Blog #10

    As a teacher, I would like to use surveys to do mental health check-ins, ask understanding of topics, and get general feedback from students on how I can improve as their teacher. For mental health check-ins, I would ask questions about how they are generally feeling and if my class is adding to their stress levels. Based on their responses, I would try to incorporate "Mental Health Days," where the students can have a free class period to work on whatever they would like, talk to friends, play board games, etc. I had a teacher in high school do this, and once a month we would get "Mental Health Fridays." It really helped, and I would like to incorporate this in my future classroom using surveys. As for understanding topics, I would like to do a survey prior to a topic being taught and before the test. This way, I know exactly what my students know prior to introducing the topic. In doing so, I can put more emphasis on information the students do not already know. After teaching a topic, prior to a test, I would like to conduct surveys to see how comfortable my students are feeling with the material. I can have a review day prior to the test and focus on the areas that my students said they feel least comfortable with in the survey. I would keep these surveys anonymous so that the students do not lie about their knowledge because they do not want to seem "dumb." After every unit, I would like to survey my students to see if my teaching methods are effective to them. I would like to see if there is anything that my students need more of (visuals, explicit detail). Based on these survey responses, I can improve my future lessons by gearing them towards the specific learning needs of my students. 

    Topics I found most interesting from reviewing my classmates' blogs would be the reflections on assignments and their opinions on distance learning. After reading some classmates' blogs, it seems as if most of us actually learned new technology techniques through completing each assignment. A lot of students seemed to have difficulties when they were using a new application; however, everyone seemed to have liked something about each assignment in the end. As for our blogs and websites, most classmates seemed to go with more simple themes. I feel as if we did this because it was a new tool and we would rather make it look clean than crazy. Looking at each person's blogs, it is evident that we all have different styles that we like. I felt like classmates' personalities were shown through the color schemes of their blogs and assignments that we could view. Throughout the blogs, you could see how everyone's thought processes differed. The reader was able to see what worked for one individual, but maybe did not work well for someone else. It was evident that most of the class does not particularly enjoy distance learning. There was a trend of people saying that it was not the best way of learning for them because they felt disconnected or like they were not actually learning. I think we can all agree that this has been an extremely tough semester with distance learning, and hopefully we can go back to face to face soon. 

    A technology-related skill that I would like to learn next is how to set up a Canvas course. I feel like learning how to do this will be beneficial to me before I become a teacher. It seems as if a lot of schools are now implementing Canvas into their school technology, and I do not want to seem like a less promising applicant because I do not understand the Canvas technology from a teacher point-of-view. If we still had more time in the semester, I would ask if our instructor could do a workshop day to show us how to create a Canvas page through Zoom. However, since this is not a feasible option at this point in the semester, I plan to ask my mom to teach me. She is a high school learning specialist and has access to Canvas. At some point over Winter Break, I would like her to teach me how to create a Canvas course. She has multiple for her new teachers and clubs that she sponsors, so she can give me a crash course on learning the teacher-side of Canvas. Since learning is currently technology-based, I feel as if it is integral for me to learn the instructor side of Canvas.