Assessment in Keyboarding

In my 7th grade keyboarding classes, the chief object for students is to enhance their keyboarding accuracy and speed. We assess their progress by giving each student a one minute timed typing test every 8-12 days. Students are graded on a 10 point scale (based on results of previous timed test) as follows:
10 points for an improvement of 4 words or better
9 points for improvement of 3 words
8 points for improvement of 2 words
7 points for improvement of 1 word
6 points for no improvement
As you can see, the lowest score a student can earn on the test is 6 out of 10 points.

Next quarter I am going to challenge my students to try to achieve a keyboarding speed of 35 words per mintue. Keyboarding class can get tedious and boring at times, which makes concentrating on proper skills challenging at times. To keep their attention and focus I am going to tie an incentive based on improvement over the term...any suggestions?

Probability Game Assessment

In 8th grade math classes with one of my cooperating teachers, at the end of a probability unit, a final project was assigned that required students and their partner to create a board game based on probability. The students were given approximately 3 class periods to work on the project, as well as strong suggestion to work on it evenings and/or over the weekend (it had to be done by the end of the third class because parent-teacher conferences were the next day and the games were going to be hung around the room). In my opinion, the teacher loosely explained her instructions and expectations, and it wasn't until AFTER the projects were graded that they saw the grading rubric. Coincidently, there were at least 1/4 - 1/3 of students from each class that had missing or incomplete grades shown for this assignment. The most common reason cited for the missing/incomplete work was lack of student understanding of project expectations.

From this lesson, I learned it is crucial to clearly explain project expectations. I also realized it isn't fair to students to give grades without detailing how grades are given. I think the project would have been more successful with improved student outcomes if the teacher would have provided an outline of her grading rubric prior to the lesson.

Cursing in School

Right or wrong, I have found I am selective when it comes to addressing this issue. Generally if I hear a student curse in class, I will call them out. I tell them that type of language is unacceptable and they should find better, more intelligent means to express themselves. If I hear curse words in passing, whether I address it or not depends on what I've got going that moment. In one specific instance, however, a student was telling me about why he did not like staying at his mom's house - as he described, he froze his @ss off. The fact he cursed in this conversation was far from my mind.

I am curious, what do you do when you hear students curse in class? Or walking down the hall while talking with friends? How often do you acknowlegde it - every time you hear it or only somtimes?

Oh, the honesty

I'd just like to comment on the openness and honesty of middle schoolers, particularly when compared to high schoolers. In my experience, high school students showed up to class, did what they were supposed to do (most of the time), and left class as soon as they could. Most made little attempt to engage with teachers. Middle school students, on the other hand, are incredibly honest and open and I find I am still often surprised by this. These students love to reveal their drama - whether its the boyfriend/girlfriend of the day, gossip, details about their crush, why they're mad at the their parents, or whatever is on their mind, these kids will share with practically anyone who will listen.

GO ZAGS

Just wanted to make you aware Gonzaga won the WCC championship

Open Office vs Microsoft Word

I am incredibly frustrated with my school's decision to make keyboarding students use Open Office, a free word processing program, rather than provide our small lab with Microsoft's Word program. How many companies, schools, and other institutions use Open Office? I'm willing to be more schools and companies use Word. Sure, Open Office is free, but it is also unreliable and rarely used in the "real world." When students leave our middle school for the high school, they will be ill-prepared for the business department's computer classes because they will not have had necessary exposure to the Microsoft programs used by the department. To top it off, THREE other computer labs around the school that are primarily used for testing - not keyboarding class - have Microsoft Office programs. Makes sense, right?

Keyboarding Skills

Every week I get at least one student who asks "WHY do I have to take this class?! Its soooo boring!" While I agree, the class can get a bit tedious at times, I firmly believe in the importance of developing keyboarding skills among students. Not only will aid students in academics, it will provide them a valuable skill required by most employers.

Keyboarding is currently offered only during 7th grade for our middle school students and lasts one quarter of the year. Unfortunately, this is the first computer class for many of my students, so our curriculum is somewhat limited. It is a skills-based that requires repetition in order to enhance the skill.

MoTiVaTiOn

How do you motivate students in your classroom? Are you more inclined to punish bad behavior or reward good behavior?

In my keyboarding classroom, students are given the "privilege" to play computer games the last 5-10 minutes of class based on behavior demonstrated. So far, no student has lost this privilege and I have seldom reminded them that it is a privilege. This has proved to be a great incentive for students.

Incorporating Literacy

I gave a "Little Red Riding Hood" assignment this term that has caused me some concern. For this assignment, I passed out a printed version of the tale for the class to read aloud. The print out ended at point where Little Red was walking down the path, alone, to her grandmother's house until she heard "Who goes there?" From this point, students had to create their own ending of the assignment, and they were strongly encouraged to be as creative as possible by not following the traditional story line. I was shocked to see how they struggled at first, but eventually excited as I watched them smile and laugh while they developed an ending. As each class progressed, I became increasingly pleased with the success of the assignment. At the end of the period, volunteers were asked to read their endings - they were excellent.

This assignment was fun and gave students the opportunity to think creatively and independently, which is apparently rarely required of them.

When I read the individual endings to assign points, I was astonished at the poor grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, etc. within the papers. The errors were gross. Some were simple and would have likely been corrected if students had re-read their papers; however, some of the errors were so profound, individual student abilities became questionable. The purpose of the assignment was to engage students' creative thinking skills, and I was torn when I graded their papers. I was afraid correcting all of the errors would discourage students from attempting a similar assignment again. However, I believe it is our duty as educators, regardless our content area, to provide effective feedback whenever possible. What would some of you do in this situation?

Welcome!

This is my first blog and a work in progress. I plan to post information primarily about my current student teaching experience, as well as other relevant topics related to education. My content area is in business, but I am also "helping" in math classrooms and anticpate earning a middle level math endorsement upon completion of school. This blog has been created during the second semester of my student teaching practicum; as such, blogs will be related to my teaching experience at the middle level.

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