-portfolios which usually include: 

- resume: personal talents and accomplishments 

- philosophy of education and references

- lesson or unit plans and reflections 

- academic courses and research experiences - video and pictorial segments 

- teaching experience: resource links   

(Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 280)

But, digital portfolios are used in all fields. Digital portfolios usually include: academics, teaching, talents, and accomplishments. Anyone who is embarking on their college journey towards and aspiring career should start a digital portfolio. I know that as an aspiring Advertising major I too will have to make a portfolio. With the enhancing technology and its never-ending presence that portfolio will also be digital. 

Photo Credits to Erin Kelley on Flickr

Photo Credits to Wesley Fryer on Flickr

          A technology using educator can be defined as someone who: 

• Makes informed choices by both using technology wherever it increases student involvement in learning and not using it for tedious, confusion, or boring class activities. Such a teacher places student learning at the center of the curriculum and decides how best to make it happen in the fast paced environment of a modern school. Sometimes this means using technology as a centerpiece of instruction, sometimes it means using technology as a minor part of a lesson, and sometimes it means not using technology at all. 
• Explores technology by using it in the classroom while analyzing its roles in schools and society. The inter-workings of technology and its social, political, and economic implications are natural topics for classroom discussion. Students learning with a technology-using teacher are not just consumers of technology but creators and critics of it as well. They are aware of technology’s power to improve education or to impede it. 
• Promotes change at the classroom, school building, and system levels. Rather than “change for changes sake”, change should be intended to make it possible for very student to reach her or his full potential. Technology becomes a disruptive force, constantly suggesting that there may be new and better ways to do things. Its presence is an invitation to rethink the way things are and the way things might be and to put into practice curriculum and instruction that build interest in learning for all students. 

(Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 299) 

          Technology in schools follows two broad patterns: 

1. inclusion
2. infusion 

Inclusion is where computers and information technology are used mainly for transferring information and practicing skills, and infusion incorporates computers and other information technologies are as ongoing futures of teaching and learning in all academic subjects at all grade levels. 

Although I wont be in a traditional classroom, I will be a professional setting where technology is incorporated on a daily basis. Technology may be included into my professional setting or it may be infused. Either way, it will be important for me to explore technology, make informed choices on when and why to use technology, follow the change along the lines of technology use. 

Resources:

Fryer, W. (2014, March 10). Digital Portfolio Options. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/13052015275/

Karina. (2011, November 17). Amazing Teachers. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bunchesandbits/6354798575/in/photolist-aFy1dF-9HPaKr-bbYeNM-zUGkj-4ANrnu-oKyDZj-eWp5oB-92zJYM-aJxM16-4LDBaz-cMkRJo-dRHCFW-68jpVn-6rterd-5ZAtvh-pXgqLo-i9bu-qBMU2K-rtYqve-r3THAG-fKctRA-cMkQ6y-nKr4Re-hitWvo-aGqrSx-s9NdWp-o6WpS-5

Kelley, E. (2011, November 11). LinkedIn-Logo. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ekelly89/6431448699

Korbel, K. (2015, June 16). Wanted: Teachers - Tackk. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from https://tackk.com/jyblys

Lello, K. (2013, January 13). Lone Peak High School Dance: End of Semester 1 / Term 2. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from http://lphsdance.blogspot.com/2013/01/end-of-semester-1-term-2.html

Maloy, Robert, et al, (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.