Final Teaching project --preparation

Well I am preparing for my teaching project and find that nothing is going as I thought but that is life.  I was hoping to be able to teach something that is in my area of expertise but no such luck.  I had difficulty finding someone who I could do the class for and finally found Janet Williams who agreed to let me teach her class on burns.  This is a topic which I haven't thought much about for 25 years since Nursing School so I had to study up and read about it quite a bit to refresh my memory.  It occurred to me that it's a bit like life, you never quit having to study, learn and update your skills.  Oh well, the world moves fast and we have to keep up!  Will reflect on this more after it's done next week.

evaluation of learning

As I continue on this path I am reflecting on how an instructor knows when learning as occurred in a class.  I think about this a lot when the grades aren't what I would have hoped for.  In the beginning I was so dumb and had no idea of how to write a test question or even that most of the time the ones provided by the text book companies could be used.  I would go along using what had been used before me or making up questions as I went along.  I was sometimes shocked to find students asking me questions on a test about the meaning of words I had used.  I took for granted that the students understood such words as "rigid" or "reliable".  I learned very quickly not to take anything for granted.

I would spend hours hand typing a test only to have the terrible computers stop halfway through and I would lose everything!  This happened on more than one occasion until I complained to my son who happily informed me about the auto save feature.  When I look back on those early days I realize it was truly the blind leading the blind.

Now the process of evaluation is much easier.  The testing is easier and now I know I don't have to wait till it's time to test to ask them questions to see if they have gotten the information I want them to learn.  I know how to make a blueprint or as I used to call it a review sheet to be sure the have studied the concepts that they will be responsible for knowing.  I  know to base all of this on the learning objectives for the chapter or concept I want to convey to them.  Through experience and what we have been reading and studying in our course work I know more about the process than I did when I started this program.  That to me is good progress.