Wednesday, July 8, 2015

C4Ta #4 - Dean Shareski

The Teachers We Need

Summary:
Dean Shareski is blogging about how the role of the teacher has changed from 1988 (when he went to college) to 2015. The teacher does not have to be a good instructor anymore, but rather a designer, guide, and emotional and personal need support. There used to be an unwritten agreement that schools would provide academics and parents would provide emotional support. However, schools are taking on a broader role due to the lack of support from home. This is difficult for some teachers who were taught to be just educators. It is not possible to be a teacher who does not possess the commitment to care about and for children.

Comment:
I completely agree that teachers need to provide emotional support to their students. Having to observe school environments for classes, I have seen teachers who provide the emotional support to students who do not receive it elsewhere. I have also seen teachers who do not and only care about instructing the students as Shareski said. I want to be the type of teacher a student will look back on and say, "She cared." I will not only guide my students, but I will also care for them.

Quote

My Ongoing Struggle With Diffusing the Impact of Grades
In this blog post, Mr. Shareski talks about why he does not like giving grades. He says that grading takes up a lot of time and effort. He wants his students to reflect and he wants to be able to give them timely and insightful feedback. Therefore, he came up with a template that he gives his students to evaluate themselves after each assignment.
After each module’s assignment you’ll be asked to submit via dropbox, your personal self assessment. Here is a simple template to follow. For each heading consider writing 2-3 sentences at most.
What I did well this week: Write about your feelings on how well you communicated or completed the assignment
What I struggled with: Think about any struggles related to the concept, the relevance or any technical issues you may have had.
My interactions: This is where you can reflect both interactions within your post or with interactions you participated in or observed with your classmates. Focus on comments of others that made you think.
My grade: Based on the guidelines, how would you grade yourself out of 10. In general, this is how I would like you to approach your grading:
10- Perfect. Not only did you hit all the guidelines but you did so to the highest level. (Note, I doubt many will hit this but I may be surprised)
9-Outstanding. Hit all almost all the guidelines and those that didn’t may not have added to the post. Something you would be happy to share with your colleagues.
8-Solid. Met the majority of the guidelines. Felt like you covered all your basis fairly well.
7-Good. Nothing amazing but still useful and at the level of a grad student
6-Okay. Mostly covered the content but lots of holes and missing guidelines.
5-Barely acceptable. You can make the argument that you’ve fulfilled the requirements but at a minimal level. Easy to tell that it’s rushed or lacks much depth or effort.
How I might improve this assignment or module: If you have any suggestions, please add them.
For the most part, Shareski gave his students the grade they gave themselves, unless he completely disagreed with them. He said that this technique really works and he will continue to use it until he comes up with a new way to grade his students.
Comment:
I think Shareski has a good technique, having the students self-evaluate. However, I feel as if some students would not be honest about what grade they should receive. I guess that is why Shareski evaluates the work as well to see if the students are being truthful. Also I agree with him asking what he should do if a student gives himself a 10 and Shareski thinks the work is an 8 or 9, what grade should the students receive? I think this would be my problem with letting the students self-evaluate or at least with the template Shareski uses. If I have my students self-evaluate, I would want to tell my students exactly what I am looking for and then let them decide if they met the standards or not.

Self-Evaluation

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