QTC Post #3 Chapter 11

I think a healthy mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is best for a classroom setting. As a teacher getting good assessment scores and bonus pay would be a great extrinsic motivation as a teacher. Intrinsic motivation would be teaching to the best of my abilities for the joy that comes from watching children learn and thrive at school or in life in general. As a student, extrinsic motivation could be something like a pizza party or pajama day for getting a certain amount of compliments from other teachers or principals. For intrinsic motivation as a student, hopefully as a teacher I could make learning fun so that student's would want to learn and want to do well. This could be through group activities or through games such as bingo.

QTC #2 Chapter 14

Assessment Types

• Informal Assessment- When a student asks a question such as "What do squirrels eat?" because they see a squirrel on the playground,and the teacher explains that a squirrel eats nuts. Then the teacher could play off of their interest and ask the students how they think squirrels get nuts during the winter? This keeps the students interested as well as thinking critically.
• Authentic Assessment- This could be assessing if a child can tie their shoes, tell time, making change or anything that is a "real world" skill. For telling time, not only will students need to be able to tell time in the real world, but it will also asses their ability to count by fives. 
• Norm-Referenced Assessment- An example of this would be the TCAPs in Tennessee. It is a standardized test that compares how a teacher's students, a whole grade, or a whole school's students compare to other students, grades, or schools.
• Teacher-Developed Assessment- An example of this could be a test made by the teacher to see how well students understood the math lessons from a particular unit. This could be helpful because it will show exactly which students need work in specific areas, or if the class as a whole did not understand a particular concept.
• Performance Assessment- An example could be a book report that is acted out in front of the class that must explain the plot of the book. This not only tests students on their comprehension of the book, but also tests them on their understanding of the different aspects of a plot.

I think there are advantages to both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments. It is important to know how well the students know information and what exactly they do not know, but it is also important to make sure that students are doing well in comparison to their peers in order to prepare them for the next step in their academic careers. Ideally, there would be an easy way to combine both.

QTC Post #1- Introduction

I am very excited to be in this class. It is my first real semester of teacher education classes and I am very interested in learning as much as possible.The class itself sounds very interesting and I hope to expand my knowledge about teaching and children in general. I am specifically interested in learning about the differences between teacher-made and standardized assessments. I feel this is a "hot topic" right now in the education world and it is something I have been interested in for a long time. I also am excited to delve deeper into learning about learning theories and development. I think I will be able to use all aspects of this class in my future profession by better understanding aspects of teaching.