530 Week 5

The two assignments this week were to create a rubric and to complete the pecha kucha. I have created rubrics in the past, and I usually have multiple revisions before I am satisfied with what I produce. I think the reason is that I know how much easier things are going to be to grade with a great rubric. A well-laid out rubric takes so much subjectivity out of grading. Objectivity can be wonderful. But, sometimes I wish I took the time to grade a few, tweak the rubric, and then re-grade those that I have graded. Because the material that I am teaching this year is new to me, I often find myself dissatisified with the former teacher's rubrics. I think they are great, until I start grading with them. It is only at that point that I see how much better they could have been. Then, I end up wanting to change the rubric on my students at the last minute. However, I am not sure that this would be fair, even if the new rubric is far better than the old one!

The second assignment was the Pecha Kucha. I think that creating a presentation that is 20 slides long, and speaking for 20 seconds a slide is a great way to keep from rambling on and on about whatever it is one is presenting. However, I think that it is also very limiting. Well, perhaps I won't see it as so limiting if I were better at putting together presentations. But, it was really difficult to decide what made the cut, and how I could condense what I had down to exactly 20 different slides. So, while Pecha Kucha was in intersting assignment, I am unsure that I would use the idea in my classroom in the future.