Pre-Course Survey...Week 6

As crazy as life is lately, I always get excited about starting a new course, both as teacher and student. Creating the pre-course survey for my future courses gave me that same excited feeling I get before the start of a new school year!


Here is the survey I create for future students:

Week Five: Blooming & Learing

I created the above Wordle with all the web tools and Bloom's verbs that I used this week in my Bloom's Taxonomy assignment.
For this week's assignment, I continued with the idea of teaching U.S. History as an online course or blended course, which is a class that meets online and face to face.  Next year, I will not teach U.S. history in this format, but I am am going back to teaching U.S. history.

I struggle with using Bloom's "old" verbs because I am a fan of Bloom's revised edition.  In the revised edition, CREATE is the highest level of learning.  Allowing students to create a product, video, presentation, etc. is now the highest level, and I believe most rewarding level of learning.  This cannot be measured by 100% accuracy in which some suggest we should write learning targets/objectives.  Also, learning is a process and can often be demonstrated in several ways. Some of my students turn in all work with 100% accuracy because they truly care (let's call that kid Student A) about every single point, and some just turn it in because it is due (Student B).  Student B can have an intelligent conversation about what they learned, but they just don't stress over the 100% accuracy of the learning objective.  However, when I ask them to create something to demonstrate learning all my students will create and do so with passion!  So, if you are not currently using Bloom's revised verbs, I challenge you to do so!

Image from Florida State Univ Web Site

Some useful links:
http://visualblooms.wikispaces.com/

http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm










For those interested in my Bloom's Taxonomy for a U.S. History class, here it is:

Week Four: Inspired

Wow!  This week we had to post links to our collaborative online toolboxes and share them with the class.  I am beyond inspired with how I can incorporate new assessment tools in my classes.  
Some tools I have already used in class that were mentioned in my classmates toolboxes were Google docs and forms in my class, and let's just say I am in LOVE with the possibilities.  Also, I have used wikis and Google sites in class
Now on to the two goals I am setting for myself because of my awesome classmates...

• I will implement Testmoz into my classes (hopefully this year, but if not right away next year in U.S. History)
• I will use Our Story in U.S. History and Psychology as an individual project.

Week Four while stressful personally, I was truly fulfilled and inspired by learning through my classmates this week. Thanks for that! 


Click HERE for a link to my group's toolbox!