During the third year of my Bachelor of Education Program, I was lucky enough to attend an Assessment based course. The following assignment was the first major project we had to do in this course and I learned so much with my group! The most important skill of assessment I gained through this assignment was how to breakdown criteria. This is a crucial skill that every educator must possess in order to have a successful lesson. By breaking down the outcome as we have shown below, you ensure that you are keeping your learning tasks tight to the outcome and not making the students do unnecessary work that does not meet the outcome. Specifically, this assessing outcomes assignment helps me to meet four major points outlined by the Alberta Teaching Quality Standard (TQS), these include engaging in career-long learning, demonstrating a professional body of knowledge, establishing inclusive learning environments and also adhering to legal frameworks and policies.
Performance Assessment Task
My second major task in this course was to create a performance assessment task. My groups focus on this task was Grade Six Mathematics - particularly using direct and indirect measurement to solve problems with a focus on angles and triangles. This assignment helped me to appreciate the amount of effort and work that goes into making a performance task that also keeps the assessment tight to the outcome. As a future teacher, this assignment helped me to realize that working backward when creating a task is both the most effective and efficient use of teacher time. This performance assessment task meets four major points outlined by the Alberta Teaching Quality Standard (TQS), these include engaging in career-long learning, demonstrating a professional body of knowledge, establishing inclusive learning environments and also adhering to legal frameworks and policies.
Collaboration and Group Work
Collaboration is a major part of having a 21 Century learner classroom and as a Middle Years Collaborative student, I have gained team working skills that would not be showcased in any other program. Through the implementation of ideas such as team teaching and cross-curricular connections, collaboration is more important than ever as a future educator. Throughout my third year of post-secondary, we were placed in groups for the entire term, this meant that every project in every course you worked with the same people. This helped us gain teamwork and collaboration skills by working through issues and tackling tasks as a team compared to individuals. It encouraged both individual and group responsibility and helped to increase our overall skill set. The Alberta Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) is changing to support the ideas of the 21st Century learner, collaboration and group work is a major part of this idea. This is supported by three main points from the new TQS including fostering effective relationships, engaging in career-long learning, and demonstrating a professional body of knowledge.