Welcome to Teachers At Risk
An honour
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Edublog AwardsJan
16
Helping students take ownership for better test preparation.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Evaluation, Goals, Learning Strategies, math, motivating students, Study Skills, underachieving students, Useful Handouts | 1 Comment
I want my students to reflect on how well or how poorly they prepared for tests. I want my students to think about being better prepared for their next test. Often, they don’t prepare at all beyond the review for the test I do in class. I see this happening all the time. I think my students may intend to prepare for the test, but when they leave my classroom they leave their intentions behind. I’m hoping the test reflection handout I have them complete will encourage them to remember to prepare for the next test. I’m thinking that maybe after completing a half dozen or so of these reflections, the idea of preparing for the next test will stick in their mind. Now that I’m telling you about my plan, I think I might even have them reflect on their quiz preparation as well. Then the idea of preparing should be deeply embedded in their minds and they will remember to prepare. Here’s a copy of the reflection handout.
I have tried to use kid friendly language, you can change it to suit your purposes. Also, this reflection was about a math test ; you can change it to suit your purposes.
Test Reflection Sheet
| Name: ________________________________ Date:______________________
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| How do you feel about your performance on this test? (circle one)
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Awesome!! Cool Lame Get Real
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| Do you think you demonstrated what you knew about the topic on this test?
Why?
Why not?
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| How much time did you spend studying for this test?
I spent about
Days ____ Hours ____ Minutes____
studying for this test.
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| How much of the assigned work did you complete on this topic?
All____ Almost all_____ Some_______ Little_______
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| What would you do differently preparing for the next test? Why?
What would you do the same? Why?
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Jan
12
How a teaching staff is like a sports team
Filed Under Dealing With Stress, SOS for Teachers, Teacher Support, The way I see it, The Way I See It | Leave a Comment
My husband Kurt, who is not a teacher, made an excellent point about teachers the other day. He told me that a teaching staff is like a sports team. The rookie players that sign a new contract with a team do not get always get to play the positions that they want. I had mentioned that I wondered why new hot shot teachers( I mean that very respectfully because some of our rookie teachers are really amazing) get hired in June to play a certain position, I mean teach a certain subject and then find in September they’re not assigned to play their favourite position after all. In fact, rookie teachers might be teaching a subject they’re not even all that familiar with. Kurt argued that the rookie members on the team are there to support the team. That may mean getting the less desirable assignments. They may be future most valuable players, but right now they are rookies and have to learn the ropes and earn the respect of the veteran players and management.
I’d never thought about it that way before.
Jan
4
The future of online schools
Filed Under online schools, The way I see it, Web 2.0 tools and technologies | 1 Comment
The beginning of the year is always a time to look forward. Today Teachers at Risk is going to look forward to the future of education, specifically the future of online schools. Sarah Lee Casey, an advocate for on online schools, is going to share her thoughts with us on the topic in the following guest post. I really haven’t thought much about the topic of online education, and I really appreciate that you have. Thank you for this Sarah.
The Future of Education: Online Schools
More and more, universities, colleges, and trade-schools are offering classes online, allowing their students more options than simply the traditional classroom-based education. As this has been occurring, online schooling has gained notoriety as a feasible option in secondary education for busy professionals, working parents, and those who live too far from campus to attend classes. Many have argued that distance education schools are truly the future of education as technology continues to advance, allowing for greater interactivity via the internet between classmates and teachers. However, there are several areas of distance education that need to be either completely overhauled or developed further to truly make online schools a viable alternative for education in the 21st century. These issues include the quality of instruction, cost effectiveness, and misuse of technology.
1.) Quality of Instruction
While students generally report enjoying online courses for the freedom and flexibility they offer, many teachers feel the quality of instruction suffers due to the limitations of online teaching/learning. A recent study shows that most instructors would be willing to teach another online class after their first experience in teaching one, but they also rated the quality of the online classes they taught as lower quality than other traditional classes. Too often instructors are reported to have taught their online course(s) in exactly the same manner as they taught their traditional classroom-setting course(s), not taking full advantage of the technology available to them. There needs to be opportunities for instructors to learn how to make full use of all the tools at their disposal when teaching an online class to bring up the overall quality of instruction.
2.) Cost Effectiveness and Hidden Costs
At first glance, it would appear that distance education schools should cost far less in both tuition and implementation than traditional, campus-based schools. However, upon closer inspection, sometimes the online courses actually cost far more to run than those taught in a classroom. When Southern Arkansas University decided to give online education a shot, their estimates for the cost of implementing such a program were far less than the actual net cost ended up being. The startup equipment alone cost $80,000, while the establishment and upkeep of an internet server was another $1500 per month. Then there are the human capital costs such as paying the instructors and the necessary technicians to keep the systems up and running with a minimum of glitches. The minimum number of staff needed to successfully deliver an online lecture via compressed video format is three: 1 instructor and 2 technicians, one at each site. In addition, do not overlook the costs associated with training technicians and instructors. Thus, three highly trained professionals are needed to deliver the same class that one highly trained professional would teach in the traditional classroom setting, driving up costs even more. According to a report by the California State University System, only very large courses that have over 500 students per one instructor are more cost-effective than the traditional classroom setting.
3.) Misuse of Technology
It may seem evident that instructors should be trained on how to maximize the use of their technology when teaching an online course, but more often than not they are thrown into the class with no guidelines whatsoever. Simply put, most instructors have no idea how to properly utilize the technology handed to them when teaching an online class. An online class cannot be taught in exactly the same way that a traditional class is. The instructor must learn not only how to properly use the technology associated with the course, but must also change the way in which they deliver their material and organize the work that students must do. The best distance education instructors are creative, well-informed, and experts in the realm(s) of the technology that are at their disposal.
As distance education schools continue to take off, and online classes become the norm of a typical college semester, the problems noted above must be addressed. To ignore them would cause the quality of online education to suffer, effecting not only the students that take the online classes, but the instructors and institutions that implement the classes as well.
This article was written by Sarah Lee Casey. She graduated Ohio State with a degree in Elementary Education. She loves teaching kids and watching them discover and learn new things. She works as a camp counselor each year at a local Christian camp and also advocates for online schooling.
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