Week 15 – Professional

As finals approach the atmosphere around campus has tensed up as students rush around handing in last minute assignments and attending their last classes for reviews before their exams. However in comparison to the feeling of dread, fear and anticipation that I have felt building up around this time at home due to upcoming exams, I feel the opposite here. I feel more confident in my development. The additional advantage of having small tests along the way shows how I have been progressing and I feel a surprising sense of ease and only a small amount of tension about my upcoming finals. Another big difference about finals over here is the added bonus of being able to take some of my exams on Blackboard from the comfort of my own bed! This has made learning and assessment a lot more enjoyable as I’m sure you could have guessed.

The exams here differ from the ones back home as well due to being more selection type based assessments. For example the majority of my exams have been multiple choice questions with having the opportunity of earning a few more points with personal answers to a few open ended questions. There is also no time limit on any exams that I take within the classrooms however the online exams do have a time limit. From my classroom management and assessment class I learnt that there are three parts to multiple choice questions. The stem is the question or statement presented needing a solution. The alternatives are the choices available and the distracters are the incorrect answers.

My understanding of formative and summative assessments has also been developed through having to produce 5 different types of assessments that I used on my teaching practice and identify which ones are formative and which are summative. As I was teaching such young children I was unable to use any tests as the majority of the children can barely read or write their own name yet. I made a KWL board which helped me to engage in discussions with the children about what they already know on transport, what they would like to know and finally at the end of the unit we would look at what they had learnt together. I also was able to follow a simple guideline and produce my own cooperative checklist. I used my observation skills to assess how well the children worked cooperatively. My other 3 types of assessments included a smiley faced questionnaire, a list of verbal questions that I used during my lesson and finally a small, short and basic worksheet that I used as my summative assessment to assess the children’s understanding at the end of the unit.

I have already completely finished two of my classes and with only two more to finish this incoming week I am beginning to enjoy last minute sightseeing at the weekends. I intend to see as much as I can in my last 2 weeks here in Ole Miss as I know I will miss it a lot once I return home.