Week 4 (Halfway There for This Journey)

 This week I learned a very valuable lesson: the devil is in the details. I really have to pay close attention to instructions. If I miss the little things or leave out details, how can I successfully create clear and concise lesson objectives for my students?

This week was very intense. Its not easy working in a team environment, there are so many things you have to be concerned with. You have to make sure that you are communicating with everyone and you stay on top of deadlines. Trust is crucial when working with teams. My team is pretty motivated and we are all concerned with delivering a great product. Our motivation?,  we will be utilizing the tools that we create for our own personal toolboxes so we all have vested interest in getting it right.

What I learned this week is the importance using more than one tool to assess student learning.  This will provide you with many opportunities for you to adjust/revise your teaching strategy to help a struggling student. From the video, "An Introduction to Comprehensive Assessment,” not all things will require a classroom assessment or can be truly measured by a classroom assessment. The learning that students receive in the classroom sometimes can only be fully assessed based on their success or failure in the application of the learning after the books are closed or they have signed off from their last online class. Take a moment to swing by the Team Oscar the Grouch Assessment Toolbox webpage when you get a minute. Let me know what you think. Click on it under my link list.

Self /Peer Assessment (A Few Brief Words)

This is pretty difficult to do, but if you can pull this off with respect for the person being assessed, all people involved can benefit from the experience. You have to remember,  "assess the results and not the individual." I am overly hard on myself when it comes to self-evaluation. It’s a fine line that requires the right amount of balance. You don’t want to walk on water and you definitely don’t want to appear as a lifeless lump.

Random Thoughts (Murf Original)

"Collaboration  is cooperation dependent in the same location."

"Collaboration is time dependent in an online environment."