Assessment in education

Formative assessment is defined as frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately.

Assessment is a fundamental aspect in education and every teacher has to do it. Assessment involves two mayor types of activities; the first one is based on collecting information about students’ knowledge and skills and the second one is based on checking if each student has the appropriate level of learning. Both imply measurement and evaluation activities that can be materialized through tests, oral questions, homework, write papers, problems, and presentations. Teachers can evaluate the score from those activities by comparing them one another or to an absolute standard.

Assessment has to be done with the purpose of supporting learning; for learning it is the most critical tool in developing and personalizing an individual student’s route through school, as it takes account of the specific learning needs of each student. Assessment guides students as individual learners because they will know what they strengths and weaknesses are. Through assessment students develop an awareness of how they learn and use that awareness to adjust and advance their learning, taking an increased responsibility for their learning.

Teachers view assessment as their responsibility to provide students with knowledge, examination tips and structures that result in formulaic approaches to examination questions. Also, it helps teachers to gain insight into what students understand in order to plan and guide instruction, and provide helpful feedback to students.

Independent learning

Working as teachers, we deal with a great variety of personalities and different types of students. Some of them have difficulties making the transition from high school to university because superior education requires students to take responsibility for their own learning and to make decisions by themselves. Also, it’s kind of difficult for students to make the transition from high school to university because they are surrounded by more distractions and the level of education is higher, so it means that they have to make a bigger effort and study more than how they used to study.

The main goal for teachers is to facilitate independent learning that is a process in which a student acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation.

One of the big challenges that we as teachers have is to encourage our students to make decisions by themselves about how they could learn the best and how they could be more independent and creative in their own learning. Also we have to create opportunities for them to pursue their own interests and practice skills in a variety of ways in order to create students able to know what they want or don’t, willing to take risks, able to set goals and initiate tasks with less direction and avoid procrastination.

Interesting and innovating strategies can create positive and challenging learning environment.

Teaching has to do not only with helping individuals acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in different areas of learning but also with preparing them to be a useful and important part of the world.

The use of innovating and interesting strategies in teaching has the potential not only to improve learning, but also to empower people to learn in a better way. Consequently, teachers seek for different strategies that help them to create the best environment for learning to take place making students feel comfortable and willing to participate in classroom activities so that creativity can be developed and innovation benefits both students and teachers.

Most students come to class with fears and uncertainty. Students fear failing tests, not fitting in with peers, and appearing ignorant in front of their classmates. Being afraid to ask questions, express opinions, or join group discussions can greatly hinder a student’s learning. But we can create an environment that nurtures their confidence and allows them to explore and expand their knowledge without undue risk or fear.

What are the goals of classroom management? What do you think are the most important principles of classroom management?

“The term ‘classroom management’ and ‘discipline’ are often used interchangeably”.

One of the biggest challenges that teachers face is managing a class full of students. It is even worse when students misbehave and the teachers don't have a well-organized plan or are not experienced enough to control the situation; consequently, some difficulties in learning take place.

“Classroom management is teachers’ strategies that create and maintain an orderly learning environment and discipline means teachers’ responses to student’s misbehavior”.

We could say that classroom management is the term educators use to describe methods of preventing misbehavior and dealing with it if it arises. In other words, it is the techniques teachers use to maintain control in the classroom. So, classroom management is those techniques, positive behaviors and activities that the teacher uses to facilitate the learning process and to create a good environment in the classroom.

A well-established classroom is one which contains all the elements and resources that the students need and one in which they can make use of those resources in the best way. Also, the actions that the teacher does should be focused on minimizing disruptions and fostering the learning and a good environment.

The goals of classroom management:

• To create a good classroom and learning environment

It does not mean to create inert and passive students; it means to motivate students to learn and to get them involved in the classroom activities.

• To support classroom community

It means that students are allowed to make the connections needed for learning to take place. Students need to feel comfortable to participate in classroom activities and to share their knowledge.

What are your motives for teaching? What rewards or incentives do you get from teaching? How might your motives interfere with your ability to put the needs of your students ahead of your own?

Teaching is not just a job, it is something that inspires me and it is something that changes my life every day that I do it. I could say that teaching is like a calling that I got because 5 years ago I would never imagine that I would be teaching, but now it has become a reality for me and I enjoy it pretty much not only the act of teaching but also the environment in which I’m involved and the interaction with my students.  One of my biggest motives for teaching is the satisfaction of changing my students' lives and the amazing experience of sharing some knowledge with them because it’s an amazing feeling to know that I am helping someone to be a better person.

It is pretty obvious that when you are a teacher you are going to be paid, but it is just a material reward and it is not a big amount of money. The real reward is the satisfaction that you get from the job for instance things like being a role model and a big influence for the students, being challenged every day, watching kids succeed and become into a member of the society; that kind of things are the ones that make you feel proud about being a teacher.

Those kinds of feelings and rewards sometimes lead you to put the needs of your students before your needs because as you get more involved with the students they become an important part of you and you worry more about them.

List the things you like about working with teenagers. Why? List the things you don't like. Why?

Adolescence is a stage that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood it means that adolescents have many important developmental tasks to achieve because they are in the process of forming their own identity; consequently sometimes it's hard for us to work with them because of their changing personalities and the many different process that they face. Even though these changes and all what it implies working with teenagers, it is an amazing job and it has become one of the most wonderful experiences that I have had. Even if sometimes working with teens gets hard for me because I tend to behave like a teenager, but I know I have to behave like a grown up and I do my best to do it.

What I like about working with teenagers:

1. Their energy. They are so energetic and they always want to participate and do the classroom activities that I assign.

2. I feel identified with them. I share some ideas, thoughts and behavior traits with them that make me feel comfortable and good teaching them.

3. They make me smile. They are so ingenious and they always say jokes or things that make me laugh.

4. They are curious. They are always asking questions and wanting to know more; they love to explore and try new things.

5. They are unique. Each of them is different and unique in a kind, so I have the amazing opportunity of discovering the personality of each teen.

6. They are self-conscious. They know what they are and what they want.

7. They are very creative. They always have plans and ideas that we can apply in the classroom.

What I don't like about working with teenagers:

1. Some of my students talk a lot during the class and I have to be asking them to be quiet and to pay attention.

2. Some of them are insecure. They doubt too much about their strengths and their potential.

3. Some students are irresponsible. They don't take learning seriously.

4. Bad judgment. Some of them don't know how to differentiate what is good or bad for them.

5. They prefer to do things on they own. Sometimes they don't like to do team work and they prefer to work alone.

What can the World Wide Web offer ESL/EFL teachers?

The World Wide Web consists of all the public websites connected to the Internet worldwide. The quickly growth of the WWW and the internet helps a lot to make widespread communication and to make the information spreads faster than ever before; furthermore, it helps to make computer based instruction easy and the fact that the Internet possesses the potential to retrieve and provide almost unlimited information very fast has made it to be a great tool in ESL classrooms.

The World Wide Web offers a lot of information, resources and materials for ESL/EFL teachers and also students. Teachers can take advantage of the compilations of online resources that websites have in order to use them in the classroom and use all these resources as language teaching tools.

Teachers can use websites for practicing language and developing skills because the World Wide Web has a large amount of web pages in which teachers can find very useful information and drills to use in the classroom in a creative and interesting way that make the students want to participate actively in their educational process.

There are many websites that teachers can use to teach grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing, etc. Those websites are very useful because they give valuable information and they serve as practice to the students. Also, teachers can use the different resources that internet has like videos, podcasts, presentations, books, audios, etc.