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Breaking the status quo

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(Final entry - EDS 113)  Practicing teachers who choose to stick with the traditional state or process of education (assessments in particular) tend to do so maybe because they do not know better, they have been comfortable doing it the same way and are lazy to change, or they really think it is still the best way. I think I used to  belong  to the first group, the educators who do not know better. Undeniably, I was reluctant to go back to school and be a student again. Upon reflection, I realize that I need to keep on learning. I am so grateful to have embarked on this learning journey. It feels like I have been illuminated, enlightened with the new knowledge I have absorbed from these modules. In this regard, I would like to change the norm, mainly because now I know better. I plan to make good use of each part of the principles and assessment methods, peeling and husking away at all the concepts and ideas learned. Though being provided the information does not necessarily equate tea
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Applying self- and peer assessment in Art

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 (Module 7b - EDS 113) -  It's almost the beginning of another school year. For the last two weeks, my fellow Art teachers and I have been working on our syllabus and auditing our curriculum. Continuous curriculum evaluation has been the standard practice in the school that I work for. The emphasis on this is now clearer to me as I am almost at the end of my second term of studies. The alignment and congruence of the curricula, practices, and the school's mission should be relevant to the changing times, particularly at this time of the pandemic and online distance learning. Perhaps, because we've been through e-learning for the previous year, there is a tendency to be complacent and feel like we already got the hang of education in the "new normal". I deem we should be vigilant now more than ever.  I am connecting this kind of vigilance to self- and peer assessment. In studying for this term, maybe we have been lax, in our learning activities because we feel like
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Good feedback

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(Module 7 - EDS 113) Assessments are of great importance in order to provide comments and incentive to the learners. This is very crucial especially in my Art subject. I assign a number of performance tasks for students, not only to gauge their learning, but also to give feedback that students can understand and use to improve. Putting grades to artworks prove to be difficult, especially without the guide of a rubric. I find that feedback is more valuable and useful to my learners than a mere numeric or letter-grade could ever do. In reading and researching about module seven, I learned a bunch of points that I can apply this coming school year to give good feedback. I would like to share some here. Perhaps there are times that students misbehave in class. Unable to keep still and listen or creating a ruckus to catch the teacher's attention. Upon checking their tasks, educators may have a tendency to get back at the students by giving them negative comments about their work. Feedba
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Mental health matters

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(Exercise 2 -EDS 113) Mental health really matters, in the current state of the world we live in, our group found this topic relevant now more than ever. The pandemic has brought about a sense of hopelessness and isolation in Filipinos. Mental illness may go undetected, not just in high school students, but also in their teachers.  Initially, it may seem that working from home, conducting online classes or preparing modules are easier than being in a face-to-face class. However, having been in this quarantine situation for more than a year now has changed the educational landscape from what educators are used to. Teachers are also susceptible to depression and anxiety. It may be exacerbated by being away from coworkers or the stress of worrying about their family members getting sick.  Being in the teaching profession is more taxing than it seems. Particularly at this time of the pandemic, where working hours are blurred as one's home becomes a classroom of sorts. Aside from checki
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Are you ready?

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(Module 6 - EDS 113) Aircrafts, vehicles, houses or buildings, and even art have blueprints or two-dimensional drawings that contain details that are needed for a project. It is crucial to have these schemes to enable architects, engineers, and artists to design with the big picture in mind. This ensures that all the wants and needs are incorporated into the design build. It is a model or guide for those who will construct the actual product. Upon reading up on our 6th module, I learned about the Table of Specifications (TOS) which ensures that assessments gauge the content and thinking skills that it is supposed to measure. It is a foundational tool for designing assessments. Prior to studying it in this class, I wasn't aware that such a tool existed. In our school, we made use of rubrics which are a set of guidelines that can help students to monitor and evaluate their own work. It helps instructors on teaching and assessing what is important and valued in the students' outpu
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Life skills

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(Exercise 1 - EDS 113) Having a groupwork activity back in grade school to college used to be very easy for me, especially since I knew my classmates and we already had a relationship prior to being part of a team. I found out through our first exercise in EDS 113 that being thrown into a group with a bunch of people you only know through their online posts is much more difficult than initially thought. Given the pressure of the deadline and the confusion in answering the questions posted in the portal, I was first worried that I would have a hard time doing this activity. Hearing feedback from our professor however, helped us to be on track and boosted our energy to finish our work before the deadline. Each one did their part to contribute what they learned in the discussed modules relating to our topic. I felt that our team employed a cooperative manner and implemented strategies to stay on task. I learned to compromise and accept contrary opinions expressed in the group. Each one pr
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Dreaming of assessments

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(Module 5 - EDS 113) This morning, I woke up remembering a vivid dream I had. I was taking a Nat Sci assessment without a test paper, the questions were being flashed on the screen of this big auditorium. I had to write the answers on a piece of bond paper. I then asked the proctor if it was just a diagnostic test or not because I didn't know the answers! That was when I woke up chuckling to myself--- EDS 113's assessments topic is creeping inside my head! Subconsciously, I seem to be applying our learnings even while I am sleeping. Looking back, I always remembered feeling queasy whether or not assessments took the form of traditional or non-traditional setup. Maybe because I viewed them all as summative assessments that gauged or ranked me in someway against my classmates through grades and appraisals. There was this self-inflicted pressure in me to be on my toes and do good at these assessments. I obsessively wrote down all the tests, quizzes, exams, and projects in my plann
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