One of the assignments that I liked the most was that of making a portfolio. Actually my idea was bigger and the portfolio assignments didn't turn out as well as I expected, but I learned a lot and the students have a digital or paper portfolio to take with them to their next classes.
My original plan was to teach them how to use Weebly to create a website to house their portfolios. Weebly is free so the students didn't have to spend any money for the site. The downfall though is that most of my students couldn't figure out how to easily manipulate the site with their content. How can I evaluate their understanding of the content if they can't put it in a way that makes sense, or even put any information down at all. Some of the students did well with Weebly and they were able to complete their portfolio with Weebly. There was still a lot of struggle for many.
I started to switch to Google Sites, but again the students didn't have enough understanding in creating a website to be able to manipulate it well enough. The students that could successfully manipulate Sites had already done a good job towards finishing their portfolio. The nice thing about using Google Sites, is that I was able to get into the website with them and work with them and keep track of their progress. The year is almost over and the portfolio assignment deadline was almost due. I couldn't let the students that were not successful with this assignment off the hook.
I ended up letting them use Google Slides to put their information on and submit it that way. Most of them could use Slides so there was not the learning curve that there was with Weebly. Many of the students had used Slides before so they were able to complete the portfolio and put their content there. There was still a number of students that had not been able to successfully create a portfolio of any form. I could not let them not finish the assignment. If I let them fail in this assignment, then it would reinforce their belief that they were math failures. They were not failures. That belief was wrong and I was determined to help change it.
I hate to say that not all 200 of my students submitted a portfolio of any kind. There were 64 students that submitted a portfolio using Weebly. The students that submitted a portfolio on sites was 26. More students submitted their portfolio on slides, about 66. There were 24 students that did their portfolio on paper. Unfortunately, there were six students that did nothing.
I wonder if I was able to reach all my students. No I wasn't able to reach them all. I tried. I really tried. I wanted to give them all a way to be successful in math. I wanted them to experience success for the first time in many of their math lives.
My original plan was to teach them how to use Weebly to create a website to house their portfolios. Weebly is free so the students didn't have to spend any money for the site. The downfall though is that most of my students couldn't figure out how to easily manipulate the site with their content. How can I evaluate their understanding of the content if they can't put it in a way that makes sense, or even put any information down at all. Some of the students did well with Weebly and they were able to complete their portfolio with Weebly. There was still a lot of struggle for many.
I started to switch to Google Sites, but again the students didn't have enough understanding in creating a website to be able to manipulate it well enough. The students that could successfully manipulate Sites had already done a good job towards finishing their portfolio. The nice thing about using Google Sites, is that I was able to get into the website with them and work with them and keep track of their progress. The year is almost over and the portfolio assignment deadline was almost due. I couldn't let the students that were not successful with this assignment off the hook.
I ended up letting them use Google Slides to put their information on and submit it that way. Most of them could use Slides so there was not the learning curve that there was with Weebly. Many of the students had used Slides before so they were able to complete the portfolio and put their content there. There was still a number of students that had not been able to successfully create a portfolio of any form. I could not let them not finish the assignment. If I let them fail in this assignment, then it would reinforce their belief that they were math failures. They were not failures. That belief was wrong and I was determined to help change it.
I hate to say that not all 200 of my students submitted a portfolio of any kind. There were 64 students that submitted a portfolio using Weebly. The students that submitted a portfolio on sites was 26. More students submitted their portfolio on slides, about 66. There were 24 students that did their portfolio on paper. Unfortunately, there were six students that did nothing.
I wonder if I was able to reach all my students. No I wasn't able to reach them all. I tried. I really tried. I wanted to give them all a way to be successful in math. I wanted them to experience success for the first time in many of their math lives.