Week 7 Reflections

This week’s theme was about motivating students and teachers. I liked the posts I read about motivating teachers because it is true that many teachers get burned out over time. I think it is vitally important to keep both students and teachers motivated to do their best. I am not sure how I misunderstood what type of article we were supposed to write about this week, but somehow I misread the assignment goals. After reading my classmates blogs, I saw my mistake. I thought that we just needed an article on motivation, not necessarily motivating students or teachers in particular, so I chose an article called “Motivation and Reading.” I actually thought the article was interesting though its findings were not extremely profound. I felt bad that my article was not exactly on topic, but I figured that someone could get some use of it anyway.

I also thought the “sugar, spice, and everything nice” prompt was interesting. It made me think about what teachers do in order to keep students motivated, and I wondered to myself whether those actions were able to sustain the student’s interest. I enjoyed reading my classmates opinion on this subject as well.

Here were my insights from Wong Chapters 21, 22, 24.

Wong 21

This chapter was about the value of what students actually accomplish in class, not the goals that the teacher sets out to teach. I liked this chapter because it gave a step-by-step procedure for creating effective assignments that checks to see if the students are learning. I think this can be a fault in many classrooms; the teacher fails to sincerely look at how much the student understands and what they actually need to do to understand.

Wong Chapter 22

This chapter is revolving around when to give a test and what a test is actually for in the student’s educational process. Teachers are meant to create objectives before their lessons, which contain what will be taught, and directly relates to the content the students will be tested. This chapter also goes over the difference between summative tests (given at the end of unit or semester) vs. formative tests (given throughout the classes to check for comprehension). Summative tests are graded, and many times formative tests are not. I thought this chapter was good because it briefly went over when and how to test and the objective of testing.

Wong Chapter 24

This chapter is about teamwork between teachers and the increased effectiveness that is a result of their collaboration. By working together, teachers can learn strategies from one another and increase their overall effectiveness with their students. The chapter explains the positive elements of collaboration. I know that when I was teaching, it helped immensely to get feedback from my co-workers. I am sure that every teacher needs the assistance of others in order to continue to progress in their profession.

Website Recommendation
https://ycped200.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Layout
This website was great for creating classroom layouts. The page allows you to see different classroom arrangements and you can even alter the arrangement to your liking. I think it would be a good resource for a new teacher who is figuring out how to use his or her classroom space in the most efficient, effective way.