IBOT Blog Assessment

Question:  

Do you believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area? Can students at every grade level demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment? Why or why not? Is it practical to ask teachers to complete these types of activities in the current, high stakes testing environment?

Reflection:

I believe it is very possible to use authentic assessments across the curriculum levels and in all subject areas. Coming to education by way of Family and Consumer Sciences I was taught to use real life, hands on evaluations. These show students true understanding of knowledge and skills. It also shows independent thinking while students are preforming assessments.

I also use traditional assessments of multiple choice, true-false, completion and matching along with essay questions to evaluate knowledge gained. I think it helps assure students have both the factual and practical knowledge needed for life beyond the wall of high school.

I use  MyFitnessPal   and SuperTracker in Nutrition and Wellness classes so that students can track their daily food . It is available on the web, iOS and Android. Students must create an account so that the app can follow your entries. Students that have a mobile device are able to enter foods as they consume them, whereas students using paper to write the items down have a more difficult time. Using the application helps students chart and monitor their calorie, nutrient, water, and exercise on daily terms. We can then do analysis of their eating habits and create goals for improvement. The applications take the place of charting manually with paper and pencil. It creates a much easier way to track and record your food intake. It will store the information for you to use at a later time. You can make decisions about your calorie consumption and calorie burn during the day and make alterations as you go. Students can create reports for viewing.

1. Where would you rate yourself in each area?

At this moment I would rate myself at the adaptive phase with students working toward collaborative. Students work on group assignments and prepare presentations to the class. Students were able to select the mode of presentation: power point, Prezi, or poster.

I feel that some of my inability to move forward is the fact that I have limited use of technology in my FCS classroom. In order for students to be able to use technology I reserve the computer lab (available on first come first serve reservation) so they can use technology to complete assignments.

2. Where do you think you could reasonably be at the end of the next grading period?

By enrolling in this online class I am struggling to gain information for my own knowledge. This is in hopes that North Putnam will be adding additional technology in the near future. Or that I will be able to use this information to create more interesting informative presentations for my classes.

3. What steps will you need to take in order to make the growth happen?

I will need to learn the art of filing documents on my computer. I will need to be more consistent is remembering log on information so I can return to web sites. For now I’m switching between school and personal so that I can access a variety of websites that may be blocked at school. More lists.