One of the things I hate about education (as far as I've been in it - which is a short time) is that we spend our time .. a LOT of time... on stuff that really doesn't change how students learn. Not in a big way. I mean yes, these are all good things, but it's not what's most important. WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON STUFF THAT DOESN'T AFFECT HOW KIDS LEARN
Without further ado, my list of time-consuming things that could be spent better: 1. Technology: So what if everyone has an I-pad?? Teachers spend a LOT of time going to training or on their own learning how to use technology that often doesn't affect how students think. Of course some teachers definitely incorporate them as a daily extension of what they do, but often mandates are given about what kinds of technology is to be used only for it to be tossed aside because it doesn't actually help students learn. (This is aside from technical issues like wifi or poor connections). I'm not saying- go back to cavemen times. I'm just saying Steve Jobs doesn't let his kids have I-pads... 2. Assessment. Ever since some big research paper said how you assess matters the most, the only thing people care about is assessing appropriately. I don't even want to think about the hundreds of thousands of man hours that get poured into writing questions, aligning curriculum, creating better standards --- only to find that it didn't actually make that big of a difference when they implemented their new standards with all those extra thoughtful essay questions. That's because HOW something gets taught is more important. (Plus... high test scores is not a philosophy. I have no intention of building my worth as a teacher on if my students can do well on PAARC or ACT.) 3. Curriculum. What gets taught is less important than who's teaching it and how. Trust me, no matter how interesting the topic, there is someone out there who can make it boring and unlearnable. 4. Evaluations. When an evaluator comes into my classroom 3 times, gives me a few words of feedback, and leaves... no one wins! I had to prepare HOURS to show evidence that I'm doing my job. Then I prepare MORE HOURS of my life to show that I'm putting TONS OF HOURS in my profession. Or what about the evaluators?? They're spending HOURS just evaluating so that the system that eats them up will remain appeased. 100% certain my students are not gaining from this labor intensive process. So, what should we spend our time on? 1. Learning to reflect with others. 2. Regular/weekly meeting with course teams specifying how to improve how to teach. (not just what to teach) 3. Seeing each others classrooms and providing informal feedback (not linked to evaluations) 4. Developing a philosophy for our classroom. What do we want our students to be like when they leave? (Not what information we want them to know). 5. Mentoring and being mentored by others to think of classroom strategies 6. Sustained professional development that span years (not hours). 7. Learning more math, deeper math 8. Meditating and reflecting on our days I don't remember who said this but I agree "I was surprised to find that teaching was the one of the least intellectual things I had done."
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Another quote from the PD session I went to: “The more assessments they have, the more we’ll get a balanced picture.”
I don't remember who said this but it's a good response "The hog doesn't grow any faster, the more you weigh it." COME ON! THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! How much of our energy gets sucked into grading tests and analyzing data? How much of MONEY goes into it? (Thanks Pearson for providing such a great service). especially when the data paints an unsurprising picture... Socioeconomic Status has a lot to do with how a child performs. Race has a lot to do with how a child performs. I don't need 5 different tests telling me the same thing. Let's talk specifics. Here are the tests that students are expected to complete this year since PARCC has come into the picture. All of these are in the window from Mar 3 to Jun 6 (3 months). PARCC PBA (performance based assessment) PARCC EOY (curriculum based) ACT/ EXPLORE/PLAN This is aside from A.P. Exams (also during this testing window.) .... There you have it. Welcome Spring. I was at a PD recently, and I counted the word "accountability" used 27 times... and I got to the PD half way through. So... I can only imagine it was more.
One quote "This is a great activity- it will definitely help with your evaluations." Is that why we should do things? So that we get an "A" in our evaluations?? That's not why I got into teaching. Here's a quote by the head of Finnish Public Schools, "As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted." (from an article here.) I wish education was more obsessed with words like "joy, interest, thoughtfulness, health, and fun." |
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