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Evaluation EDU 501
Thanks Bridget,
It was a pleasure being in your class!

Thanks for your help with fixing up the side bar - that really cleaned things up for me.
Liana Amy

Evaluation EDU 501
Hi Liana,

I have posted your evaluation the Home page of your personal wiki. Please let me know if you have any difficulty locating or accessing it. Your work was excellent and made such interesting reading! It has been such a pleasure working with you. All the best with the rest of the program.

Best regards!
Bridget

Hi! Welcome to Liana's wiki page.
To view my "Portfolio" Click on "Portfolio" under the left navigation bar.
Evaluation EDU 501
{LianaAmyEvaluation501.doc}
Assignments for course:
EDU 501 Summative Assessment 11B Be Observed By a Peer
The process of self evaluation is always a worthwhile one. This particular process has been interesting in terms of how my perception of my own teaching (and how I “measured” myself on the rubric) changed slightly as I continued in my practice throughout these two weeks. As I paid attention to various details in my daily teaching, I would come home and change parts of my hi-lighted evaluation. A big part of the process is paying attention to the evidences that I can find for the various components that I was assessing. I also found that (as I referred to earlier in this paper), there are portions of the rubric where I felt I could place myself in more than one space, depending on the subject area I was teaching, it was difficult to always choose one “label” when I can see differences in my competency depending on the subject being taught.
Also, as I began to research methods and pedagogy, I came to realize that simply wanting to “improve my questioning techniques and discussions” is really only one part of leading a good book talk. When I notice students not participating, I need to consider not just the questions that I ask, but the issue of reading comprehension, the ability of my students to understand oral questions, as well as the freedom students feel to respond to each others’ comments without “raising their hand” or “taking their turn”. For now, I’d like to keep questions and discussion as my focus. I’m looking forward to working towards cooperative discussions with my students, modeling good questions, and using good questions to elicit deeper understanding.

Home
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Home
Domain 1
Domain 2
Domain 3
Domain 4

Hi! Welcome to Liana's wiki page.
To view my "Portfolio" Click on "Portfolio" under the left navigation bar.
Assignments for course:
EDU 501 Summative Assessment 11B Be Observed By a Peer
Guided Reflection – Teacher Lesson Reflection
{Personal hilite.doc}
Introduction – LESSON TWO of being observed
The lesson took place at the beginning of our new science unit “Rocks, sand and silt”. The students had previously practiced observing rocks, and were about to begin an activity on sorting rocks according to student-chosen criteria. Prior to this lesson, they had brainstormed and listed together, vocabulary for describing certain aspects of rocks (hard, bumpy, colourful etc). The lesson involved reading a story about a boy who collects rocks and sorts them in various ways. My focus was on using questioning and discussion techniques. The reason for this focus being that I have a handful of students who are hesitant to share ideas in class, particularly in response to written material when read in a large group setting. I wanted to create genuine discussion amongst my students, and have all students participate effectively. After the story, students worked with their discussion partner to sort a group of rocks together based on an agreed upon criteria. After completing the sorts, students did a room “walk” to see how the different groups sorted their rocks, and hear the explanations and reasoning for the different criteria.
In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for them to learn? How do you know?
do so.
2.
2. If you the future?
The samples of student work came in the follow-up activity to the discussion – the actual sorting activity. The kids were really excited about sorting the rocks, and each group was able to choose a criterion and sort the rocks accordingly. One pair of students used more than one criteria (“these ones are the pink ones, these ones are the bumpy ones and over here are the round ones” – thereby mixing up colour, texture and shape criteria) however, in following activities, they will be required to do more sorting, and will focus on choosing a single criteria for their sort. Now that I’ve observed this, I know I will need to be more specific about the kinds of criteria there are, and to ask for them to use just one criterion for their sorts. I think in the future, I would make a visual list their ideas of how rocks could be sorted immediately after the story/discussion time, and then point out the requirement that they sort their rocks using just one of those kinds of criteria.
3. Comment on your classroom procedures, student conduct, and your use of physical space. To what extent did these contribute to student learning?
an agreement.
There
There are several their sorts.
4.
4. Did you your plan?
I
I departed from discussion activities.
5.
5. Comment on they effective?
I love starting lessons off with stories, and this year, I’ve had more opportunity than ever to do it. My kids particularly love stories this year, and don’t seem to get tired of listening to them. However, there are a handful of students whose language is still developing, who seem to find it difficult to always talk about what they’ve heard read to them. In this way, the story topic was relevant enough, and easy to follow so that even my ESL kids were able to keep up and be involved. Part of the management of this kind of activity was in deciding when to bring discussion to a close, and when to allow it to continue. My more verbal students would have been happy to discuss longer, however, I did not want to have the discussions dominated by one or two voices. At one point, I realized that as I moved on to the next part of the story, I had to cut discussion short. I remember thinking “Isn’t that ironic – here I am with someone observing me with the focus on discussion and questioning techniques and I’m cutting discussions short!” Unfortunately, there is always the clock to consider, and a schedule that is not always learning-friendly. The sorting activity that followed was a hands-on, practical application of what they had heard about and discussed. I felt it was very effective. Time wise – I wish there would have been more opportunity for students to continue sorting in more and more ways. I think they could easily have used another 15 minutes or so to further practice the skill. Next time, I will try to do this activity with a bigger block of time if possible.
more fluent.
I
I realized that the text.
The
The materials (rocks sorting activity.
6.
6. If you do differently?
Next
Next time, I their sorts.
7.
7. Consider the of performance.
(See
(See attached form "Personal Hi-Light")
Introduction
Introduction – LESSON (Being observed)
The
The lesson took set out.
In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for them to learn? How do you know?
division skills.
2.
2. If you the future?
The
The samples of close supervision.
3. Comment on your classroom procedures, student conduct, and your use of physical space. To what extent did these contribute to student learning?
their process.
4.
4. Did you your plan?
I
I hadn’t really a problem.
5.
5. Comment on they effective?
Because
Because of their naturally followed.
I
I had not limited discussion.
The
The classroom has been effective.
6.
6. If you do differently?
There
There isn’t a were doing.
7.
7. Consider the of performance.
(See attached form - Personal Hi-light)
Assignment 2B: Observing a Peer

2) I also maintain a Web page through Nesa Virtual Schools which keeps parents updated on classroom events, schedules, current themes in math and language arts.
http://nesa.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
{Announcement_page.png}

The past two years I have served on the "Communications" team for our continuous improvement plan. We've been working on defining what qualities and practices will make our writing program go from adequate to outstanding. This has meant meeting together regularly to review the current "plan" and consider changes. It has been valuable (again as a new staff member) to engage in discussion with other language arts teachers (from Kindergarten onwards to middle school) and develop a greater sense of "flow" between the grades in terms of writing outcomes/expectations.