Digital Blog Post J

In school I never realized why I always had to a take "Pre-Test". I always thought Pre-Tests were stupid and a waste of time. Now looking at it in an educator's perspective, I see that assessing students in a topic not yet taught can actually help. When a student takes a Pre-Test, that allows us teachers to see what they already know, and that helps us figure out what to teach and how to teach. Not only does it help teachers, but taking a Pre-Test allows students to see how much they have grown in that area. Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to see how much I knew about the topic beforehand, and how much I knew after. My teachers always told me that the Pre-Tests never counted against me, therefore I did not take them seriously.

In Collier County, some middle schools have started to enforce the use of a digital portfolio. Some students enjoyed having a "digital archive", and  others did not care of to even upload or post anything on to it. Some teachers made "iPortfolio" a requirement for grades on some assignments, other teachers did not care for it either. I interviewed my younger sister and asked her about her experience and opinion on the enforcement of a digital portfolio at her school.

I absolutely loved that the textbook talked about "Teaching with Clickers", my favorite days in school were the days we used the Clickers. Clickers were such an easy way to review content before a chapter test, and to make sure you knew what was being taught. I absolutely loved using clickers in class, because I always worked with one of my classmates and made sure we got the correct answers. Sometimes, teachers allowed our scores with the clickers to replace our lowest quiz scores. The days we had clickers were the days the class was more engaged. Clickers have a way of bringing students together and taking them out of their academic shell.

Cabrera, M. (2016, November 06). IPortfolio

ESL Literacy (2012, March 19). Using Clickers in the ESL literacy classroom Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vbo7gDzuuE

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.