Standardized Testing

Should Standardized Testing be used in Education?

I believe that the education system should continue to use standardized testing as a means to test students. I think standardized tests are very important because these tests can be used as a concrete way to see what students know regarding subjects, and to see how their knowledge has developmentally progressed throughout their years as a student. Schools can use this information in a very general sense as well as a individual sense for their students. For example in general if a school has had consistently low reading scores, perhaps the teaching approach towards reading needs to be changed. Also standardized tests can show where students are in relation to other students (comparisons can be made within the school, or across any school). Being compared to others is a fact of life, everybody will have to face this harsh reality when they enter the job field.

A potential downside to standardized test is that it’s impossible for any these of tests to be completely rid of all bias. Test questions always have bias behind them (whether is cultural or personal, or geographical). There are many ways to diminish this bias, but it can never be entirely taken away. Some subjects, like math and reading, are easier to create more accurate test questions. However, for areas like science and history, its very hard be get rid of the bias. Often times teachers decide what is most important for their students to learn in these less straight forward topics; therefore a students comes into a standardized test with their own teacher’s assumptions. For an area like science, a test question probably reflects a students knowledge on reading or interpreting graphs rather than their actual scientific knowledge. This being said, I don’t really know if standardized testing should be used for subjects like science and history because they are not really strictly assessing what the students know about the topic. Essay questions are better for these types of subjects, but it isn’t conceivably possible to mass produce these questions for a standardized test.

I believe standardized tests are here to stay. There are definitely some obvious problems with them, but I don’t think these negatives should let us totally throw out this method of testing which has obviously had many positive effects on the educational system.

Motivation in the Classroom

Motivation in the Classroom

            Teachers obviously want their students to learn. However, it’s easy for students to be content with their current schemas. Usually, a student’s schema is filled with incorrect information and gaping holes. To correct these schema errors it requires a good deal of Active Mental Engagement on the student’s part. Teachers must motivate and encourage students to change these schemas so that the students have a correct perception of reality.

            Motivation in the classroom can take on many forms. First of all, making the information relevant to the student’s lives will encourage motivation. Connecting familiar/concrete information with abstract future aspirations (like a future careers) can also go a long way. Challenging the students, but at the same time being available to help scaffold can motivate students. For example assigning projects that allow students to have freedom to stretch in a safe environment can really excite students to learn because they will see the importance of taking ownership of their own education. Teachers must be very careful with the language they use when directly addressing students. It is crucial that teachers link encouraging words with constructive criticism. If a teacher focuses on one side too much, the words might begin to lose their meaning.

Sometimes teachers may unintentionally be doing things that discourage student motivation. There is nothing worse than a teacher that essentially fills the role of a glorified computer. A teacher that reads off PowerPoint slides to a group of students that they don’t even know the names of isn’t exactly spurring on learning. The students could learn just as much information by going home and spending 20 minutes searching on Google.

If teachers don’t motivate students, who will? This is yet another teacher role that cannot be pushed aside for the more “important teacher roles.”

Classroom Management

When we think of our roles as future teachers we probably don’t think of classroom management as a top priority. The task of managing a classroom often times isn’t given much thought, we probably pay more attention to other teaching aspects such as: creating lesson plans, teaching/tutoring students, or assigning grades. All of these duties, however, would not be possible without effective classroom management. If we, as future teachers, fail to recognize this inferred duty, we might actually end up hurting our students more than we’re helping them.

Classroom management is an important and often time misunderstood responsibility that all teachers have to address. It’s no secret that teachers have a difficult job on their hands. A lot is expected out of today’s teachers, there is probably nothing more difficult than juggling the task of taming a group of wild students and attempting to teach them the required curriculum. Many students want to resist learning at all costs because it takes personal effort on their part to change their own schema. Teachers can’t force students to learn, but there are many practical classroom management steps that can help put students in the “best possible position” to learn. Essentially as a future math teacher, my goal will be to create a classroom environment that encourages and facilitates learning.

