Evaluate 3.1.2 – Self-Reflection on Teaching Abilities Quest

Submit evidence of reflection on your individual teaching abilities. Include artifacts, evaluation feedback, your own reflections, e-portfolio links, professional growth plans and anything else that showcases introspection into strengths and weaknesses as an online educator and document all in your individual blog.

After completing a blog post that meets the requirements of this quest, submit the link to your post in the Submission Form at the bottom of this page.

A good teacher continuously strives to make instruction more effective. No matter how good a teacher is - there is always room for improvement - but it can be hard to figure out  how to be MORE effective. There are so many ways that define us as effective - State assessments, classroom assessments, student surveys, averaged class grades to name just a few.  Which should a teacher look at? In order to get an overall view of the teacher as a whole we need to look at them all looking for areas of strength while determining areas of weakness and creating plans for improvement.  I like that GaVS has us do an e-portfolio which brings is our professional development,  data from our classrooms, student work, and our own reflections on how effective we think we are as teachers and what we can do to improve. I Here are some of my reflections from the 2015-2016 school year.

Professional  Growth 

Professional growth is what keeps us moving forward as educators. We can be introduced to new ideas, reaffirm our current ones, or just have time for reflection.  Everyone can improve - even the best of the best. Here are some examples of professional development that I have been apart of this past year.

Best Practices - 

There are always buzz words in education and what is considered best practices for teaching.  But the truth is Best Practices are always changing - they change based on the needs of your students (age, subject, ability), the environment you teach in (face to face vs online or even a hybrid model), and a slew of other issues that might pop up in the day to day excitement of teaching. For best practice in the online environment, I really try to relate to my students - let them know that there is a human being on the other end of the screen and I feel that these reflections show that - by tailoring feedback, asking personal questions to engage students, and just connecting with them to let them know I am thinking about them.

 

Data Analysis

As we have discussed several time sin this quest - data is what drives our instruction. What do kids need to know? What do they need help with? What can I do to help them be successful in our class?  These reflections I think show how i use data in my classroom to inform how my class is run.

Differentiation

Differentiation allows all students a chance to interact with the content in a manner that best suits them. Though GaVS content is very differentiated (you can read, you can watch videos, you can listen, there are hands on projects) differentiation by my allows me to make the classroom my own - and allows me to extend the student's learning beyond the world of BrightSpace. Below are some examples of how I have differentiated in the past year.

It is  all of the pieces - the professional development, looking at class data, reflecting on best practices and differentiation allows a teacher to figure out what they can do to be more effective!

Evaluate 3.1.1 – Differentiation Quest

Provide sample data from student results for a course within your field. The data can be entirely theoretical and written out in text form.

Upon completion of the data, discuss the method used to group students based on abilities, strategies utilized to examine student performance, and areas requiring modification of instruction.

In my face to face classroom I recently started using Kahoot! an online gaming system to help review for assessments.  What I like about this online program is that data it can instantly deliver to me.  Students gain points not only for correct answers but how fast they answer the questions as well.

Image one:
Shows the Kahoot, the date, number of students, number of questions and the class averages. This gives me an idea of how the class di overall.

Image Two:

Shows students total scores, how many questions they got right and how many they got wrong total. I can see how students did and can place them in groups based on their knowledge if I use this as a pretest.

Image Three:
This image breaks downs each student by question. It tells me what answer choice that student picked and how many points (effectively telling me how fast they answered the question) .  By knowing what questions students got wrong or struggled with (lesser points) I can help tailor their learning for what they need. I can steer them towards the content the need to review.

Fourth Image 
The fourth image shows each question individually - it breaks down how each student did after the question information.  This helps me ensure that the questions are valid. When I am doing a Kahoot for review if less than 50% of the students get a question right I often look at how the question is asked or I will ask myself did I cover this material enough? I will then structure what points I try to hit one more time based on these stats.

I just started using Kahoot this year in my face to face classroom and hope to use it in my courses in the spring for reviews. This will help me deliver individual data to students to help them figure out what parts of the material they are not really getting.

Evaluate 2.1.2: Rubrics and Learning Competencies

For this section, set up a competency structure for one unit of your sample course. Associate the assignments in that unit with the competency. Submit both a screenshot of the structure and a detailed explanation of why you created the structure that way. Include a discussion of the various pathways a student may go through to attain the competencies in the unit and document all in your blog.

Competency based learning lends itself to a wide variety of assessments and can provide students with flexibility in how they show their mastery of the the subject matter at hand. Competency allows students who bring in prior knowledge to move on to subjects faster than the course is paced or allows a person who is not a good test taker to demonstrate their knowledge in another manner.  subjects.  The important this is for teachers to review the assessments offered, project, lab, essay, reading response, etc to make sure that they align in the entire standard and that students can demonstrate mastery of the subject.

