Barry Westling

Hi Darlene: I think every teacher probably has some degree of wanting to improve. It can be that trouble spots or weaker areas are not recognized by the teacher, so improvement will never occur. I believe there also has to be some degree of willingness to want to improve, and that means facing facts that may not be so pleasant. Then the question becomes to what degree is the teacher willing to be honest with themselves, and, put in the effort to make the needed changes. It takes a really mature, self assured and confident individual to make these difficult… >>>

Hi Darlene: A couple of ways to approach your grading options. One is the points for individual components, and the other is assessing to what degree did the student learn the material. At first it seems like these two entities are the same but they are not. Of course we always want to be fair. That said, points are just a way to be objective in assigning a grade. But what does a grade tell you about what the student may or may not have learned? On the other hand, if a teacher can assess the students knowlege gained from… >>>

Hi John: One way to save time with PPT is to jump to the end slides if you have summary points already listed. This can also be done without summary slides - by just using the white board to put salient bullet points that are essential to the lesson. If available, you can get a copy of the test or quiz and scan it to make sure you're going to cover the test information. This is less than desirable, but, as you say, when time is short, at least give them something helpful. These are also times a teacher may… >>>