Source: http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/assessment/

First of all, I am in love with the photographs that Barbara Ganley has put on this site. I am a big nature lover and found her pictures captivating. This particular entry is about teaching an online class. She brings up a question that all classroom teachers think about–how do I adapt my teaching style to fit the group dynamics of my new class. She talks about getting to know her students and letting that fit how she evaluates them.

My favorite quote by her is:  “I design assignments and experiences for the collective which the group shapes and revises as they get accustomed to having a real hand in the course design. We read one another’s work and get excited (hopefully) about what it could mean to be a part of this learning collective.”

She definitely has created her class design as student centered.  She uses their input to improve her own teaching.  Her online course design sounds like it is effective because it has created a community of learners who communicate, elaborate, and create.  She uses the blogs to keep them connected.  Yet, she also realizes that not everyone will be as enthusiastic as she is about the class.  I have some classes that seem almost fearful of learning math versus classes that find math exciting, and love learning new topics.

This week’s lesson has brought about the point that to have effective evaluations, we need to have student involvement.   A lady at my math leadership meeting said that she gave her students the opportunity to create their own test questions.  She said that her regular students came up with better questions than her honors group, that they had put more thought into the process.  She said she believed this is true because the regular students invested more time and thought into learning the concept than the honors students.  If anyone tries this, please let me know how it went for you.  I am going to try it next semester.  I have two big projects this upcoming six weeks and don’t want to detract from them.