Big Day Tomorrow!

Oh my!  Tomorrow is my first interview (and I hope my only one) for a teaching position!  I'm going to make this short and sweet since I should get my rest.

I had some great advice from friends and some people on my PLN.  I'm just going to share a couple:

- @KirbyFecho: know the ins and outs of the school and the division it's in and how it fits with your goals as an educator

- @jwporteous: Know the school and the division and thier plans. Be confident in your abilities. Sell yourself!

- my friend Amber: Dress for the job you want not what they are interviewing you for. (So dress as a teacher like I did for my practicums. Lol.)

- my friend AJ: It's always better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it. (be over prepared.)

- an acquaintance from my elementary school who is now a teacher: Be sure to communicate how much you care about kids! And that all your answers should come down to what is most important or best for them. (Very true.)

And numerous friends and family said these which are just as important:

- be myself

- relax

- believe in myself

- be honest

- be positive

All the advice has been helpful and makes me realize I have to have confidence in myself, knowing I can do this, and I am a great person for the job.  

I feel confident in where I could be teaching. I am familiar with the assessment in the division and what I have researched, I like what the school is striving for and seems to fit as who I am as a teacher.

Anyways!  I said I would keep this short!  I hope the advice given to me can be helpful to others.

No-Name Assessment

This may sound bad because it sounds like students are "just numbers" but I really like the idea of marking that I learned from the VP at Daysland School, Pat Whittleton.  During my APT, I was able to observe a couple of Mr. Whittleton's Social Studies 30-1/30-2 class.  In one class he handed back an assignment and he called out numbers.  He also had copies of the mark and feedback so he can be accounted for his marks and that he could just write their name down when they got their hard copy and record the marks later.  

Why do the students have these numbers, you ask?  That's a good question and it lead to having fair and unbiased marks towards a student while marking their work.  Of course, even with a student's name on their work, a teacher should not mark on the student but assess their work, but it can be tough to be unbiased/neutral.  If you know a student is a high achiever you may mark a little more leniently.  If you know a student struggles or, dare I say, pushes your buttons a bit, you may mark the student harder.  Removing the student's name from the equation makes truer marks.

I really liked Mr. Whittelton's method---it may take a bit longer to record because I have to wait to record the mark when I give back the assignment, but it really benefits everyone.  When I have my own class, I think I will assign numbers to them (5 digit numbers).  I would make a list, just out the numbers, and give the numbers to the students for them to keep and use when they hand in their work.  I could record their number with their name in my mark book because I found when I marked, I marked everything, graded and gave feedback, then recorded the mark.  The student would still stay anonymous up until I recorded that mark, and it would skip the step of finding who is who when I hand out the assignment.

Having students make their own numbers would be good though, but I could run into the issue of student accidentally or purposely using the same numbers.  That would not help and confuse everyone. 

Oh so much to think about!  I get all excited for ideas that I would implement in my own classroom.  Can't wait until that day!