A Midsummer Nights Dream asks, “How do you know when something is real or when we are dreaming?”  and “Am I an ass?”  Am I in the middle of a dream where everything looks one way to me, but differently to everyone else?”  What if we make a fool of ourselves?

Hamlet is wondering who is guilty, who is innocent, whom may I trust, whom do I not trust?

Othello is the great assessment king demanding occular proof.  He wants to see something that will proves his wife’s involvement with another.  He acquires this proof, only to find that it’s not true.

King Leer begs the questions which of you love me more?  Who loves me most?  Using quantitative reasoning which do not work out very well in the end.

The question of proving it ……. that is the real question in assessment!!!!!!!  As teachers we are wanting to prove it,  prove that something we are doing as teachers is improving the knowledge and learning of our students.  This is a question about our most fundamental questions of reality.  Who are we as teachers?  Who are our students as learners?

Proving it has been around for many, many years.  The ancient Romans asked students to prove it publically, orally, usually in a chapel with the community and all professors involved in the process.  There were social dimensions involved, relected a community.  It as a test of credibility.

Due to time contraints, it is virtually impossible to have oral assessment in schools today.  Moving to written assessment was not beneficial.  It institutionalizes the process of proving it.  It is very nerve-wracking and divorced from the community as a whole, but it is what we take for granted as the only method of “proving it.”

What do we do?  “Scientific” educational assessment demands a control group.  Our teaching changes from one period to the next and from one group of kids to the next.  If we use Smart Boards in one class shouldn’t we use them with all classes?  Tests of Metrics (SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, etc.) drives the curriculum in many situations.

IDEAS: Mr. Campbell offers several significantly thought-provoking ideas about assessment.  He believes that assessment be a part of an open educational  community in which experiences should be shared and showcased.  Assessment should emerge from students and instructors.  It should emerge from play and metaphor and involve witnessing.  Witnessing being defined as when we prove it, how can we testify to it?  There are many things we demonstrate that we can not measure.  He advocates the web 2.0 tools as a forum for showcasing and sharing what we know and how we know it.

His final thoughts related back to Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  The quote at the end of the play states, “Our little lives are rounded but a sleep.”  K-12 is such a short time in our lives to be a part of formal educational settings.  We, as teachers, have a short time to be here, a short time to make a difference.  It’s the time we spend together that should matter the most.  What matters when we “prove it” is that we have a witness to the difference we have made.  A door has opened, an horizon has been seen.  We must share ourselves.

Mr. Campbell is so right in his reflections.  As a math teacher, I have a hard time with alternative assessments.  Math is so process driven and skill oriented.  It is so black and white.  I am happy to open myself up to alternative, web 2.0 tools and methods of “sharing.”

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html

http://thefutureschannel.com/hands-on_math.php

http://www.songsforteaching.com/mathsongs.htm

http://www.mathsisfun.com/

http://www.mathplayground.com/

The biggest value I see is to myself in preparing for class.  The message boards were a place in which I could just go on and ask a question of my colleagues.  “Does anyone know…..?” or “Where can I find….?”

I found some homework help places also.  These were pretty cool.  Students ask for help with homework problems.  I liked this.  How many times have we as students ever needed someone who could help us?

I only searched out things that were profession related.  I would like to go back and search some personal type things too.

The first comes from a post about Gratitude.  I am a worry wort.  I literally fight my own thoughts sometimes.  Too many “what if’s” become a string of life tragedies which could happen, but rarely ever do.  I enjoy reading something that puts things into perspective for me and reminds me to live “now,”  not with my “what ifs.”

The next item is math related.  This description of a game I wasn’t familiar with looks like something I would like to try in my classroom.  Its name is Contig.  It integrates 2-step equations and basic math facts practice, both of which I teach.

So, I practiced and took more time than most probably would take to edit the template and get some things in there that I wanted.  Now my reaction is, “Why are we using edline?”  Wouldn’t this be more productive to our students?  I could post podcasts, assignments, links to useful online tutorials and/or online quizzes and practices.    It would be much more useful to both students and parents.

An alternative topic or theme that might be fun to use Pageflakes for would be that of organizing a trip in which many different people were going.  Family reunions, tours, etc.  Maps, links to particular sites of interest, pictures, research, preparation check-lists.  The possibilities are endless.

My ideas for using Google docs are as follows:

1.  My math colleague and I create assessments a lot.  We usually email the drafts back and forth until we end up with something we like.  From now on, we can create the assessments in Google Docs.  Here is an example of what they usually look like. Skills Check.  We fill in the Table to create the “boxes.”

