Tell-Tale Heart Test

http://blabberize.com/view/id/558504

Supreme Court Form. Assess. 4/29/11

    The federal court system is supposed to present a fair way for citizens to receive justice in this country.  However corrupt or questionable certain branches may seem to be to certain people, there are still 3 levels that are to remain coherent with specific rights, responsibilities, duties, and privileges.  These courts are the: District Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court.
    The District Court is more local--set up to cover local cases that reside within their district.
    The Court of Appeals is involved if there is a problem with or questionable outcome of a case that occurs in the district court and then they assess what to do with that case.
    The Supreme Court is the highest of the tier.  This court is involved when there is great discrepancy between the other two courts.  This court typically gives ultimate judgment to cases that have already passed through the other courts.

Re-view Blogging Possibilities

    It is likely going to be viewed as unfortunate, but my views and opinions with using blogs to communicate to other teachers have largely not changed.  However, after having used it for a year, it is nice to get inside the heads of other teachers and see their more personal comments and reflections.  It has not benefited me or my teaching in any way, so far, other than to boost my confidence and support the mental mind-set of teaching that I am working to build.  For these reasons, it is nice to correspond with Molly and Harrison, but those are the only two who have responded to my blogs.
    As far as reflecting on my personal achievements via blogging goes, I do not really keep a blog, but a physical journal that I take when I go to my PDS.  It would likely be more helpful if I "blogged" every day following my teaching experience at the PDS, but with work and classes, when I am online, it is to check email and/or complete an assignment and then I need to move on to the next thing until I fall asleep.
    Substantive reflection can be used when specifics are given about a particularly effective or failed lesson and ideas are helped to provide alternatives.  Multiple viewpoints are always helpful.. if meaningful feedback is given by one or more responders.  Speaking of which, Molly, did you decide to do another Zumba lesson for your large group lesson?  How else have you been able to engage your students in groups--large or small?

Regards to All,
      Claire

Progress Potential (Blog 3)

• Consider one or more of your learning goals and what progress your making toward those goals. 
• Talk about what changes you've made to your plan as you've moved through the semester so far - what things you may have added or removed.
• How would you evaluate your own progress in relation to completing the activities you've listed on the plan?

    Many of my learning goals are geared toward getting feedback from and getting to know my mentor teacher better.  I think that this is being done with every conversation I have and have had with her.  She is very personable to me and I really appreciate that.  My last mentor teacher was efficient, but at times, that quality would make her seem closed off for the majority of the conversation.  With my current mentor teacher, there is more of a flowing conversation--which includes more feedback on my progress, etc.
    To be completely honest, it never occurred to me that things on the plan could be added, removed, or edited.  I just figured that the program would want to see the plan they signed without many, if any, alterations.
    I have completed (or will have completed by the end of this week) 7 of 11 activities in my learning plan.  I think this is doing pretty well.  I just hope I get all of the forms in on time without any unexpected surprises!

    I hope your plan and accomplishments are blooming as well!

~Claire

PDS Experiences/Digital Story

 After viewing an example Digital Story assignment, I must admit that I am nervous about the assignment.  I wonder if the assignment is to be based on my PDS experiences up to this point or if the focus is meant to be this semester only.. I am sure we will find these things out soon.  A key item in making a story a good, interesting listening experience is relate-ability to the reader--either with regard to the major and minor characters or to the situation, etc.  This element makes the story meaningful to the listener.  

Of my PDS experiences so far, I could tell the story of the project last semester that required us tutors to incorporate an electronic aspect into a lesson and how, in spite of its total failure, we still managed to pull together as a class and have a decent lesson.  For this semester, I could tell the brief story concerning the value consistency in creating a writing prompt.  In this semester's special education classroom, I wrote a prompt that involved three or four exclamation points, but one looked different than the others--it was the first one, it was shaped like a triangle instead of the traditional line.  This confused a couple of the students.  On a larger scale, this shows that consistency is crucial for effective teaching all across the board, especially if one wants to build up the trust and confidence of his/her students.

 

Virtually, a story can become more interesting if images, audio, or text is attractive and enticing to the audience.  However, the creator should make sure that if these digital additions are going to be in the story, then they should not overwhelm the audience or distract from the story being told.