Blog Week 34 “Final Reflections”

1. How did the year go for you in class?
It went well, it was hard to get use to using our phone, but once I got the hang of it, it was easy. I thought it was a pretty successful year in chemistry.

2. What were experiences that you liked from class this year, and why?
I loved doing experiments, all the experiments we did were great learning experiences and fun. I always looked forward to the experiments, especially the coke bottle lab.


3. Explain how you would rate your learning overall in class? (Use the 4-star scale)
Three, because even though technology is great, I like writing on paper and having instructions and questions for labs. I would have also liked some real notes, maybe a summary of the what we learned that week, with the information simply written out.

4. Discuss your overall learning, including concepts that were successful and a struggle
I  had trouble understanding some things, but other things came really easy. It just depended on how the information was presented, if it was told directly to me it was easy for me to understand, but if we had to figure it out on our own then I didn't it get some of the information.

5. How was your participation in the activities, whiteboarding, projects, and lab experiments?
I always did the assignments that were assigned, same with the projects, labs, and white boarding. All these activities helped me learn and experience first hand about chemistry.


6. What would you tell yourself if you could go back to September?
I would tell myself to reassess as much as possible, to ask more questions and join in on class discussions.


7. How did your use of mobile devices and digital apps go this year?
They helped me understand chemistry more, be able to get class notes and look at a periodic table. The one thing I didn't like about the electronics was the fact that some days we had to take assessments on them. I like to be able to write out my answers and work.


8. How did your blogging and reflective writing process this year contribute to your learning?
Everyday after school, I'd come home and blog about my day in chemistry, I did wrote of what we did and learned. It made me really think about what I learned each day.


9. How would you describe your experience with standards-based grading, reassessment, and ActiveGrade?
I liked reassessments, because I was able to improve my grade, but ActiveGrade was kind of difficult to understand. I personally like to know if I have an A or a B or whatever letter grade, it helps me understand how I'm truly doing in the whole of the class.


10. What changes would you recommend for next year, and why?
I would recommend that next year, notes are given out over each unit to summarize what we've learned and are suppose to take away from that unit. This will help students understand the point of each unit and it will also help students be able to study. Another thing would be to have worksheets for the labs, so we know why we are doing the labs and what we are suppose to be seeing during the lab.