In my face to face classroom, I use checklists with options for students to demonstrate mastery of subject material. This is a great way to compact work for gifted students and students who are independent learners. 


I decided to try and create a competency for a past Epidemiology course. I decided to use the standard:

4. SEPI5.  Students will interpret and critically analyze health related messages in the media to make informed public health decisions and establish life goals
   
   1. Understand the emergent technology that may impact health and disease
      
   2. Judge the strengths and limitations of epidemiological reports
      
   3. Students will evaluate the use of a health related strategy to promote a healthy lifestyletudents will be exposed to various career paths in public health  

I focused on the following essential questions:

• How do you determine the truth of such claims using positive and negative aspects of epidemiological reports?
• How do you evaluate media messages?
• Why is it important to be media literate?

This first image shows the EQs and assignments.

The second image shows the assignments that are associated with the EQs. 

If after reviewing the material the students feels ready to demonstrate mastery, they can immediately take the test to reach competency.  Other students can choose to do one, two or more activities to interact with the information before attempting the exam.

Evaluate 2.1.1 – Data Driven Instruction, Analytics, Reporting Tools Quest

Evaluate 2.1.1 – Data Driven Instruction, Analytics, Reporting Tools Quest

Review the artifacts above on student enrollments and student progress in the course. Then, provide a detailed description of all that this information tells you about the hypothetical course. Include how the teacher might adjust the course in the future based on the previous activity of these students. Document in a reflection on your blog.

The learning management system can help teachers, parents, students, and facilitators stay on top of what is happening in a course.  For a new teacher, this lesson is invaluable to figure out the types of information available to them. I am very familiar with these tools as i use them every day. In this blog I will reflect on the data that can be found on the less on site,  reference from the link https://www.openteachertraining.org/blog/quest/evaluate-2-1-1/, and to refelect on what can be gleaned from this data and what actions I would take as a teacher. 

1. Enrollments and 

Attendance

The first image is what teachers see when they login into TheSIS. It shows the current courses taught and how many students are enrolled in each section.  I would use this every day to see how my enrollment numbers might change so that I know if new students are added to a class and i can take the appropriate steps to welcome them.

The second picture gives the teacher a snapshot of each students. It list who is responsible for payment, if the student is general, special education, or gifted. It also lets me know that all students are responsible for taking the EOCT. As a teacher I would ensure that there was EOCT review throughout the course and provide opportunities to extend learning (that I would offer to all students but strive to reach the gifted ones.) 

2. Communication

The third image is what shows up in Communication in TheSIS. This is were all official emails are send from and recorded. The teacher can also take notes about phone calls emails, and specific incidences that need to be recorded (switched schedules, missing work, grade below 70, academic dishonesty, etc) should be noted.  Here the teacher made welcome calls via dial my calls (which we can no longer do unless parents opt in to an automated system), calls about failing students. These are good emails because it does reference a specific grade point - just the fact the student is not passing and there is a need to be covered

The forth image shows positive communication made to parents. I would like to do this more often via the email tool in TheSIS.  It is important to note and exact copy of the email sent to parents is recorded. 

3. Observational Data and Analytics

There are several tools within TheSIS and Brightspace that helps teachers understand student progress and if they are really progressing at a reasonable pace or waiting until the last minute to complete work. This specific heatmap shows how many times a student has accessed the course and on what dates. One student has not accessed the course at all, and another has only accessed it once. As a teacher looking at this, I would make every attempt to contact the students, parent, and facilitator to see what we can do to help this students be successful in the course.

4. Students monitoring their own learning

The 5th image gives a snapshot of what students see when they look in the grade book. The students can see what they made on an assignment and see specific feedback. The specific feedback left for the students is ket as it helps them understand why they might have gotten points off on an assignments. As a teacher if a students totally misses the mark on an assignment I will provide specific guidance and allow them to redo their assignment for partial credit. After all I want students to learn form their mistakes!

The 6th image allows students to see the questions they have missed after a quiz has been submitted.  I encourage students to do test corrections so that they can focus on the information they missed and know it for future exams.

The 7th and 8th images shows students what they see after they have submitted a dropbox assignment.  There is a view option that allows stunts to see in more detail the comments left for that assignment.  This is the place where teachers can provide specific ways to improve assignments such as the three things listed for that one assignment I usually try to provide a web link or video to help students with the information in my feedback especially if they missed a concept.

Evaluate 1.1.3 The Summative Assessment Quest

Showcase an assessment created and include how the method was used to assess the validity, reliability, and security. Post the assessment in your blog.

After completing a blog post that meets the requirements of this quest, submit the link to your post in the Submission Form at the bottom of this page.

