3150- Learning Blog #1

As a student, as far as I was aware at the time, all assignments, quizzes, and tests were assessments of learning and would affect the final grade. Looking back on it now I think that it may not have been the case, so this changes my perception of how I view the purpose of assessments. I find it very helpful to think about assessments as tools to help students learn and also as feedback for the teacher so that they can improve. This is very different from the perspective I have had as a student where assessments were simply for marks. The next point that I can relate to is the comparison of adaptive experts and routine experts. I believe that there are many teachers who are routine experts and use the same, or similar, lesson plan year after year whereas it is much more difficult to become the adaptive expert. Having said that, I recall a teacher in high school who I would classify as a routine expert but I found that his method of teaching was very effective- short lesson with a lot of practice time for what was learned. This teacher’s lessons were very concise and explained complex concepts in simple terms that made them easy to understand. Although it appeared as if these were the same lessons they had been teaching since the 80’s, they were very effective and furthermore the fact that the lesson was short gave us class time to do practice problems, which is one of the best ways to learn.

Reading about professional learning communities (PLCs) really interested me. This concept is a very clever way to benefit both teachers and students. A question I have about PLCs is how to start one if there is not already one in place. Working with colleagues to lesson plan seems so logical yet there are many challenges of working in groups. Such challenges include differing opinions, finding time to meet, and merging different teaching styles. That being said, I would love to collaborate with colleagues and form a PLC. It helps to foster a cooperative work environment and it helps teachers to enhance their skills.

This GIF highlights how students see learning and testing- if its not on the test its not important. Hopefully I can help change that attitude and help to shift the focus on enjoying learning.