Exam-writing

[rebeccmeister]

Exam-writing is hard, but fun. I have to ask myself questions such as, "What was the main point of that lab we did six weeks ago, and how do I want to test students' knowledge/understanding of that material?" And then there's the fact that I always want to use assessment tools as an additional teaching opportunity. It's one thing to ask them to regurgitate the same ideas or thought processes they've already used; it's another thing entirely to ask them to take that knowledge and apply it to a novel situation. Finding the right balance between challenging questions and relatively simple questions is hard.

I'm going to miss my students at the end of the semester. They've been a fun group to teach, for the most part.

Comments

[trifold-flame.livejournal.com]

I wish so much I could write my own exam! I should show you the one we have for this class of mine- all the questions are weird little details, no real main-point type examination of knowledge at _all_!

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

That is lame and annoying! I have to admit I'm pretty happy with most of the liberties we get to take with my lab, although sometimes a bit more direction would be nice.

[earthlingmike.livejournal.com]

lol. "What was the main point of that lab we did six weeks ago" That's always a good question I guess!

I'm being a smarass. For some reason I never wanted to be a teacher, I guess because I didn't like school. Probably one of the mistakes I made, they get those vacations in the summer, and it probably would be fun. I guess some teachers make it boring themselves, but other teachers are better.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Ha. "vacations." Um, yeah. Actually, as a grad student, the summer is when I get the most REAL work done, stuff that applies towards my dissertation. A lot of grad students view teaching as being a small conveyor belt in the giant education factory. I'd like to think I make more of a difference in my students' lives, but of course school isn't the best way for everybody to learn.