For any assessment - validity of the exam - is of the most important. Is the exam giving an accurate snapshot of what students know, understand, and can apply?  Is the exam covering the standards as a whole and not just a section of the material?  These are questions that we should ask ourselves as as we give exams. In my face to face classroom, I create the exam before I start teaching a unit so that it can drive my lessons.  Before each exam, I review test questions to make sure material that I covered in the unit is evenly dispersed. I also make sure that my questions have basic, intermediate, and higher order questions so that all students are challenged.

I know that our grading and the test is reliable b/c I co-grade with my co-teachers.  For every exam we sit down and we each take the exam in the allotted time. After wards we discuss each answer, (MC, Data, and Short answer) so that we can see the different angels that students may approach the questions. We decide on the answer(s) that are mist valid, and decide the point level that students might get depending on the depth of their answer (data and short answer questions). This is a tedious process, but by doing this we ensure that the grades across similar classes are reliable as we are all looking and grading for the same content. Another thing we do is we will often we will mix up our papers and grade each other's students so that there is not bias in our grading. In an online classroom, I can go back and look at student answer choices and can award credit for  fill in the blank(where the vocab might be off, misspelled, etc) and short answers (I can give them credit based on the depth of their knowledge)

Security of a test is of up most importance as you want to test what students know and not what they can memorize. In the online classroom, security is kept in check because there is a time limit for the exams. Students do not have all day so they can not 'google' the answer.  Another way security is handled is the questions are pulled at random - so students might not be taking the same test as their friend. We do this in the face to face classroom. I always create three versions of the test, mixing and even changing answer choices. This prevents students from having wondering eyes. I am also securing my test, by only posting the title and instructions on the blog post and not exposing the questions.

Evaluate 1.1.2 Quality Feedback Quest

In your blog, provide a student work sample and accompanying feedback that showcases some of the expectations listed above and offers a sound example of quality, authentic feedback. Discuss aspects of the sample that align with the best practices discussed in this quest. After completing a blog post that meets the requirements of this quest, submit the link to your post in the Submission Form at the bottom of this page.

For an epidemiology course I recently taught students have a lab in which they are to go through facts and make a claim about the where they think the disease came from. Students often just want to put an X in a data chart. I created a simple rubric to help me grade the assignment and offered specific feedback for students as to how to improve their data charts by adding details. Because this is the first lab in this class (and they have not really be introduced as to how detailed data charts need to be I allow them to resubmit their work based on feedback).

First attempt at data chart

My feedback:

5 points out of 6 = 83.33

Your analysis and the way you used data to support your claim is spot on.

I would like you to spend a bit more time on your data charts putting in details about the situation. This is important in case another epidemiologist is looking at the data. Often epidemiologist in the field will send their notes back for someone to interpret them.

You can resubmit for half of your missed credit if you would like. 

Ms. L

                                     

Second attempt at data chart

FEEDBACK NOTES:

The feedback above observes best practices by  positive encouraging feedback. I told the student what they right - analysis was spot on and the student used data to support the claim. I  also explained specific reasoning as to why it is important to fill in data tables with qualitative and quantitative notes. The students was able to take this feedback and resubmit their data chart.  Now this student is aware of how detailed data charts should be in this class for future assignments.

Skill: Evaluate 1.1.1 Formative Assessment Quest

Consider the best means of developing and delivering assessments, projects, and assignments that meet standards-based learning goals and assess learning progress by measuring student achievement of learning goals. How might a teacher employ ways to assess student readiness for course content and method of delivery? To demonstrate this, create a formative assessment in a demo course you are creating. Post a link to the assessment in your blog.

As I stated in a previous quest, Formative Assessments are key for students and teachers to understand where a student's learning is. In a face to face classroom, teachers are formally and informally assessing student work on a daily basis.  I really like this definition from Wikipedia of formative assessment 

         All those activities undertaken by teachers, and or/students, which provide information to
         be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged              (Black and William 1998).

It is harder to assess on a daily basis in an online learning environment because often there is not the daily interaction that you have with your students in a traditional setting.  While in synchronous sessions, class discussions, or by posing a question in a news post teachers can employ some traditional methods:

1. Exit ticket - students can answer a few questions about they learned in a session and send via email. This way the instructor has an idea of what students got and where they need to go.

2. After posing and article i often have students complete a 3.2.1 Three things they learned, two connections to the content, and one question you have. This tells me how well students are relaying the information to what we are studying.

In an online environment, there are times when student need to be able to review or be assessed on their own time. for my online class and face to face class I like to use Kahoot. Kahoot is a game-based learning platform. As long as students have a code to a game, student can review by themselves or other students.  I assign students a number, so they can be anonymous if they choose to be. The game collects data on what questions each particpant gets wrong or right. By playing these games, I can gage how much prior knowledge a student has, where misconceptions lie, or help figure out what concepts they are missing for an upcoming test.

How students join a game. 

Some questions from an immune system pre/post test.