The Process Vs. The Product

   As a Mathematics major my entire education career has always comprised of achieving the correct answer and striving for the 100% on each of my tests, quizzes and assignments.  As I have proceeded through an education degree in hopes to become an educator myself, this style of assessment seems to no longer connect with the majority of students.  Students en route to being educators have opened my eyes to the dramatic arts, for example, and the ways they assess students.  Tests and quizzes are virtually nonexistent in their classrooms.  At first this confused me as I was never educated this way.  However, it has opened my eyes to the whole idea of learning and assessment of learning.  In the book Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment, assessment of learning (Aol) is described as the evaluation in a classroom (Drake, 16).  This does not directly apply to a numerical grade, although, it instead connects to the process of learning and the students personal development.  This resonated with me and has driven me to explore new ways to evaluate in a mathematics classroom, my subject of interest.  I began thinking of things such as engaging students in an analytic evaluation of a concept rather than a numerical evaluation of a question.  It dawned on me that the process of learning through exploration, examination of a concept was much more valuable to a student's development than attaining the correct numerical value.  As a future teacher I hope to fully grasp the difference between the Process Vs. the Product of learning and potentially even evaluate my students on this basis.  

I leave this week with a challenge to all future/current educators to guide students through the process of learning and assess them off this basis; off their progression.

Cheers,

MG

Out with the Old, In with the New!

   Another year of school kicks off this September 2014, but it seems different than the rest.  Since I first started my education path, there has been much change in all aspects of the classroom and school dynamics.  I tend to think back of my high school days, learning under some of the toughest teachers who believed in the idea that, "If you can manage to get by my tests and curriculum, then we will discuss an appropriate grade after."  My math teachers always believed in black and white knowledge and teaching the content as it stands.  For many of us in school today, we still agree with this because that is how we were taught originally.

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   Society has changed and so has education streams.  Technology has begun to over power our world, so why not incorporate it into our classrooms?  As a future teacher it is hard not to seek out new ways to educate and motivate students to learn.  The "old" method just won't cut it anymore.  It is time to blend in the alternative and explore the creative.  This 2014 school year excites me to the new possibilities and strategies we as future teachers will discover.  As discussed in our class, we need to dissect the old methods, to create the new method!

Here's to another year of ditching the 'old' and creating the 'new'!

MG