Today was easy and went well. Laura and I were asked to regrade the math section of the gifted test and then to put percentages and raw scores on more of the tests we graded yesterday. This is the time we learned a valuable lesson. Mrs. Wall has two high school seniors who come in and help her out. They had graded part of the mulitple choice tests and math sections. When she asked them to put percentages on them, they did not know how to do this. At this moment, she realized that she had a problem. She asked us to regrade the work which was a good thing. As I was grading the math problems, I realized that the high school students were not able to correctly grade the tests. Some of them had specific answers and then on other questions more than answer was available. For example the answer for one was 1/4 or any other fraction that could be reduced to 1/4. In other words, 25/100 would work. However, since all the options for answers were not written, the students marked wrong everyone that did not write 1/4. From this, I learned that I have to be careful and know the students who are helping me and what they are capable of. Also, explicit directions on how an assignment is to be done is needed. In my classroom, I will have to know the strengths and weaknesses of those helping me. If a student is terrible at math, I might have them help in a different area.
This experience also worried me. Here these two seniors are graduating this year and they are unable to do simple fractions (even with a calculator), convert scores into percentages and do simple multiplication. As a teacher, I want to try my best to help studetns not get behind. I need to make sure that my students grasp the concepts and information before I move on or the students will be behind.
The students are well behaved and respectful. The mobile computer lab came to the classroom today. Each student knew exactly how they were allowed to use the laptops. They followed the rules and listened when they were spoken to. They did not horse around or misuse the equipment. I was really impressed by their behavior.
Tomorrow will be fun. It is Halloween and our first time with a substitute teacher!!
2 comments:
Hey Angela it sounds like you guys have had a moslty positive experience so far. That's exciting! I'm glad you and Laura are getting along ok too! Good luck with the rest of your field and we'll talk to you soon.
Angela,
Isn't grading such a funny thing? In our classroom, there are some students that we have noticed grading papers(timed tests). They don't have enough time to do all of them, so tuesday I finished correcting them. Well, just before students were going home, two students were told to sort through the timed tests into two piles: those that passed, and those that did not. Strangely, the students were putting some of the "not pass" tests into the "pass" pile. I asked why. They looked at the tests then one boy said, "Whoever graded these didn't write 'so close' on the ones that didn't pass!"
I had to laugh. I had written things like good job, nice try, try again, etc, and they were so used to students grading the papers (trying to copy the teacher by writing "SO CLOSE" on the top!)
Isn't that hilarious?
So you have to watch what "hidden messages" students might be getting. Because in our class, students have become accustomed to "so close" meaning "you didn't pass".
Keep posting. I look forward to hearing about your experiences!
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