So, I'm kinda of having a duh moment right now. After reading these articles, I first, don't have a whole lot to say because, well, duh...
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Duffy's article says to me that teacher adaptation and thinking are one of the best things that can happen in a classroom and that teachers who are compliant, either in curriculum or how the classroom is run, may end up being non-thinkers. Too bad everyone is trying to implement a "perfect method" that would render teacher pretty much useless.
And here's my duh comment...We should all just stand back and let teachers do what they do best!
That is, give them the reins and let them change and adapt and teach how they see their students needing them to. Does this mean all teachers can do this well? Does this mean all teachers care about their students? Does this mean all teachers will adapt and change according to their students' needs?
No. To all. But I believe the majority of teachers can, will and do whatever they can to help their students succeed.
Parsons' "reaction vs. differentiation" was helpful to me. It helped me see that planning is the biggest part of differentiation, not just letting your kids run the show. The clothing analogy has bee very helpful
both in class and in reading.
Here's one of my main beefs with public education: So many rely on state or official test scores to tell how students are doing. I hate this. I (and my boys) suck at test taking. Soooo many different factors can affect the scores: Have I learned how to take this test? Have I had a good
breakfast, a good night's sleep? Am I feeling out of it today? Am I bored with sitting in one spot for so long? Is the stuff on the test too hard or too easy for me? Have we even studied this stuff? Am I a good reader, or maybe not so good? Is my neighbor kicking me under the table the whole time? Do you see where I'm going?...
Are you familiar with Kahn of Kahn Academy? When Kahn academy started taking off, he gave an interview to TIME magazine where he basically envisioned his videos reducing the role of teachers and that in his vision in the future, teachers could honestly be replaced with teachers. This search for the silver bullet is never ending! I agree with your take. It seems pretty straight forward that teachers should be reacting to what is happening in real time in their classrooms and this fact negates the possibility of the silver bullet solution.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, this reminded my of a bit from The Colbert Report last week. It was about teachers being replaced by robots who were able to grade thousands of papers in seconds. That's probably more of the silver bullet we can get behind. Though I think it also went on to talk about robots replacing teachers in general, not so good.
ReplyDeleteI remember in 4th grade when we took the WASL being plied with snacks and treats. Also the gum chewing theory while taking a test was in full swing then. I think the treats were more to placate grumpy/stressed kids on the most boring set of school days.
Hey all
ReplyDeleteI am not a teacher in the traditional way, so you may need to set me straight. I believe that teachers need and should have some autonomy to instruct (I think we all indicated this need in our blogs in some way or another). But direction and reflection is needed. As our readings discussed, formative assessments give so much good stuff in terms of enlightening the teacher on what the student knows. State tests are troublesome and do not clearly reflect a student’s achievement. But don’t we need a place to start or a solid place to finish (curriculum and standards)? What do you all think?
Debbie-- Love your beef with education. How then should we assess students? Is it necessary? It is certainly need to create differentiated instruction. Would you feel better if school success wasn't measured by the standardized tests? What else would be indicators of success?
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