Standardized Testing

In recent years there has been an increase in standardized testing and the range of children that are tested. While testing can be good and useful when used in moderation, the amount of testing that we are seeing in schools now has become harmful to students, teachers, and schools.
When used in moderation, testing can offer information on how students are progressing compared to the rest of their peers across the country and in their school. They can also show where students are struggling and which subjects they are strong in. However, when teachers are forced to "teach to the test" because so much is now riding on test scores, the students suffer. The amount of information that they "have" to learn is increased and the creativity with which it can be taught, because of time restraints to fit all of the material in , decreases. The students also feel more pressure to test well. Some students do not test well when given a time limit or when some of the tools that are used daily in the classroom, like calculators, are taken away. This leads to feelings of failure when so much, like entrance to colleges, is riding on a test score. With the pressure for students to do well increasing, the age at which children are exposed to more difficult material decreases. Some kindergartners now have tutors because they are considered to be struggling in reading or math. Pressure is put on these children to learn how to read and write and reason sooner, and this leads some children to feel that they are failures or are not as good as their classmates.
The curriculum that the students are exposed to also suffers when material such as art, music, history, and P.E. do not appear on the tests. With children in the United States becoming increasingly obese, cutting P.E. and increasing in-desk time can be detrimental to the health of students. Not to mention that all the energy that would have been worn off in P.E. is now sitting in a desk in the classroom and is supposed to be quite and listen. Art and music, which enrich a child's life and are an integral part of the lives of many adults, are also being cut from schools when funding that use to go to the fine arts is now being used for math, reading, and science - the big test subjects. History, another standard subject in schools, is also being cut back since it does not appear on tests. But if we do not teach our students about where they come from and their country's and the world's history, how can we expect improvement in the future? Aren't we just setting ourselves up to repeat the mistakes of the past if we do not take the time to teach a new generation about them now.
The teachers also suffer from over-use of standardized testing. When they only have so much time to get through all the material that will come up on a test that the students must pass so they can get into high school or go onto the next grade or so that the district meets in AYP, some of the creativity and exploration that should be a core part of teaching gets cut.
With the increased pressure for students to do well on these standardized tests that are becoming more numerous and more ingrained into our school system, everyone suffers, not least of all the students and their learning and hopes of competing with other students from other countries.

Opening Convo.

For Opening Convocation this semester, Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding Bishop of the ELCA, spoke to the gathered students, faculty, and staff. The way that he presented himself got and held the attention of all who were there. He used humor matched with serious dialogue to hold his audience and to make his point. His humor was especially effective because he was able to play off of President Torgerson and the pastors, as well as things that pertained to college students. He really knew what would make an audience listen. Also, he didn't go on and on as some speakers do. HE said what he had to say and then stopped. This also keeps your audience focused on what you are saying because you are not repeating yourself or giving them useless, extra information.
The above also relates to teaching. As a teacher, you do not want to lose your students' interest or overload them with unneeded information. Bishop Hanson's message is also one that should be found in classrooms. We need to teach students to be aware of what is around them and how they can contribute to their school, city, country, and world. Isn't that what we are supposed to be teaching for anyway, so that those that we educate will go out and make this world a better place, a place where people are aware of others' beliefs and that their actions effect more than just themselves?

Writers in Conversation

On Thursday February 15, I went to Professors Weldon and Faldet's reading, Writers in Conversation. They both had very good presenting style, making eye contact with the audience and explaining before had a little about what went into the writing of the different pieces and the styles that they used. Both of them were good about keeping the audience engaged, through humor and use of tone and storytelling type characterization, which is very important when reading aloud. The stories that they read, weren't humorous, however, but the humor that they used served as a counter balance to the serious or sad parts. Professor Faldet also used a framing device - in this case the image of the door - to start and end the story, bringing the listeners full circle, connecting where she ended up with where she started.
How does this relate to teaching? One thing that I liked that Professor Weldon mentioned was that for her Creative Writing class, she does the assignments along with the students. I think that this is a good thing to keep in mind for teaching. Whether it is in math or science or English, doing the assignments or warm-up problems or experiments along with the students is a good way to lead by example. If one were to do this, and it wouldn't have to be all the time because no one has time for that, then when the students struggle it would be easier to see where they went wrong and you would be able to relate with the student's problem. Of course being able to keep your audiences attention is also very important. You want what you are teaching to be relevant to the students and to keep them interested in what is going on. The framing device is another thing that can apply to all aspects of teaching. You want to make sure that the students are able to see how they got from the initial step to the final result. A review at the end of a lesson is important so that the students tie off that subject before moving to a new one. I think this reading had a lot to offer in regards to ideas for classroom teaching, and it was also very enjoyable to listen to a couple of Luther's professors share what they have been working on.

Why do we Teach?

I think that we teach, first of all because there is a need for it, but also because someone somewhere made an impact on us and started us down that path towards becoming a teacher. Teaching is something that has to be felt from the heart, and it is something that one feels called to do, compelled to do. So, simply we teach because we have to - in a good way.
Student work sounds like mindless activities that are given to students - like busy work, but it is also all the assignments and, well, work that students do throughout their school year/career. Student learning, however, is different from work. Learning is what the student actually takes away from the classroom with them to apply elsewhere in their lives or later on in school. As teachers we should strive to make the work facilitate the learning - the two should go hand in hand. The work should be meaningful, so that the students actively learn form it and take something away from it. The work should not be the typical memorize and forget stuff that we are all familiar with.
I think that the above is what also makes a good teacher, along with other things, of course. Being able to relate to students is also important. A teacher should also push the students, not just kind of go with the flow. In my experience teacher's who just go with it and want to be your friend not your teacher do not make good teachers, they make the kind of teachers who frustrate you and give you a bad learning experience.