2.  I teach spreadsheets to my students.  We usually complete a small Excel project creating a very simple spreadsheet.  I will definitely plan on using the Google Docs Spreadsheet instead.  It will be much easier for me to check and the kids will get some practice using Google Docs.  Something they are probably not very familiar with.

3.  I always write notes and examples on the board during class.  It could be helpful to my students to have the notes available to them through the Presentation tools on Google Docs.  That way they could check their own notes against mine with help during homework.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAyZCFpKQ5o&feature=related

The next video shows how to solve a basic one-step equation by applying the inverse operation of adding or subtracting.  It also reviews adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers.  Like the previous video, it would be good to use as a remedial tutor or as an introduction to the lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4NvZp0RBos&feature=related

The next video shows how to solve a 2-digit multiplication problem with a non-traditional method.  The method would be an excellent example of an enrichment/challenge problem during our unit on multiplying decimals.  The method could be utilized to save a lot of time on concepts rather than calculation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLdKsKep1og&feature=related

The video I found on teachertube.com is a really good example of multiplying and dividing fractions.  I especially liked this video because one of the students is explaining the process.  It helped give me the idea that an alternative assessment for my students could be to create a video podcast explaining “How-To” solve particular problems and show examples.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=2156c2cf1230e206e657

I found the following “How-To” video on youtube:  It demonstrates how to change a tire on a car.  It begins by showing the steps involved in Jacking the car up.  This interests me as a single mother living in the busy Atlanta area.  It is absolutely something that I need to know how to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZp1PiZ4Xwo

The final video is my piece of nostalgia.  As a 13-15 year old, I did a lot of babysitting.  After the kids were in bed, I enjoyed watching MTV (this is when they actually showed videos all day).  The following montage of 80’s videos brings back a lot of memories.  I also still enjoy the 80’s music and think it’s the best decade of music to date.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGG_Q1ojq9U

I previewed The Math Factor.  It was fairly academic in nature.  I felt that it might be a bit over their heads.  I could definitely use it in preparation for lessons though.  I could change the language of the concepts and “retell” the lesson in more appropriate language for 11-12 year olds.

I previewed MathGrad Podcast.  I really liked this one.  It would be fun to do with my student because of the stretch to relevant lessons in their textbook.  For example, The Famous Monty Hall Problem was very interesting.  I had never heard of it, but I do believe my students would enjoy the problem as an example to the study with Probability.

I also previewed dansmathcast.  Interesting guy.  Although I didn’t find much that was relevant to my 6th graders, I can appreciate the enthusiasm and passion he has for teaching math.  He teaches in a community college in California.  I felt the students would be far more “connected” to him through these podcasts.

I searched the itunes store, The Education Podcast Network, and PBS Podcasts.  I wasn’t able to find anything of great value on itunes.  Many of the podcasts were either too far above my grade level or not relevant to my curriculum.  I found two very good podcasts which I subscribed to on The Education Podcast Network .  Your Tutor Online Video Lessons had some very good lessons on point and lines and solving equations with absolute value.  I also found many helpful videos on Video Tutor:  Basic Math.  I really liked the form of the videos in that the gentleman would often begin with very concrete examples in the shape of diagrams and pictures and then move forward with the abstract method of calculation.  I will definitely use some of these as remediation in tutorial or to introduce a new concept.  PBS had some very good science related podcasts that I passed on to the science teacher next door, but not much in the way of math instruction.

I would love to podcast every lesson I teach.  I think that students and parents could benefit from seeing and hearing the instruction at home without normal classroom distractions.  It would be a great way to reinforce and refresh what is happening in the classroom.

I have an ipod and I personally subscribe to a couple of religious/spiritual podcasts.  I enjoy listening to them in the car on a long trip or when I’m out walking or exercising.  It’s actually one of the reasons why I bought the ipod to begin with.  I really enjoy searching out new podcasts that I might add to my current downloads.  Believe it or not, I have more podcast space taken up on my ipod than music.

Professionally?  probably not for me, but I could most definitely see the reading/English teachers getting their students into this.

This would be a great way for kids to share what they find on their own searches.  I still need to work out how I would manage it as a classroom resource.  I wouldn’t mind to share some of my personal tags as an outreach for myself, but I wouldn’t necessarily want my students to be able to view these tags.  Hence the question:  How do we separate the two most successfully?  Should I have another delicious account for the students only?  Still working on this one.

Dilemma solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, I will post this particular site to edline!!!!!!!!

http://www.braingle.com/Logic-Grid.html

The kids who want to do the extra credit will go online, print out ONE grid and bring it in when it’s due!!!!!!!  No more searching through books, sending copies, or dealing with leftovers!!!!!!!!!!!!  Awesome!!!!!!  Can you tell I’m excited?????