I spent almost my entire childhood disagreeing with my parents that drinking is horrible and that there is no point in being drunk. I still think that there is no point in wasting money to go out and party but the sad thing is, is that I feel most comfortable and at home shouting at the top of my lungs with a group of drunk people.
Thank you Mom and Dad for raising me with a radio, bonfire, and friends (and well alcohol too).
How, then, should we measure students and teachers? In ninth grade, my students learn about the scientific method. They learn that in order to collect good data, scientists control for specific variables and test their impact on otherwise identical environments. If you give some students green fields, glossy textbooks and lots of attention, you can’t measure them against another group of students who lack all of these things. It’s bad science.
Until we provide equal educational resources to all students and teachers, no matter where they come from, we can’t say — with any scientific accuracy — how well or poorly they’re performing. Perhaps if we start the conversation there, things will start making a bit more sense.
I was just thinking this last night. I have long challenged the idea that data,education and learning truly mix, but last night I realized why, it is bad science, we would accept the type of bias test from scientist or even our students. Yet much of our education policy is based off our this bad science. I think this could be a positive line of conversation with people who call on test scores and call for more testing. Those who love data believe wholeheartedly that it can solve much of our problems. I disagree, but I think if it is their logic that we much challenge them with logic. If we are going to use standardized test to judge schools and teaching then we must follow the basic “standards” of the scientific method. I don’t think that is possible in learning and schools, and therefore I don’t believe it is possible or useful to use the current method of testing as accountability measure.
What does work is helping teachers and students create relationships of learning and relationships of assessment so that there is a conversation about learning and a conversation about growth from both ends not just the teacher to the student or the test to the teacher etc.
What do you all think? Are standardized testing bad science and if so what have you seen that works better?
Becoming a teacher isn’t as simple as going to college and taking the right courses. It isn’t as easy as standing up in front of a group of learners and saying the right things. It isn’t enough to know your subject and be passionate about it.
Becoming a teacher–one who make a difference in children’s lives–is a lifelong endeavor to be the best you can be, to understand yourself, to understand the people you are working with, to think and reflect and wonder and ask questions constantly, and to almost always work harder than any other friend you have in any other profession. Becoming a teacher is a lifelong endeavor to connect… to communicate… to encourage… to support… to challenge set ways of thinking… to scaffold learners to become smarter, more efficient and effective at learning in every way they can–while you, yourself, are doing the same.
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Paula White in Voice Matters-Just Ask My Kindergarteners #blog4nwp « Cooperative Catalyst (via cooperativecatalyst)
Love seeing this come back across my tumblr log some 2 months later…. Thanks everyone for reblogging it!
(via adventuresinlearning)
We make things illegal or not illegal just because we can. The only reason why people can’t have pot or alcohol is because society makes it wrong. In reality it starts off as a plant. Maybe we should make onions illegal-they make people cry.
Sometimes I wonder if the actions I do is a mistake. I can’t seem to find how to live with out hurting other people’s feelings. I don’t like the drama that seems to consistently surround my life.
I’m not used to having free time at night or anytime during the day. Tonight is one of the firsts where I can stop and think. It’s scary… One thought after another and all them come back to that I’m not good enough.
I’m not good enough for this or that. I am surrounded by people, with their thoughts and ideas. I am surrounded by objects with their silent but audible hum and whine. But when all things go silent. I’m still here and I’m afraid of not being good enough to help those who do come around who need someone to have that silent hum.
These foreign thoughts need to leave, music is a thought but it is not harsh or against one another.
