After reading Amy’s post on measuring success, I was left with her question “how do you measure success in the classroom?” Amy breaks up success into two categories – academic and personal. I think this is a great way to scaffold and respond to an issue of such broad nature! This got me thinking and I consider success in the classroom very similarly, whether it be the success of myself as the educator or the students as learners.

Whilst teaching a lesson, I look around the classroom to gauge the interest of students as I believe this factor is key to success. When I can tell students are not interested in what is being taught, it is obvious success levels are going to crash and burn. The verbal feedback received from students at the end of the lesson also helps me to measure the success of my lesson as the honesty of children certainly isn’t lacking! It is almost guaranteed that they will tell you if they didn’t enjoy something. If students can finish a lesson I have taught with a smile on their face, to me this screams success.

Additionally, I determine success through formative assessment and simple teaching strategies such as walking around the room to check if students understand the task. From understanding comes achievement and I think this is another integral component of measuring success. I’m sure we have all witnessed the excitement of receiving a good grade and what a sweet taste of victory that is!

Currently completing the ICT and Pedagogy course has me forever asking myself “where do ICTs fit in all of this?” ICTs provide many avenues to success through their provision of resourceful information, engaging stimuli and multiple different methods for content delivery. They are also largely beneficial in helping us collect and consolidate data to efficiently measure the success of our students. This link provides some great tips for setting your classroom up for success, with some clever pointers on ICT integration! Head over and take a look 🙂

– Kristie