Project vs Tests

I have yet been able to see how well students do on projects but I have decided that perhaps in my own classroom I may decide to give large projects that display student's learning of concepts for a unit rather than tests. The only dilemma with that is that projects take time and if I have students work as groups then I cannot individually assess each student.

Project

So we were trying to find something for our students to do for the last week before break. The criteria were that we did not want to start a new unit because students are more likely to forget during their long break, and we also did not want to create a lot more work for them especially because we only really have 3 in-class days in Algebra, we decided to do a project with cars that integrate concepts that we just had a test on. It may have been beneficial for students to do this project before the actual test.

Gallery Walk

It would be a great idea to have students do posters about each "big picture" topics on content that we have covered so far. Then each group will have the opportunity to see everyone's description of each content and also they will have a say in the grading. Lastly, we would have public records in class that students can consistently refer to.

Is it my lesson plan or is it my students?

At times I have noticed that I have lesson plans that are thoroughly made however I cannot seem to captivate my students. Then I would have lesson plans that allows for lots of leeway and students will be on task during those lessons. Perhaps the success of my lesson depends on the mood of the students?

WikiSpaces

I found out about Wikispaces and instead of using Yola I can put up all my documents from all my classes since I began the Bothell program into a Wikispace which then allows me to have all my documents in one easy place to find. Love it!

Time Consuming Lesson Planning

I realize that planning a lesson for just one class is very time consuming...so the thought that I would have to plan for two different classes is intimidating!

Lesson Planning

As I approach the last few lesson plans of my unit, I have found that I have less things to put on my actual lesson plans and rather put more information on the worksheets that I give in class. I find that it is much easier to hand write my lesson plans right on the worksheets rather than having to recreate the worksheet on to my lesson plans. It's almost like doing the work, twice.