Assessing Week Three.

Well, that's all she wrote, I guess.  Pre-internship is over, and I had a blast.  Miller is a phenomenal school, the staff was (and will continue to be) fantastic, and the students were fun to teach.

I have only a few comments on assessment this time around.  I am mostly just amazed with how much students care about marks.  They don't really seem to care about what they are learning, just the quantitative end to it.  When you let students know that you're going to be giving them a mark based on how on-task they are during a work period, the quality of work goes up, and the noise level goes down.

I also noticed that the amount of interest a student has in an assignment correlates with their mark.  I had two major assignments during my time at Miller -- An eleven-point paragraph (comparing two poems) and a personal reflective essay.  I had one student that handed in his eleven-point and got a  2/26 -- and 8%.  He clearly didn't take the assignment seriously, and it showed.  I figured that he was going to do the same with his reflective essay due to the fact that during our three work periods, he didn't do a thing for the assignment.  He just complained about how he had nothing to write about.  I tried to help him think, but he was very resilient.  Finally, April 2nd came along.  Everyone was handing in their papers, and, to my surprise, I got his.  It was even longer than the assignment ask for.  Once he found a topic that he wanted to write about, he was able to do it.  It was interesting to read, and he hit every point on the rubric.  In the end, he pulled off an 86% on the paper -- Which also bumped his overall mark to be above a 50%.  He's passing the class!

Lastly, my intern had a really interesting system for students who did poorly on an assignment.  At the bottom of their page, she would write "RL by this date: _____".  RL stands for "re-demonstration of Learning."  If she feels a student could have done better on an assignment, she'll give them time to prove it.  I really liked this, as it puts the responsibility back on to the student -- they have a chance to bring their mark up, and whether or not they take it is up to them.

Just as an overall, I really enjoyed my time as a teacher.  Building relationship, working with feedback, and evolving into a decent teacher was awesome.  I could see myself grow each and every day.

Yay!