Weekly Writing: Did ya get it? #psuaged16

With large amounts of reading assignments in various classes, reflecting on what I read is vital for the understanding of the subject matter. By blogging each week about the various readings, I will be able to think, reflect, and the share with my peers! Hang in there with me as the reading assignments come, just know that I am making it short and concise for you instead of your reading them all! Enjoy!

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Teaching can be funny sometimes. You plan out your lessons, create engaging hands on activities so that your students can connect ideas from the classroom to the activity, but how do we know if our students “got it”? Besides juggling being a teacher, being prepared for every lesson, having all of your materials ready, it can be very overwhelming and you may make the common mistake of not going back and checking for your students understanding of what you are teaching. So this week’s weekly writing was ALL about ways we can check for understanding to make sure our kids “got it”!

Hinge those questions

One great technique that I learned was called “hinging your questions”. What this means is that checking for understanding from your students, you can check to see if you want to take a step back and go over material again OR keep moving forward because your students understand what is going on. It is important to make sure that everyone is on the right page to leave no one behind.

Why not reflect about yourself?

It is interesting to think about letting students have time to actually think back and reflect about what they learned instead of what you thought they learned. This reflection is key for students because they can actually evaluate how they are doing and can carry that strategy with them in their careers.

Student Portfolios

My mom always told me that it was never too early to create a resume and create a portfolio of all of my achievements. Although I was 5 years old when she said this (just kidding), it stuck with me and I have been able to track my growth. How awesome would it be if I could do that in MY classroom? Where students can have hand held materials tracking how they were their entire time they were in agriculture education classes. Infinite possibility can happen and can you imagine what type of portfolio those students can have when trying to find a job? I mean WOW!

Rubrics

This is such a stable in education. Teachers use rubrics to let the students know what they are being graded on and also help teachers effectively grade students work. These rubrics need to show that what students are learning is purposeful and it is building them up for what is yet to come. This is a very important tool for the teachers as well as the students!

 So where do I go from here? Simple! During my student teaching I need to be intentional and creative with my students to help them “understand” the subjects that are being taught. Hopefully, it will create a healthy learning environment and my students will be engaged during all lessons!

Thanks for reading Ag Ed Fam!