Breaking Education Barriers Blog (C4T #2)

For C4T #2 Post 1 I read: Feedback: Lessons from the Ball Field from the Breaking Education Barriers blog.  In this post, the author compared a coach and a teacher.  As one might assume, the two are very similar in many ways.  The blog focused particularly on feedback.  The author used a list format in order to compare the two.  First, feedback on the field then what that equated to in the classroom. 

Her first point stated that good feedback is specific and directed toward one player. I definitely agree with this.  Feedback must be specific in order to be effective.  A teacher needs to take the time to give student's explanations on an individual level.  If the teacher just gives the students test scores then she is missing out getting to know her students and the children are missing out on the opportunity to correct what they are doing wrong.  Secondly, the author of this blog discussed praise on the ball field and in the classroom.  She explained that, while the praise boosted both the player and the student's ego, it did not do much to help the child improve.  She says the teacher should give praise in the classroom, but to not mix praise and feedback. Lastly, the author explains that good feedback on the ball field was not given at the end of the season.  She says that the best feedback is formative assessment.  This is a type of assessment that is given to the player or student as he is learning the task or material at hand.  This summer, I was reading with my nephew and in order for him to really get something out of the book we were reading, I had to stop and ask questions to make sure he was understanding what was going on.  This type of feedback also reminds me of the Asking The Right Questions post that I wrote last week.  It's not enough to teach a lesson and say "Is that clear?" at the end.

Feedback: Lessons from the Ball Field taught me a lot about giving good feedback by comparing coaching and teaching.  I definitely recommend future educators to read this blog!

For my second post on the Breaking Education Barriers Blog, I read and commented on a post titled Impacting Students a Book at a Time.  I really enjoyed what this post had to offer.  The opening line of the post asked, "What impacts student's achievements?"  I was immediately interested in what the author had to say because part of wanting to become a teacher is wanting to see your students achieve a great deal.  Her answer to this question was that reading seriously impacts a student's achievements.  She said, "exhibiting the love of reading and exposing them to adventures and lessons that lie within the pages of a book" reaches the students like nothing else can.  She even mentioned that by showing her own enthusiasm about reading, the kids, too, get excited and they ask each other about what they are reading.  Not only close ended questions, she explains, but critical thinking questions that motivate the children to read even more.  Recently, I have been seriously questioning how good of a teacher I will be solely on the fact that I do not read that much.  It is something that has bothered me lately because I think of how much I did enjoy reading as an elementary student.  This blog post has definitely given me something to think about.