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https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=45p1FRXMof4,
While I may not agree with everything it says I do agree with a lot of what is said. Regardless, it does make you think.
In today's changing societies, has education lagged behind. We tell students to be individuals, to think creatively, to be problem solvers. We as Teachers try to teach them to think outside the box to show how it is solved. But, the Education system continues to want to grade our students on the results of a standardized test. We test for everything. We are giving some 8 end of course exams and all juniors are required to take the ACT. We catogorize based on the results, Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and the dreaded Below Basic. Or, I am sorry your score on the ACT is not good enough to get you into college. Why?? Is it because that is what we have always done? I found this video, Click on the dash for a direct link or type in the URL
_ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=45p1FRXMof4, While I may not agree with everything it says I do agree with a lot of what is said. Regardless, it does make you think.
12 Comments
10/20/2014 05:24:49 am
This link was amazing! I don't necessarily agree with some it but the majority of it was on point. Throughout this class and the articles I have read for this class I've learned a few different things. One of the most important things I have learned is teacher involvement. If a teacher doesn't grow with technology as the classrooms continue to change it is a major disservice to the youth. I also agree that schools focus student success on testing. Personally if the test scores I received in the past meant how successful I would be in the future I would be in a lot of trouble! I noticed during my observations that teachers teach to the test and the students are bored. Why not find new and creative ways to get these students engaged while preparing them for these standardized test?
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Tim Dickens
10/20/2014 07:52:11 am
I agree with you about the teaching to the test. The reason we have to do that is because so much is riding on the test as far as the school is concerned, it really means nothing to the students. The test are specific to many subjects so we have to make sure that everything on the test is covered sometimes it is an obscure point like in math for example, the Algebra 2 EOC has many questions around parabolas and factoring. While we cover this subject in a regular course we have to make sure that we go in much more detail than needed because so many questions are about this point. But in general I believe if you teach the overall course well the students will be fine. We need to understand that not all students no matter how you teach a subject are going to do well.
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Danell
10/20/2014 11:55:46 pm
I really found this interesting. I know that I teach to the test as well. What gets me is all the changes now that us teachers are facing. I know that I have had students come in and have had a bad start to their morning. They perform poorly on the test for whatever reason.
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Becky Windsor
10/25/2014 04:15:17 pm
This video was different but interesting. I too don't agree with everything but the video does make a point. Today, teachers are pushed more and more to teach to the test. More and more tests are being crammed into our schools. There are students who will do very well in life and future jobs but may not take tests well. Just because some students do not test well doesn't mean they will not be productive citizens. There can be many reasons students may not perform well on tests. This video makes you think.
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Jess Brink
10/26/2014 09:01:45 am
As a teacher is it hard to NOT teach from the test... So much is expected of you, as a teacher and sometimes - you are graded by the grades of the students. That is one thing that has really pushed me away from education is the inability to really teach the way and the material you want to. There are too many limitations and I feel as though I would get frustrated by the barriers.
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Aaron Shockley
10/26/2014 11:38:14 am
I agree in the sense that i think student should be challenge to see how much of the information they are learning in class is actually retained and i think the standardize test achieve that but i think having teachers just teach for a test is limiting the information for students to learn. Overseas they continue growing on the information they teach every year that is why test scores are higher for most international countries. I think that is the biggest flaw for most American students that they are just learning information so that they make a good score on the standardize test to get money for the school rather than build a basis and continue learning the information.
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KEEYON
10/27/2014 12:51:34 am
Great Link. I have actually seen many of this guy's poetry expressions in the past.
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Brian Calhoun
10/27/2014 03:30:36 am
Some of the skills we learned in school, we do not use now in the real world. An example in the video was the pathagrean theorem. Although almost everyone never uses this information, it is still important that we continue to teach it to children. Education is suppose to make people better overall and more knowledgeable, children should learn the basics of every subject so they can see what they like and what they are good at. Some of the information we learned in school is not used on a common basis, but the same goes for everything else we learned outside of school. The educational system may not be perfect but it still serves an important and effective purpose.
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Rebecca Hartman
10/27/2014 03:58:23 am
I've noticed many teachers when I was in high school taught to the test, and those who didn't had more engaging lectures and assignments than those who did teach to the test. Without standardized tests, however, it is difficult to evaluate how a school is doing as a whole. While I disagree that tests should mean as much as they do, I think they are a good resource for seeing what changes could be made for the school as a whole. It can be difficult, I can imagine, to find creative ways to teach things that students should know for the standardized tests and it can be difficult to keep students engaged as well, and many times it takes a lot of time to plan these lessons despite teaching for the test.
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Nicketa Coombs
10/30/2014 06:24:48 am
I'm not a very big fan of standardized tests because there are so many factors that aren't considered and some kids then are at a disadvantage. Every state has their own laws, rules and requirements in terms of what is taught so why have a standardized test when they don't all learn the same thing? I had to take the SAT when I was leaving home to college. I'm from Jamaica and our educational system mirrors that of Britain so when I was taking a standardized American exam I was certainly at a disadvantage. Also, I don't think the scores from these tests have a direct correlation to how intelligent or successful someone is, in my opinion they aren't valid or reliable. I think we need to find more flexible ways of testing; ways that take all the factors like socio-economic status into consideration.
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Kiefer Smith
11/10/2014 09:49:49 am
I am not a big fan of standardized tests. I was a great student in high school with getting all of my assignments done and turning them in with working the best I could on them. I gave all the assignments 110% and I helped all of my classmates that wanted my help. I graduated with a 3.72 GPA and I still graduated at around 30 out of 64 kids. I was a terrible test taker when it came to standardized tests. I scored a 17 on my ACT three times and my last test I was forced to take by my mom I scored an 18. This score was enough to not only get me in the college I wanted but to also let me play sports. I struggled my way through all of those test to just make it through by the skin of my teeth. We do teach out kids to think outside the box and tell them to be creative and when it comes to the real world of testing it shoves it all back down into the dirt and says its not good enough. We need to find new ways of testing that incorporates GPA.
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Katie Damgar
11/27/2014 01:54:20 am
I have never been a of standardized testing. I do not feel a students intelligence should be based on a test made by the government. Sure there are a lot of edits made every year to the test to make it understandable to each student, but no one test can accomplish that. Why are we trying to make our children "standard"? Some colleges are realizing this and changing the entrance requirements. For example, CMU will average GPA and tests scores so one alone does not determine admission to the school.
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Student BlogThis blog is for class conversations for ED 514 at Central Methodist University. These post are by the students of ED 514. We invite input form other teachers about how they use technology in their classrooms. Archives
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