 and….
Lastly, answer the question: Why is teaching important to you?
I measure effectiveness in several different ways. I measure informally through questioning, non-verbal communications by my students, and by journaling with my students. I also formally measure assessment through exams, comprehensive final exams, and by evaluating data on student success in their next mathematics course.
Assessment is the big thing in colleges right now. We assess at the student level, course level, program level and college level. Any and everything we do, we have to be able to assess, or measure. In our developmental course are true objective is to successfully prepare students to complete their college-level math course. This is the ultimate goal for all developmental work. This is measurable, and at this time, we are doing better than the state of West Virginia is asking, but we are always looking to improve.
At the college level it is not so quite measurable. If this is their last math course, how do we measure their use of the material? Are they quantitatively literate? Are they critical thinkers in the “real†world? We can test them on the objectives for the course, both during the semester and at the end, but is this true assessment? We are working on developing student portfolios that show their competencies, but I find it hard to really assess student learning.
Teaching is important to me because I think it was my calling. I believe that we all have a calling or place that we suppose to be. My place is in the classroom. I jump out of bed in the morning and I am excited for every day of teaching. Some of the other “stuff†gets to me sometimes, but I am always comfortable in the classroom teaching.  Â
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