What Do the Students Really Know?

The purpose of a pre-test is to test students knowledge on a particular topic in schools. Pre-tests are designed to pinpoint where the teacher should focus more on the lesson based on the results of the tests. If all the students get question 1 right, then the teacher knows not to review any of the concepts related to question 1. However, if half the class does not get question 6 right, then the teacher knows to review the concepts from that particular question. 

The process of creating a pre-test involves making a variety of questions that test what the students do and do not know. These questions may include: multiple choice, true/false, short answer and fill in the blank. The questions should be general and specific and geared towards what the students have learned previously. It also should be a fair variety of questions so the teacher can collect accurate data. 

For the science pre-test, each of the groups came up with 3-4 questions about their lesson topic. For example, my group is teaching precipitation, so we came up with 4 questions pertaining to precipitation. Then, we added the questions to Google Forms so one of my colleagues can put it together for the students. Once we received the results, my group was able to base what the students know and do not know to help us prepare our lesson. 

The Snow Finally Stopped!

This was our first day of class due to the amount of snow we've had. Our class was held in the science lab at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. When we had arrived, I was able to finally put a face to all the names in our class considering they have been held online. All the students then came in and they all seemed excited to be there which then made me even more excited. They sat next to their friends and became acquainted with the room. 

Before the class had started, we had to design a getting to know you activity to complete with the students. In my group, we decided to make a rain cloud filled with questions for the students to answer on the rain droplets. The students were excited to answer the questions and even share their answers. Many of them we found out liked Science and Math to be their favorite subject. We also got to learn all the students names and what they know about weather. 

After we answered the questions, we also completed a cloud-in-a-bottle activity. For this activity, you fill up a mason jar with water and then pour shaving cream on top of the water. Once the shaving cream is on top, you pour the blue dye through the shaving cream and it eventually looks like rain. The students were extremely fascinated to see and learn about what happens to the cloud. The students did not know very well why rain comes out of a cloud, so we explained it to them as the dye was moving through. Once the activities were completed, we gathered around and talked about what we learned that day, Everyone took turns and shared ideas along with likes and dislikes about the day. After the students shared, they left and the teacher candidates spoke about how the day went and what the schedule will be like for the remainder of the semester. All in all, it was a great first day! 

Digital Who?

Digital me??

During online class on this day, we learned about the digital me projects. Digital me projects are basically ways to digitally explain who we are using different technology tools. A few examples of the tools are: Telegami, Word Cloud, Near Pod, and Animoto. 

For these projects, we took important information about ourselves and displayed it using the digital tools. For example, because this is a science based class, we discussed our experiences with science class growing up. We said what we liked and disliked about how the courses were taught and what we most remember. We also drew our own versions of scientists showing what we think a scientist looks like. 

My colleagues and I mostly talked about our friends and family and the things that we like to do. For example, there were a few of us that showed us pictures of their family while others just talked about their family to the class. For my digital me project, I did Toondoo as my digital me which allows the user to create a comic strip of their own. The user can share information on what they like and dislike using the different cartoon stickers. 

I think representing yourself digitally is easy and exciting. You can get as creative as you want about the projects while learning about so many different types of tools to use in the classroom.