Guess the Groundhog was right!!!!

This past week we got slammed with snow storms.  My kids ended up with a 5 and a half day weekend because of the early dismissal and snow days.  The snow, however, did not stop us from having class on Thursday night.  No, we didn't trek out onto the snow laden roads.  We held class online through Elluminate Live; it is a virtual classroom with whiteboard, video, sound, chat, etc.  What an experience that was!  I've never had an 'online class', but others in my class have and they said this was better because it had the video and was more interactive.  It amazes me how far the use of technology in the classroom has come.  This would be a wonderful tool to use in my own classroom, maybe for the child who is home-bound for whatever reason, or even to interact with a class in another state or country.  Oh, the possibilities for its use...

During our class we discussed Assessment, more specifically Authentic Assessment.  It is figuring out what the students know, what they still need to know, and how they are progressing in obtaining that knowledge.  Teaching is not about lecturing out of the text and then testing at the end, hoping your students have been able to memorize and recall all that information.  Teaching has evolved into pretesting, or understanding what your students already know about the topic; then teaching them more with assessment tools (not just written tests) to ensure they are comprehending and processing what you are teaching; then assigning a culminating assessment tool such as a project or presentation where your students can demonstrate that they have obtained the knowledge you sought to teach them.  Authentic Assessment takes the guesswork out of whether or not your students 'got it'.  And it helps alleviate some of the anxiety they get over having to get the 'grade'.  Standardized tests have put such pressure on our students to obtain a certain grade, they lose sight of what and why they are learning.  It is not just for the 'TEST', but it is for knowledge that they can apply to their lives.  And the parents, they push their kids to get the 'grade', losing sight of the question of whether or not their children are truly learning/processing/understanding.  Guess what....Authentic Assessment still provides that critical comparison for parents of how their child is doing in relation to the other students.  The ideas, concepts, and assessment tools of authentic assessment will definitely be used in my future classroom.