Digital Badge J: Chapter 11

Assessments are a vital part of the teaching role. As I work towards becoming a teacher, I really need to start to consider the three main types of assessments associated with teaching. The first type of assessment stated in the textbook is, “new teacher assessment.” This involves licensing exams, observations from mentoring teachers, observations from professors, academic teaching methods, classroom management, and strategies to connect with students, parents, and colleagues. The second type of assessment will cover how I plan to assess my students’ progress of learning. Through assessing students, I will be assessing my own effectiveness of teaching as well. The third type of assessments to consider is how will encourage my future students to self-assess their own learning. Student involvement in the assessment process is very beneficial as it empowers students to be self-sufficient and motivated learners.

The evaluation process is so important for teachers. As a future teacher I really should start building my tentative digital teaching portfolio. Having a well put together digital teaching portfolio can make all the difference in the competitive job market. Teaching portfolios can include personal reflections, teaching philosophy, field experience, photos, videos, a resume and teaching strengths. The portfolio will continue to be a work in progress as my career progresses. Starting on a portfolio now will help me to evolve as a student and as a professional.

“Democratic schools are places where students and teachers together make substantive decisions about important aspects of educational operations, from the academic curriculum to school climate and rules” (Maloy 283). While some critics suggest student involvement in academic decisions is a poor idea, suggesting students would make ill-informed and self-centered choices, I disagree. As the textbook suggest students can set goals, assess progress, choose topics of learning, and assume greater responsibility in the classroom using the method of democratic schools. While few schools actually practice this entirely, teachers can implement some democratic school like activities within the classroom. I would like to allow my future students to offer insight into their own learning process. Democratic schooling may provide more involvement and interests in academics while promoting leadership skills amongst students as well.

Another means of promoting student engagement in the learning process using technology is by incorporating clickers. Similar to voting, students can see a topic of question displayed on the projector screen and use their clickers to vote. The votes will be correlated and projected as percentiles, or in graph form. Clickers can be used to test knowledge, formulate opinions, make predictions, and to encourage participation in lesson topics. I love the idea of using this type of technology in the classroom. 

Maloy, R., O’Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2^nd Edition.