After 20 years of teaching at Brookfield Central, I am saying goodbye. Although I spent the majority of that time in the physics classroom alongside my learners. That changed for my last 18 weeks. I ended up in a place similar to where I started, teaching chemistry and biology. So, rather than dealing with juniors and seniors at the end of their high school careers, I was in classrooms with freshmen and sophomores still trying to find their place. At the same time, I was learning and teaching a set curriculum I hadn't taught in over a decade. So, we were learning. But, of course, I already knew the content. The point of this post is to take a step back, reflect, and share the gratitude from the last students I had in my 20 years at Brookfield Central High School, as expressed through the cards and notes they made for me on my last day with them. I don't take many "yay me" moments. But after 20 years, I'll soak this one in.
I had earlier talked about my new design for student portfolios in my class. After finishing out first unit I had students finish up the first unit entry. For this first unit I pulled back a bit on my full outline I planned for each unit. It is my hope that this first unit page will serve as a toe dipping and in our second unit I can add more elements that I had intended to add originally. I felt that getting students comfortable in the Google Sites environment the first go around and giving them some feedback was more important than having them start out with my full blown vision.
So, this go around our unit page was divided into 3 sections.
Objectives
For our first go around, I simply had students add the unit objectives to this section. In our next unit, I plan to have them write them in their own words as well.Narrative
The intention of this section is for students to reflect of their performance on formative quizzes. In the first unit we had 2 quizzes. I dropped the ball on this one. We were pressed for time on the day of the 2nd quiz and I failed to tell students to do their reflection. By the time I realized it, enough time had passed that it wouldn't be nearly as meaningful or relevant. I want this section to be an immediate reaction to how they did, what helped them learn, and possible next steps. I still struggling at how formal this should be or if it should be. Should I make it a less rigid prompt and make it more of a free reflection.
Artifact
The artifact section differs a little for those students who took the test vs those who completed the alternative assessment. Those who took the test were asked to reflect on their performance and look at their goal for the next unit. If students would like to earn test correction points, this is where they would embed their correction document. For students who completed the alternative assessment, they are asked to reflect on the process of the creation including successes, struggles, and if they were to do it again what they would change. In addition, they are to embed their alternative assessment.
Looking at the student pages, they are all over the spectrum. They key will be in providing in depth feedback on what is working and what students could expand/improve on.
I've included some screenshots below. This portfolio is ultimately intended for a general audience. I'd love some constructive feedback on how you think the format could be improved to communicate with an audience and to allow for learner relevance.
Also if you're doing portfolios, what are your students putting in them? I desperately want to know regardless of grade level.
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