I thought Monday night's lecture was very helpful. I was able to hear an administrator's perspective for the first time. I felt the most interesting part of the evening was hearing the opinions of No Child Left Behind. It was surprising to hear that they were, for the most part, in favor of No Child Left Behind. Ironically, though, a small-scale situation of NCLB just happened to me.
This past week I was studying for midterms with basically all my spare time. These standard tests (midterms) took away from my time in other areas. I forgot, for example, to write this post during the week, so here I am finally posting it on the Saturday of fall break. I know that I would not have forgotten if there wasn't so much pressure to do well on midterms. This relates to NCLB in several ways. If teachers didn't have to focus so much time and effort for the standardized tests, they could teach the students in a more well-rounded way (not having to focus on only on Math, Reading, Science, etc.).
So although I agree with the administrators that the standardized tests are only "one piece of the pie," I also question why that little "piece" can take up so much time. I believe it takes away from other important aspects of a student's schoolday.
Oh Hi :)
16 years ago
2 comments:
Emily
I also agree that the administrators were incredibly helpful and interesting. Their experience was definitely evident from their stories. However, you make an interesting point about the influence of tests on our learning. It definitely distracted me from other areas as well.
Emily-
I agree with you about feeling that standardized testing is taking away precious time in the classroom. I do however feel that when we have our own classrooms this will be only a small distraction in our days. If we prepare our students to be learners and not memorizers they will perform well.
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