What do all the above have in common? Innocent victims or willing participants, right? As we enter the high-stakes testing season, be mindful of our youngsters that must undergo these assessments that determine if learning took place for the whole year or semester.
As I blogged before, teaching methods have changed over the decades, but standardized testing has not. Call these tests a necessary evil if you wish. In order to hold teachers accountable these tests are needed to generate data. As you know data is very valuable and has its own language. Data is used for research to improve education.
Continuing to embrace these days of testing anxiety that we all have experienced in the past, we can feel empathetic for all of our furry adolescent testing subjects.
Believe it or now, 2020 is only seven years from now. The following video by Corning gives a glimpse of the ideal classroom of the future. Check it out and see how close we are to this now.
After viewing this video, our millennial screenagers are already there. As an educator, are you ready for the future? Can you imagine teaching in that school, however still stuck with mentality of having the fear of the use of technology? (See my previous post on the “Luddite educator“) Times are changing, so shall we…
Sounds like a great title for a book or movie, eh? Here I am on my 2013 Spring Break dropping a few thoughts on some educators that exist that are still resistant from making the leap to embracing anything that requires electricity (other than the overhead projector) to support classroom instruction. Hey… Maybe it is a stigma to be a nerd and geek at the same time. What do you think?
I know a few awesome teachers that use none or minimal technology in their classrooms and are still effective. However, my question is how long will the routine of the luddite educator routine last when teaching millenials? IMHO, I believe that BYOD(the straw that breaks the camel back) will be the catalyst to promote the transformation.
There are many resources out there to help resistant educators to observe and try out new things in small increments. It is a fact that you only fear what you have very little or no knowledge of, therefore there is where you and I come in to share information such as TPACK to give an organized strategy in merging the use of technology and teaching pedagogy. This leads to my next blog post, if in 2020 if you are still considered a luddite educator, would your action of refusing to deal with technology be considered resistance or rebellion?
I forgot when I purchased this device, but when I saw this informercial, I had to get it.
When I saw that it easily converted from a ladder, to a hand truck, and then to a flat cart the credit card was already out.
Every school year, at the beginning and end, I get the most use from it when I have to transfer my boxes of teaching stuff from my classroom to either another classroom or to my car. Since I’m so short, I really needed the ladder part to hang my student work and posters on my classroom walls. When the school’s flat cart is not available, when people ask to borrow my Total Trolley, I charge them $10 per usage. Just kidding. But the investment that I made to it was well worth it. Not sure if they are still selling them, but if you ever run into one at the thrift store, or yard sale, I highly recommend you to immediately pick it up!
On the first day of school, I usually have my students complete a student inventory worksheet. This worksheet allows me to get to know them. Last year, I attempted to create a spreadsheet to organize this data. Unfortunately I got inundated with other school related stuff. So this year, I am going to at least go through ten per day for each class and quiz myself by having brief conversations with my students with the related the information from the student inventory. Yes, a successful execution with its intended purpose…
What went well: Students are following routine of entering classroom and completing warmup immediately. Lessons pace are smooth. Taking time to learn students names on the first day paid off as usual.
Proof: Completion of work that I have to grade this weekend! I was able to recall students names when speaking to them at opening football game. (I impressed myself!)
What did not: One of my blocks is behind a day due to schedule challenges with assemblies and a few students still “not getting it”. Will catch them up next week. Noticed some students are not used to group work and had difficulty in participating in interacting with other students. I will not give up on them!
Proof: Executed two activities that required student movement and interaction and on an average, maybe 40% students from all three blocks participated without being encouraged.
Action (What I MUST change for Monday): Maintain pace and allow students to see the measurement of their learning from pre/post testing for the rest of this unit and the others. Also review classroom limits and procedures. Need to survey students to gauge their interests on my lessons.
Overall, I had a great first day. Being prepared was helpful. Also having my information accessible online was a life saver because when I left the house early this morning, I forgot my notebooks with my original plans. Students seemed eager to start off the year in Geometry. I have a lot of upper class-men and the expectation has been set for high academic achievement with our progress monitoring system. I had one student that shared that he had a bad experience with his teacher last year, but he has great hope to make this year better. I encouraged him that he will do well in my class as long as he puts forth the effort. The temperature in my class was sweltering hot, however students managed to hang in there. I cannot forget to bring in my box fan for the window. My next immediate reflection will be on Friday at the end of the week.
Today, I finally got around to dusting off my arsenal of teaching pedagogy materials that have been collected through the many years. Believe it or not, a reasonable percentage of my junk was still relevant.
My goal is to digitalize my findings and share them on this blog (as long as they are not copyrighted). Unfortunately I did not have the heart to toss or recycle anything today. However I will one day clean out my garage and make sure that everything that is boxed up or filed are aligned to the common core standards.
In my humble opinion, these are very difficult times in education. As an educator, I must take the huge responsibility to maintain the course (of study) and trail blaze new territory. The next generation must be educated in preparation for jobs that don’t exist yet. However, take note that real world connections and effective communication are two skills that are necessary, period.
I know that you’ve heard this before, but unlike my generation or the previous generation who are still in the trenches, we cannot present content in a way that it was presented to us. An overhaul or the politically correct term in education would be reform is definitely needed.
I suppose I should get more involved with this side of activism outside the classroom. This way I am able to see that students get what is required to become “productive 21st century citizens.”
Do you model what is required to be a productive 21st century citizen? Like Malcolm X eloquently expressed, “if you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything.”
right? As we enter the high-stakes testing season, be mindful of our youngsters that must undergo these assessments that determine if learning took place for the whole year or semester.
