I would like to begin by discussing Dialogue Journals. I thought this was such an interesting assignment and I was so lucky to have the opportunity to speak to the professionals I did. I gained so much insight into the assessment process through my conversations. However, going into this assignment I did not realize that I would not only learn about assessment, but I would also get to practice it. This was so cool. 

First, I got to give feedback to one of my peers, which I hope helped her in her own writing! I also received feedback which I thought was incredibly helpful in refining my paper. I was able to take this feedback and apply it to my writing leading to a completed paper that I am very proud of. The process of providing and receiving feedback is something that I would love to have my future students practice in my classroom. Not only is this a really good skill for students' education journey, but it is also a really important life skill. 

After refining my paper and working through the feedback I received, I was able to participate in the peer assessment portion of this assignment. I have never graded a paper before, so this was new for me. However, I really felt that I was able to step into the teacher role. During this process I quickly discovered what I was looking for according to the rubric. Having a clearly laid out rubric was so helpful in having consistency in my marking. I found that many of the papers had similar marks to one another, which I found very interesting. At the end of this process I assessed my own paper. In assessing my paper I approached it as if it were not my own, as I have a habit of being too hard on my own work. In doing this I noticed that my grade was pretty consistent with some of the other papers I marked, which I think is a good representation of my consistency as an assessor.

After completing the peer assessments we spent some time looking at different resources for some more information about the influences on student achievement according to John Hattie. I did not realize that so many things influence the achievement of our students. It puts into perspective how many things can be going on in a student's life that can impact their education, making it so much more important that as teachers we know our students. I am really interested in continuing to dive into these things, after my three week block. I feel that during my block I might be able to recognize some of these influences in my own students. 

With my pre-internship quickly approaching I have had little time to place focus on other things. Due to this I have not yet completed the fractions activity for next class. This is something that I will be sure to complete and place in my reflection for next class (as well as update this page with it).