The Good………….

There are many great things I can say about this class so far.  For one, I have learned a lot of new knowledge.  I have been challenged to think; many of the articles I have read I have shared with other teachers in my grade level and talked with them about their viewpoints.  So not only am I blogging about what I am learning, I am also talking with others about what I’m learning/thinking.  I believe that learning is social and I’m very pleased that the discussions/articles and work I have done for this class carry over into the conversations I have in my daily life.  So many times I have taken classes and never really thought.  I find myself thinking all of the time about what I am reading, what I think about what I have read, and how I could apply those things to my classroom.  I truly have gotten a lot from this class.

I also appreciate that Nate expresses his opinions openly and that he expects, even challenges us to do the same.  Some professors want you to just nodd your head and agree with every word that comes out of their mouths.  I get the sense that while Nate may not necessarily always agree with our viewpoints, he enjoys hearing them and doesn’t expect us to keep quiet if our educational philosophies are somewhat different than his.  I feel like he has created a community of learners…….where we are all in this together………….he is our instructor and we are learning from him and each other BUT he may even feel like he has learned some things from us. 

The Bad…………….

We were asked to be genuine in our responses. I feel like the grading scale for the participation area is a little vague.  I realize that I am thinking like a “student” by examining grading criteria; I’m working on thinking like a learner rather than a student and getting better at it, but I admit I still need a lot of improvement.  Here are my thoughts…………..

The criteria for participation is below:

I feel like there should be a score for “Participates in all activities” after “Participates in most activities”…………….(such as below:)

• Fails to participate or merely goes through the motions   0-1
• Participates in some activities     2-3
• Participates in most activities    4-5
• Participates in all activities       6-7 (this way the student gets credit for completing all assignments)
• Participates in all activities with enthusiam and engagement    8-9                        (the student gets credit for completing all assignments, but if he/she does them with enthusiam and engagement more points are awarded) 
• Partipates in all activities with enthusiam,engagement, and engages others   10    

I am in no way suggesting that Nate change the grading criteria………I just tried to put a lot of thought into my critique and the only thing that has bothered me so far is that there is no score for simply “Participates in all activities”……I feel like credit should be given for completing all of the assignments and then more points should be awarded if the student does them with enthusiam and engagement.  This is just my opinion………..

The Ugly…….

There is no “ugly”.  I just wanted a good title for my blog.    I am excited about how much I have learned in only 3 weeks; I am curious about what lies ahead.  What is most important to me is that I feel like this class is making me reexamine my views of our educational system and the methods I use to provide instruction to my students.  I am starting to see why “as good as the classroom isn’t good enough”.  I need to make some changes in my own classroom and plan on doing so.  I am already in the process of doing that…………but I’ll save that for another blog!