I had a weekend project. Once our new counter tops and sink were in, I had the pleasure of installing new drains and a faucet. I figured I could then reattach the pipes underneath with minimal effort.
I don't know why I thought it was going to be easy...because it never has been before. In a word: frustration. Okay, a better word probably: anger. In fact, if nothing else will bring me to tears, plumbing will.
In teaching, we work to check the students' progress as we introduce and teach new concepts. Formative assessment is the way to go, in my opinion. Sure, I have summative assessment in my 6th grade ELA class, but whenever I get the chance, I like to check on the students in what I think is a more meaningful way. I have a ways to go in mastering how to assess students formatively, but just making an attempt at the process is of extreme importance.
Hence my reflections on plumbing this last weekend. To make a long story short, we were way overdue for new counter tops and a sink. The professionals installed everything by mid-Saturday afternoon, which left me with Saturday night to do the faucet, drains, and pipes. With a late night visit from my brother-in-law, who's a contractor, an early Sunday morning trip to the hardware store, a break for church in the morning, a skipped lunch, and another visit from my brother-in-law, I was able to (sort of) finish the job.
The much abbreviated steps I took looked like this:
1. Attach faucet and drains; restructure pipe fittings and attach.
*Now for the hard part
2. Turn on water and check for leaks.
3. Find a leak.
4. Twist the cap on the flange, check for leaks.
5. Find a leak.
6. Screw in the nut on the valve, check for leaks.
7. Find a leak.
8. Unscrew the pipe, apply pressure, twist back into place, check for leaks.
9. Repeat steps 3-8 as necessary.
This structure works when we introduce and teach new concepts to the students:
1. Introduce new concept or skill.
*And again, the hard part.
2. Answer students' questions, give practice.
3. Find a leak (in understanding).
4. Put it into different words, give practice.
5. Find a leak.
6. Complete the assignment, note the results.
7. Find a leak.
8. Give extra practice for those who need it...
9. Repeat steps 3-8 as necessary.
Educational technology has been growing, and teachers have seen the need for quick and easy ways to track student progress (or the lack of it). I'll name a few formative assessment tools that have popped up in the educational arena that seem to work wonders for many people, myself included.
Plickers
Plickers stands for "paper clickers". Students have their own printed barcodes on paper, no devices necessary. The teacher uses a webcam or smartphone after asking to record students who hold up the papers after asking questions. Students hold up their "plickers" to respond and their responses appear as a bar graph for the teacher to note the results. Quick, instant feedback--a great formative assessment tool.
Socrative
Socrative works in a very similar way to Plickers, but the students use a device to participate. The teacher logs in to the teacher side while the students join the teacher's "room" from the student side using the "room code". And it only works if the teacher is on Socrative at the time. Polls and other educational games and exercises can be performed, which give the teacher a great way to see where the students are at in their understandng.
QuickKey
QuickKey is an app for your smartphone that allows you to use the camera to quickly scan as if you had a full-on scantron device. Just print the bubbled template, set up your class, and each student will be assigned a unique number to bubble in for identification. Input your multiple choice answers, and shazam, you have a ready-made quiz that you use as either formative or summative assessment.
There are many more, but these have been my go-to tools to check student understanding.
I still had a slow drip from the drain in my kitchen sink, very slow, but I could see it if I took a minute to look. Sometimes we have to look very carefully to see what leaks might be popping up in the classroom. One final tightening and the pipes were good to go. I encourage you to look at the three services above to help you identify leaks so that you can stop them up as quickly as possible.
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