Recently I had the opportunity to read and post a
comment on two education blogs that I found to be insightful and time well
spent. Unfortunately, one of my comments
has still not been posted on the blog due to review by a moderator prior to
posting...so hopefully someone reviews it soon so it can go public. The first educblogger I read was by Lee
Kolbert A Geeky Momma's Blog entitled
Improving Learning with Mobile Technology.
Lee Kolbert is a former teacher and current manager of educational technology
for her school district. Mrs. Kolbert's
blog provides free downloads and an abundance of tips on social learning,
including tools for moderated messaging, polling, and private communication
networks. The particular blog I
commented on she shared an ebook that contained teaching words of wisdom, and
lessons from educators on improving learning with mobile technology. I liked one particular page in the ebook that
discussed the importance of teachers giving the classroom back to their
students through the controlled use of technology in the class in the form of
cell phones. Cell phones can be used in
conjunction with assessments to help teachers better understand what material
their students have a grasp on and what material they are still unsure of.
The
second blog I read and commented on was by Joanne Jacobs. Joanne is a educational journalist who often
writes on educational issues such as special education, state academic
standards, teacher training, cultural aspects of education, college readiness
and much more. I found her blog entitled
Linking and Thinking on Education to be witty, visually pleasing, and good
to read as a future educator. More
specifically, I read her article Test revolts
spread-but will they burn out? and was informed about the recent uprising
in teacher, parent, student dissent regarding the abundant use of standardized
tests in the classroom. Joanne states
that recently "More than 80 percent of the parents at a NYC primary school
recently decided against participating in the testing that would have been used
to evaluate their children's teachers."
She also said that because of increased protesting and resistance
testing rollbacks at the state level are already underway in Texas, Washington,
and Illinois. I have never been a fan of
standardized tests because I believe they are inequitable and force teachers to
"teach to the test." Far too
much weight and emphasis is placed on standardized tests and I would love to
see this movement continue to grow in numbers and in strength.
Andrew, thanks for the post! Your discussion of the second edublogger's site, had made me think about a topic that came to mind just this past week. From the time that I was a student in grade school to now, as an educator, I have never been much of a fan of standardized tests either, but I have recently given more thought to the phrase "teach (or teaching) to the test" as well as to assessment. In our methods course, in our content literacy course, and in our records of practice course, we have read various works by Wiggins & McTighe, both co-written and authored separately. The idea of backward design starts with big understanding and essential questions, then requires teachers to consider assessments, and finally asks teachers to then plan which activities to use in order to arrive at the big understandings/ideas. However, are not they asking us to teach to the test (assessment), as well? This is the question that I have been asking of late. Is it the same question, as it applies to standardized testing? Is it a more nuanced question, given the continuum of assessments that Wiggins and McTighe address in their works? According to Waugh & Gronlund, which we read in our methods course, "paper-and-pencil" testing can serve a purpose. Finally, ironically, and interestingly, some of us are still taking MTTC exams. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love the idea of ebooks for the classroom. I finally "gave in" to using my Kindle, and it makes things sooo much easier. It will never replace holding an actual novel for me, but in terms of having textbooks or other educational materials in electronic version, I think it helps to simplify the paper load as well as providing a new digital medium with which students can interact.
ReplyDeleteI was also interested about the "revolts" over standardized tests. I had no idea something like that was going on! While I think it's nice that students and parents are speaking up against the downsides to these tests, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the teachers in those situations. In the meantime, before schools come up with a better mode of evaluation, were there negative repercussions for the teachers whose students boycotted the tests? While I think it's great that the students are advocating for themselves in this case, I also wonder how the districts are handling it.