Journal Post #3

Focus Question #2

Student learning objectives are objectives that you plan out to have been accomplished by the end of your lecture, or lesson for that day. This type of planning mostly deals with what will be accomplished, not necessarily how it will be accomplished. An example of this is the learning objective that teachers in collier county high schools have to place in a visible area somewhere in the classroom. This learning goal addresses that the students are to learn, some goal or skill, on a specified day. From what I have witnessed though most students do not care or even notice the learning goal and hence it is a waste of the teacher and administration’s time.

Under standing by design I believe will work better for the high school and college level of learning. This design starts at the finish line and works backwards to a intended plan. For example like my Chemistry teacher taught she would have a goal “by the end of this class period my students will know stoichiometry.” Then she would think what is some facts about stoichiometry such as a mole is 6.223x10^23 molecules or atoms of an element. Then finally she would create a presentation in order to teach us stoichiometry and then by the end she has a full lesson plan ready to go.

 Tech Tool: thinkfinity.org

The way I see thinkfinity.org is like a gigantic boardroom that is empty.

The reason for that harsh description is that thinkfinity is sketchy because you do not really know who you are conversing with. For example I created a profile that says I am an educator teaching the k-12 grade levels. I can assure you that I am not a teacher, but to anyone else on the site I appear to be a legitimate instructor to which grants me well undeserved respect and accreditation in this sites social community. So the biggest potential for this site is now trashed by the fact that very little investigation goes into the peoples profiles thus leading to miss information. I know this is unlikely, and that I am probably making mountains out of mole hills, but think about Google or even worse Wikipedia. As instructors we warn our students about visiting these websites to obtain valid information and merely suggest them as a springboard for real genuine research. So as having that air of caution imprinted on my brain anyone who uses that site to obtain useful information this is my warning to you.

 

Now so far I found the site to hold true to my previous concerns. You have good assistive tools and you have distracting posts. However the best thing about this site though is that it kind of creates a place for you to establish a fine portfolio. You can list accomplishments and your prior work experience, but the site itself gives someone a grade on what kind of person they have been to the site, by how many people find your posts useful. So I will be monitoring this site curiously to see how it develops.

Summary:

This chapter starts off by talking about a teacher lesson plan, why we should have one and what benefits come out from having one. For example it talks about how a student observer felt like a teacher he was observing had all her lessons in her head, because she never seemed to need to consult her lesson plan and could change the flow or direction of her lesson plan in a second. However upon further investigation the book tells us that it was by her experience that she was able to do what she did. It then goes on to talk about what is learning assessment- occur before, during and after teaching lessons for instructors to be able to monitor students’ knowledge, understanding and performance.Then the book moves on to lesson planning and distinguishes between the two types:

-Student learning objectives-This style is like a daydream.

-Planning Using Understanding by Design-which acts like a blueprint you have an idea for a final project and then you take it apart piece by piece until it is complete.