After Rod Brown’s presentation on your upcoming long practicum, we had about 2.5 hours left to do some LLEDing. Here’s what we wedged in:
What You Wanted to Know
Last class I asked you on an exit slip to mention one item you wanted to know more about. I compiled the list and touched on a few of those items in this session:
Funny Spinal Tap Quotes & Puppet Shows
Hey, you asked for it…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lku6S24pWSU[/youtube]
Assessment and Evaluation
I showed the assessment sheet I used in my Humanities 8 class. Here it is:
Universal Design
I mentioned that the Student Diversity text and my own teaching tried to model the principles of Universal Design – building lessons that allow learners of all abilities and types to succeed without the need for post-lesson “retrofitting” – as a way to meet the needs of EAL learners.
Math Resources
I suggested that you seek out the work of two prominent Math educators:
- Marilyn Burns – Her books are awesome – check out the classic Math for Smarty Pants – and her Math Solutions website is chock full of Math goodness for Middle Years educators. C’mon…who can resist the Algebra Zapping Zombies lesson posted on her site?
- John van de Walle – According to his biography on the NCTM website, he “was a well-known mathematics educator and the author of Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, a book that continues to be a popular text and resource for teaching grades K–8 mathematics.” I urge you to check out one of his many other books on Math Ed, as well.
Getting Ready for Prac
I forgot to show this in class but I think it’s important to post up a copy of the UBC Performance Checklist – a document that is filled out by advisors at the mid-point and final conferences:
Motivation
Several of you were curious about how to motivate some of the learners in your classroom. Seeing as I thought looking at this topic might be useful as you looked ahead to prac, here’s where we spent the majority of our energies for the rest of this session. We used this process:
- 2-Minute write on “What motivates you to do something?”
- Debrief
- Read & rank the research’s six characteristics of motivation – success, concern, meaning, positive feeling tone, interest, knowledge of results
- Poster & present
That’s all for today.
– LH