Barry Westling

Stephen, I don't always pretest, but when I do, a good place to start is by examining the course objectives and even daily objectives, since it will be from these that graded testing will originate. I will choose about 25-30 essential points that I expect students to master by course end. If 2/3 or more of the class answers a question correctly, that tells me I can probably spend a bit less time on that category. As a pretest, I don't assess skills, nor do I consider visual, auditory, or tactile learning traits. And since I don't grade pretests, I… >>>

Stephen, Journals are very helpful, but also very personal in that any way that you want to track your thoughts and comments is perfectly satisfactory. For instance, sometimes I'll stumble on a new or different way to explain something. I may jot that down. Some days are routine with not much to note. Other days, my observations about how my class went, why students were or were not engaged, situations I had to deal with, equipment that was or was not working, thought or ideas about improvements -- pretty much, anything out of the ordinary is what is most meaningful… >>>