At my school we are in the middle of our SBA testing. This year we are testing for 7 days,one test a day. Most of the morning is interrupted, I will not see 2 of my classes for 7 days, They will not have access to the art room with the materials they need to work on their projects. When we are testing, the students feel that they can't have a normal day after the testing, many checkout and go home, some just decide they can't work because they already tested,so even though classes resume after testing. half the class is gone and the others say " no one is here, why do we have to work" It's crazy! when we asked the principal why we didn't just test for 2 or 3 days and get it over with, he says we have to be on the same schedule as the elementary schools and they can't sit for more than an 90 minutes a day. Why do we have to be on the same schedule????? "The state says so" (Always the excuse for crazy things)
So we deal with another dictate by an education secretary that has never been a teacher and certainly doesn't visit classrooms or listen to teachers. Thank goodness the kids are so much fun to spend time with and we all just go through the silliness together.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Love of learning,imagination, curiosity....where is it?
I'm posting my thoughts after a conversation with 2 graduate students about to graduate in architecture. They made the comment that even many of the graduate students have a very passive attitude about their education. Meaning, wanting the professor to tell them exactly what he wants, them having the attitude that the professor is forcing them to do it (instead of them taking an enthusiastic initiative)Some of the students still maintained the attitude (that I see in HS) that the professors are against them, not with them. The (grad)students comment was this is the result of their education experience both in k-12 and even their undergraduate work. One of the 2 I was talking to graduated from Evergreen State College and one from Mount Holyoke.
As some of you know, Evergreen is one of the few colleges that teaches through a project based curriculum and uses evaluations and portfolios instead of grades. The unfortunate thing is most people want to keep education the way"it has always been" and don't see the value in the way Evergreen educates,especially some of the local people around Olympia,all they see is the extreme alternative lifestyles the students choose. (I know this because my brother lives there)
The problem I see with all the testing we are required to do,is the fact that we are making our education system worse. Teachers really are teaching to the test, there is no room or time to let students puzzle offer real world solutions or create large projects or integrate as much art as possible. I see instead a lot of rote memorization and so much pen and paper work that stifles imagination and stresses the "right" answer. As a result, I see students losing any love of learning they may have had in the younger grades and in high school,many very creative students simply going through the (unpleasant) motions to just get done and graduate,then realizing they have made no plans for the future...nothing inspired them!
When I express my thoughts and opinions in school or try to share ideas about ways we can work more towards real world experiences for our students,most responses are based on fear; "you'll loose your job if students don't pass the test! or we'll loose funding for this grant if they don't pass" On further inspection most of these fears are unfounded. So we continue to bore our students silly,shorten class periods, fragment their education and maintain teacher/administration driven environments that very little real learning is taking place, just a lot of unrelated (to their life) memorization.
I am lucky in the fact that I'm teaching HS art, so for many, it is the only time in the day students can work on projects, discuss ideas and be creative. The bad news they have shortened my periods to 45 minutes. I've taught K-8 all subjects and k-12 art for over 20 years so I know there are other ways to teach. I also know we do not need all this standardization in tests,but the thing I realize more than anything else is that unfortunately many teachers follow fearfully along doing what they've become complacently comfortable with and maintaining a very small minded view.
BUT...I will not end this on a negative note. Those 2 grad students will be graduating in May, they are bright,open minded, creative and do not seem afraid to express opinions and follow their dreams. I WILL have hope that we will see changes in the way schools inspire students to learn. I know,speaking for myself, that through this graduate program, I have learned so many ways to help inspire students. I do have faith that things are changing.
As some of you know, Evergreen is one of the few colleges that teaches through a project based curriculum and uses evaluations and portfolios instead of grades. The unfortunate thing is most people want to keep education the way"it has always been" and don't see the value in the way Evergreen educates,especially some of the local people around Olympia,all they see is the extreme alternative lifestyles the students choose. (I know this because my brother lives there)
The problem I see with all the testing we are required to do,is the fact that we are making our education system worse. Teachers really are teaching to the test, there is no room or time to let students puzzle offer real world solutions or create large projects or integrate as much art as possible. I see instead a lot of rote memorization and so much pen and paper work that stifles imagination and stresses the "right" answer. As a result, I see students losing any love of learning they may have had in the younger grades and in high school,many very creative students simply going through the (unpleasant) motions to just get done and graduate,then realizing they have made no plans for the future...nothing inspired them!
When I express my thoughts and opinions in school or try to share ideas about ways we can work more towards real world experiences for our students,most responses are based on fear; "you'll loose your job if students don't pass the test! or we'll loose funding for this grant if they don't pass" On further inspection most of these fears are unfounded. So we continue to bore our students silly,shorten class periods, fragment their education and maintain teacher/administration driven environments that very little real learning is taking place, just a lot of unrelated (to their life) memorization.
I am lucky in the fact that I'm teaching HS art, so for many, it is the only time in the day students can work on projects, discuss ideas and be creative. The bad news they have shortened my periods to 45 minutes. I've taught K-8 all subjects and k-12 art for over 20 years so I know there are other ways to teach. I also know we do not need all this standardization in tests,but the thing I realize more than anything else is that unfortunately many teachers follow fearfully along doing what they've become complacently comfortable with and maintaining a very small minded view.
BUT...I will not end this on a negative note. Those 2 grad students will be graduating in May, they are bright,open minded, creative and do not seem afraid to express opinions and follow their dreams. I WILL have hope that we will see changes in the way schools inspire students to learn. I know,speaking for myself, that through this graduate program, I have learned so many ways to help inspire students. I do have faith that things are changing.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
First post for Web 2.0 class
I've been thinking about what to do for this assignment. I had thought that I would start a whole new blog and try to get a conversation going about some of the things going on in education now. But as I looked at the blogs I had created I thought that this one had some interesting thoughts that I wanted to keep. I worked on this last June when I was in transition from New Mexico to Washington state for the summer, it was a bit crazy, heading from a very "connected" situation to a log cabin in the mountains with no internet connection. This blog was worked on in The Kettle Falls (tiny) library and at my friends houses. Needless to say, the good thing about returning to NM in the Fall was the connection for my classes.
What I would love to hear from people is thoughts about what I see as the the conflict between the endless testing and teaching to tests as opposed to helping our students to prepare for their future with 21st century skills,some how they don't mesh. I believe we will move away from testing as we see less and less success with the way things are being done in most American schools.
What I would love to hear from people is thoughts about what I see as the the conflict between the endless testing and teaching to tests as opposed to helping our students to prepare for their future with 21st century skills,some how they don't mesh. I believe we will move away from testing as we see less and less success with the way things are being done in most American schools.
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