Chapter 3 - Curriculum and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

A.
This chapter discusses how all 50 states (except Iowa) have created standards to match or surpass the federal standards for education in the United States. It goes over a list of requirements when thinking about standards such as standards being clear, accurate, brief, feasible, flexible and assessable. The chapter goes on to show how state standards should be a basis for essential questions, which should be the basis for your curriculum. The last portion of the reading focuses on assessment. Although not a extremely in-depth overview, it does offer the advice to vary your assessment, make it authentic, and valuable.
R.
This chapter gave really nice insight into how state standards are created. Its nice to know the process, so you have an idea of how to change them if it comes to that. It's also good to compare state standards across the board with each other but also with the national standards and other countries. It shouldn't be a race or competition. I think we need to work together not only as a countries but as a planet, as a race, to become as educated as we can. This chapter had great leading questions to get teachers (and students) thinking about essential questions. I am a big fan of essential questions because I feel like they cut though all the bull that has flooded our school systems. Just like the mission statement guides the teachers, the essential question needs to guide the lesson. Assessment is always a tricky one. You want it to be varied, but now it seems like as educators we're leaning towards letting our students have some say in how they are graded. I am totally fine with that, in fact I intend to find some program that allows students to insert their own grades and track their own progress in a class.

Chapter 9 - Planning for Block Scheduling

I really like how Wormeli is explicit about how block scheduling could potential work. I guess that I have never really considered how different types of schedule could drastically change the way I need to teach content. It makes me wonder if block scheduling is the best way to do it or if there would be an even better schedule. There is something to be said for how most college schedules are set up. Classes would be a significantly longer, but it would cut down on useless homework. I hate to say it, but I really think most of the learning happens in the classroom and not in the home. Anyway, I liked the chapter, although I still think that Wormeli's organization of his chapters are weird.

Chapter 12 - Teacher Advisories

I did not know that full day advisory trips even took place. I remember 'homeroom' as just being the place a sat for the first 10 minutes of every day. I thought the point of them was so that students who were late for school would be late for homeroom instead of late for class. I think the only time my advisor even talked to me was to take attendance, so I'm definitely all for the advisory trips. It just seems like another really good way to connect with your students.

Chapter 11 - Teaming

This chapter gave a lot of specific examples of practices for teams of teachers, which I really liked. The idea of having you rown small community within the school is exciting. I am naturally competitive, so this would be the perfect way to motivate a student every now and then. I think Wormeli does a really nice job of being explicit about his information instead of making general guidelines. Examples can go a long way to painting the picture in my mind about how this would all actually work.

Chapter 6 - Oragnizing Relationships for Learning

A.
This chapter is in overview of team-teaching, a beginners manual if you will. It discusses size, anatomy, student-teacher ratio, scheduling, and roles and responsibilities.
R.
This chapter is spectacular!!! It definitely goes a long way in answering question about teams and houses. It answered even more questions than I knew I had. I remember teams from my own middle school experiences. It was really nice to be a on a team, but I wish that we had had a little more 'team spirit'. We didn't have team spirit days, that would have been nice. It also would have been cool if more of our teachers had worked together. I was pleasantly surprised that these authors discussed the effect of a strong teacher-student relationship on a student's academic success. I have found, especially in college, that a class with a strong sense of unity and positive feelings, is the best environment for learning. I never felt that until my first semester here.