Thank you also for your positive feedback.

Good teachers set high expectations for students and take seriously their task of being designers and inventors of engaging work for students. Those tasks go on all year long, not just before the test. I think one of the constructive things our elected leaders can and should do with respect to high stakes testing is take the emphasis OFF the tests, and put it ON learning all year round. Learning never stops, we shouldn’t pretend that it does or it should after test time is over.

I truly agreed with everything that you had to say on your recent posting. With high stakes testing, such as ISAT, breathing down every teacher’s neck from grade 3 on up, it isn’t hard to understand why some feel like they can just get the basics in to meet those standards in order to pass the test. Some would say that there isn’t enough time to teach everything on the test. I however disagree. I think that teachers place so much emphasis on getting students to meet those standards that they forget about challenging those students. By pushing ourselves to set higher expectations for our students, we are not only meeting those minimum standards but we are also teaching our students valuable lessons that they can’t learn in a textbook. You brought up the point of how the end of the year and that last week can often be a waste of time and basically a time to watch movies. I know from walking through the halls of our school that a lot of teachers indeed do this. They turn it into a week of arts and crafts, movies and game time. Although I think it’s important for children to have time to play and relax (especially at the end of the year after working so hard) I feel that that is a week lost of instruction. One teacher commented on your blog giving an example of how they use the last week of school in their classroom. Basically, the teachers in the building turn the school into a “camp” and the children go from classroom to classroom where they engage in activities (not games or movies) and are still working on improving their basic skills. The kids enjoy free time and snacks like they would at any summer camp but that last week isn’t lost rather used in a fun way. I just feel that if we want our students to become life long learners and goal setters, we need to show them that we believe they can do it and set high expectations for them. By setting high expectations for our students, we are saying to them that we know they can do it and we are going to push them until they do. The goal in turn would be to see themselves in the light we see them and set high expectations for themselves.

Erin Knuth

Courtney: I absolutely agree with both your points, teachers need to be provided with more planning time as well as more money. I’ve been exploring my professional options lately and I’ve been shocked at how ridiculously low teacher salaries and benefits are here in Oklahoma. We are ranked 48th in the nation for average teacher salaries. Part of the systemic school reform we need involves changing the schedule. I heard Alan November speak a few years ago about schools in Singapore (I think) were students worked in their “offices” at school half the day, and attended class with their teachers the other half of the day. When students worked in their offices, they both worked on individual assignments as well as collaborative, group projects. This permitted teachers to only provide direct instruction half the day, and have the other half to plan, meet with project teams, meet individually with students. etc. I think we need a model for education which includes this sort of flexibility and built-in scheduled time for planning and independent work.

I do resonate with the feeling of “teacher burnout.” It has admittedly been awhile since I was teaching in my own K-12 classroom, but I certainly know the feeling of burnout and understand it. I agree with comments made by Cheryl and Lisa that the end of the year presents opportunities for teachers to create truly engaging and interesting projects for students to work on and participate in. When I was a technology integration coach in an elementary computer lab, I quickly grew familiar with the phenomenon that “once the tests were over” then many teachers wanted to tackle some projects which involved technology. I believed and believe those types of hands-on, project-based approaches to learning should be taking place throughout the school year, not just at the end of the term after testing. That’s reality in many schools, however.

Your rant resonates with me - as a teenager in Texas public high school, I was on fire with self-directed learning. I remember more about the books and knowledge I discovered on my own during the 70’s than actual high school. When I reached college, I found out that I’d taught myself a major portion of the first two years of a BA in Music. I have some ideas about how I got started and hope I can pass my enthusiasm for learning to my children and his friends.

My son also participated in something like AR this past year. I’ve been wondering how much it was killing his appetite for reading.