Podacasting II

Friday, Christine and I did a lot better than our first attempt at podcasting. There were no technical difficulties at all and we were more composed in our reading. Alternating page by page reading is working really well for us and we're pretty sure that we got exactly what we wanted on Friday for our final read through of "Friends." Hopefully, Tuesday we will be able to finalize any sounds or pictures that we may want and pick the 5 comprehension questions that we liked the best and that we think will work well with what we want to do in our lessons. Overall, we almost there!

Pre-podcasting II

Today, Christine and I will try the same method of reading for our book "Friends." This method is that Christine will read the title of the book, the author and the first page, then I will read the second page of the book and we will keep alternating the reading page by page.
These past couple of days I did practice reading on my own to try and familiarize myself with the book, since I had never read it before Tuesday. I believe this has helped me pace my reading and to know the right words, instead of making up words as I read. I guess I will see the results today when we podcast. Hopefully, we can nail the reading today without any mistakes. :)

First Podcasting

I really like podcasting a lot. Both Christine and I were away last Friday, so I'm not able to compare or contrast this week to last week. However, I liked our reading style (page by page) it worked really well. The only thing that we both want to fix is to practice reading the book a little more and to compose ourselves while we are reading. Also, the only problem we had in the beginning of the podcasting was switching the microphone back and forth, because you could hear us switching it in the podcast. Our solution to this, is that the next time we read is for one person to hold the microphone and the other person to flip the pages. Overall, I think it was successful and I can't wait to finalize our work on Friday. :)

Pre-podcasting

I'm working with Christine DeMedici on the book "Friends" by Rob Lewis. We decided to read the book page by page our first time through. If we think we should change the reading style up after we're done, we'll make adjustments the next time around. I hope it works and I look forward to podcasting our book for the first time. Our introduction to podcasting link is: http://christinedemed.podomatic.com/entry/2009-09-22T07_08_21-07_00

Podcasting

I really don't know what podcasting is. I was introduced to podcasting in Test and Measurements, where we would listen to Dr. Luongo's expectations/lessons for our class. I want to learn what podcasting really is and how to use it. From the little bit that I know of podcasting I think the advantages of podcasting are that you can listen to a lesson over and over again, refer to it or use that lesson as many times as you want and you don't have to be in a classroom to access podcasting. The only drawback about podcasting that I know at this point may be that it isn't easy to access equipment to actually do the podcasting.

My general pre-podcasting prediction is that it's going to be different, but fun. I think it will probably be something that I would incorporate in my lessons someday. I also, think that this is where technology in the classroom is headed, so it will be great exposure.

Standardized Test

As seen in the youtube videos that Dr. Luongo provided, the teachers have lost their creativity in their classroom, because they can only really teach the material that the students will see on the test. As a child I hated standardized test, because your teachers were always putting pressure on you saying how important it was to do well on the test and that you need to pass it to be successful. I always was a very poor test taker, but even more so on standardized test. I have recently learned to be calm before test and just to do the best that I can, but when I was young I felt like I had no control over my anxiety of tests. Standardized test in particular I felt were not a fair evaluation on how I was as a student, because a standardized test couldn't tell anyone if I was a hardworker or a poor test taker or an average or above average student, it only evaluated if the student(s) knew the material or didn't. For someone like me I knew the material, I practiced in class and at home time in time again, because it was repetitive, but that didn't mean come test day that I was going to do well with it. I felt like it wasn't a fair evaluation of me or of my teacher.

Now, I see that as a teacher it's not any easy then it was for me. Teachers are accessed on how well their students do on these standardized test, but what if there are students like me and my friends who knew the material in class, but were horrible test takers, how is that a fair evaluation on if the student really knows the material. My 7th grade teacher for language arts, made our class practice for the second half of the semester looking at a picture and writing a story of what each individual saw in the picture and exercises like that for the GEPA, which I would take in 8th grade. I practiced over a year for the GEPA, but my evaluation on the GEPA still wasn't equivalent to the evaluation that I was getting in the classroom on the same material. I believe that it's not fair for either teachers or students to have to be graded on this, but it's what the teacher and the students take out of it that will prepare them for years of standardized test to follow.

Report

Personally I believe report cards are a good way of accessing students' overall achievement in each class or subject. I believe it shows a student how he/she did throughout the marking period and/or semester. There is a lot of factors that go into a report card grade such as the classwork, participation, homework, projects, tests etc... and this grade takes into calculation the average grades for each category adding it up to the final grade, which is shown on the report card. A report card is not just based on one test or one assignment it's fair in the sense that its really how well the student performed. Each student can have a good marking period or a bad one, but that always leaves room for improvement and success in the future.

As far back as I can remember I had good report cards, there were some times that I remember not having a good grade on report card, but it was because I was struggling in a certain area. Even, with those grades I was upset, because it's was frustrating not seeing the grade my parents or I wanted. However, it always pushed me to do a little better the next marking period to prove that I can be successful, maybe with just a little more practice and/or time in one subject more than the others.