Week 5 Reflecion

It is great to learn everyday something new; I really do not this course to come to an end. We learn and learn for the sake of learning and to make our learners enjoy what they learn. This week we have learned about  Rubrics which are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for holistic grading, such as for writing or speaking. I like this sentence that "the rubric becomes a kind of contract between the teacher and the learners, so that learners know that if they do the things associated with "excellent" in the rubric, they will get an "excellent" mark." It is nice to imagine yourself signing a contract with your student on the terms and conditions of your work as a teacher. This really proved to me that the students are more motivated, and this really makes assessment is easier. It is also a great idea that students must get the rubrics when they begin the task. I have already decided to do that with them.
The article about Alternative learning; alternative assessment: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm with Recommended Internet tool for creating rubrics: RubiStar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
also proved to be very beneficial to me. Now I can create my own rubrics without waiting for my seniors to get them to me.
Second we learn something that appeals to me a lot  which is Project-based Learning (PBL).


Although I had some experience about it, this added a lot to my knowledge. I learn that "in PBL, learners are given instructions and resources (scaffolding), then they work in groups create a project. This is similar to problem-based learning, where learners work to come up with a solution to a specific, usually real-world, problem. If the task is authentic and the audience is broad, this is especially effective."

The article "Focus on Basics: Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer gives some background information about project-based learning: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385
I enjoyed it a lot too. She seems to be a professional teacher who is dedicated to her work.
Also The "Student Projects Sampler," also by Susan Gaer, provides a number of examples of webquest-style project-based learning: http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/
gave me a lot of ideas for what to do in the future about my projects and activities.



WebQuests which are a form of PBL that follows a fairly specific pattern where the teacher creates the task statement and designates the resources (learners do not "just search") and learners work in groups and have a specified product and the teacher produces an evaluation in the form of a rubric for students to use as they are doing their project and for self-evaluation when it is finished. The teacher evaluates with the rubric as well, also added to my career as a teacher, I created my own page on http://www.zunal.com/ and I am going to use more of this website in the future.
I love this course, and I am waiting for more to learn.