Providing+Feedback

**Read and Reflect**
Providing feedback is something I do on a daily basis both orally and written. As I deliver the lesson or students are at the board practicing the lesson I continually offer feedback/praise. I usually require students to show their work on math assignments because it enables me to see where they might have made a mistake on their calculations and I can point this out to them. I usually use a colorful pen/marker to make it easier for them to see my comments on their assignments. The one area I need to improve upon is returning papers in a timely manner, which is a goal I set for myself to have a turn around of just one day. Not always possible, but it helps them to see the mistakes before continuing on with the lessons.

My concern is that although I offer feedback, many of my students are passive learners and very few bother to read the comments on their assignments. This is a struggle throughout our program and one that we are trying to address but it is a difficult situation and the lack of interest is strongest in math where many of the students have struggled for years and basically have just given up trying to succeed. This lack of interest also makes it difficult for students to self assess as many state they do not care about their progress and refuse to actively participate in the learning process. Also, unfortunately for me as a teacher, they are many parents who are passive when it comes to their child's education making it easier for the student to remain uninvolved in their education and future.

**Apply and Reflect** What I most like about //Vacaroo//, is that it was a simple and easy to use program. It took me less than 60 seconds to record a message and copy the URL. What is more complicated would be to put this to use in my classroom. Due to the nature of our program, students do not have use of electronic mail so it is not possible to leave a message via //Vacaroo// on e-mail. However, this year I am teaching a blended classroom and while students still do not have access to e-mail, I may be able to upload a message to them via Blackboard, I plan to play around with this technology to see if I can individualize the message for each student.

UPDATE still not able to record and use with my students, but I was able to use to send an email to a co-worker and it was much faster than sitting and typing at the computer. Unfortunately, our district has this site blocked so I was unable to send to co-workers in the classroom or students.

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Success

http://vocaroo.com/?media=vUGIuDmAUFVgykXs1 Click here to hear one of my first samples using //Vacaroo//