Just a couple of thoughts:

I just wanted to blog about how just recently I really have been thinking a lot about assessment and the important role that the teacher plays in finding appropriate assessments to conduct with children in order to find out what their needs are. I guess I have heard that over and over again this past semester, however for some reason it really didn't hit me that the way to evaluate what kids needs are is to do an assessment. I know that may sound dumb that I really am thinking of it now, but it is so necessary for a teacher to be well informed about appropriate assessment methods to use with their students so that they can plan appropriate instruction to meet their students needs.
Another thought that I had was that assessment never stops, it is a continuous cycle in that once a teacher assesses a students in a particular skill, area of development, or disposition, the information that the teacher receives from that initial assessment lets the teacher know what areas the student needs further instruction in. After the teacher plans appropriate instruction for the student(s), then the teacher must plan another form of assessment to see if the students needs were met by the instruction the teacher provided them. Then the teacher must take the information she gathers from that assessment and formulate an effective plan of instruction to either help the student take the new found understanding that he received from the previous instruction and build upon it, or if the student did not do well on the assessment, then the teacher must modify their original plan of instruction so that the students needs are met. Then the teacher will reassess that student until he/she can attain the skills they need top pass the assessment.
Anyways, this is just a light bulb that went off in my head. I think that when I was originally thinking about planning assessments, I had the mentality that as a teacher, I would teach the students a skill and then assess their ability to complete it and then we would move on. Of course I knew that I would have to help any of my students who had trouble grasping the concept he first time I taught it, but I just feel like I connected the dots to a big puzzle and it really makes sense to me. I think that my original notion of using assessment was based on how in Field II we would go into the class and teach our Literacy, math, Social studies or Science lesson to the students, and then we would have a plan to assess their understanding of what we taught them at the end. However, since we were only with the students for one day during the week, we never got the opportunity to modify our instruction in order to suit the needs of kids who may have needed further instruction. I know that I will have the opportunity to do this when I am in clinical practice. Field II was such a great learning experience for me. I am glad that I finally made this connection , and hopefully I am not the only one who has ever had this A-ha moment. But anyways, I just wanted to blog about what I learned and how I connected everything together.