First off, I want have good relationships with my students. I don’t want to be strictly an authoritarian figure, but at the same time I don’t to be all buddy-buddy with them. There has to be a fine balance in this area. My students must understand that I am the More Knowledgeable Peer in the classroom. This title can often times be abused by teachers, so I must make sure that I am directing my classroom in activities not just dictating my control. Being a teacher that is approachable can go a long way in creating a mutual trust between the students and the teacher. I will do this by asking critical thinking questions and walking around. This will encourage my students to explore. I also won’t embarrass my students when they say wrong answers. By doing this, hopefully some of my students will respect and trust me. Respect in the classroom should take the form of listening to the teacher’s instructions and allowing the teacher to be in charge. I do believe in some classrooms, whether the teacher realizes it or not, the students have the control.

I want my daily classroom schedule to be structured in order to ensure that my classroom stays managed. One key step to this will be starting every day with a problem on the white board (aka “bell ringer”) this activity would allow the kids to be immediately actively mentally engaged. This will then allow me to start teaching without having to talk over my student’s conversations. I will strive to treat my student’s with the utmost respect by coming prepared to class (just like I expect them to be). My lesson plan will be “over-planned” and flexible, to allow for accommodations as various student needs become evident. My lesson’s plan will be structured in a way that is consistent with the way that a student’s brain acquires information; I will start with concrete examples then work to more abstract concepts and applications. I don’t want to do my students a disservice by expecting them to be at a higher level abstraction level than they really are. As a teacher I must use scaffolding to help my classroom stay on task. If students are not in their Zone of Proximal development, they are more likely to get frustrated, lose motivation, and then get off task which in turn disrupts other students who are trying to learn. Which is again why it is so important that teachers stimulate student thinking; instead, of just telling the students to take all information at face value. Learning will take place in the classroom, not on the homework. Classroom time will be spent on relevant material, and will be “for” the students.

In my classroom I will not tolerate constant disruption or misbehavior. I will create about 5 general classroom rules. The consequences for breaking the rules would be made clear. In making these I will take into account that rewards and punishments have a huge effect on student behavior (BLT). I will be consistent in the way I handle discipline, being fair in the way I handle every situation and allowing students the chance to personally explain their situation to me. Students will know what is expected of them when they walk into my classroom and will have to choose whether they will abide by these expectations.

Finally, the way my classroom will be set up will be very intentional. I will try to diminish as many distractions as possible. My math manipulatives will be stored on the side of the classroom to ensure they won’t be a distraction to anyone. In conclusion, classroom management is one of the most important roles that teachers have. If a teacher can’t manage a classroom how can they expect their students to learn anything in their class? Therefore, as future teachers we should strive to keep our classroom managed in every area.

10/14/10 Lessons

Group 1-Healthy Eating 

This was a great practical lesson about learning how to live a healthy lifestyle. Your teaching was informed by DLT by putting out concrete examples of the different food groups. The polling website was also good way to be informed by SLT. However, I don’t think it was the best choice to have so much candy on the table because it didn’t really proportionally represent the “eat sparingly” portion of the food pyramid. Don’t get me wrong, I liked eating the candy, but it might have taken away from the message that you were trying to convey. Also some more question oriented group discussions could have been beneficial in this lesson.

Group 2-Homophones  

I like how you let us explore and come up with our own homophones. Also the riddles you gave us required us to be active mentally engaged by trying to figure out a homophone that satisfied the riddle. Maybe at the end you could give us a worksheet that shows us all the homophones you came up with. This would show how many homophones there really are and how we may use them on a daily basis without even thinking about it. Also it would be good to explain why it is relevant to be aware of all the different homophones (tie in some motivation).

Group 3-Story about Respect 

It was cool that that you made the whole class sat down.  The (Dragon/Princess) story was interesting and grabbed my attention. Asking questions between pages was also a very great idea. I think next time you could even used some more challenging questions that would require a little thinking. Instead of asking questions that have a definite answer maybe ask some questions that could have some differing answers. For example: How do you think the princess is feeling? or if you were in the princess’s shoes what would you do? Questions like these might spark some conversations and require the students to think about the thinking that goes before the actions. Start encouraging the development of schemas and connections even at a young age (this has to be done with scaffolding of course).

Group 4-Alphabet Game

This was a great activity for young students. It was good that you had a poster to remind us of the order of the alphabet, and it reminded us what all the capital and lower case letters look like. Good lesson for kids to get up out of their seats, and this lesson incorporated friendly competition coupled with learning. I think at the end of the lesson you could do a better job of getting back to the practical applications of the alphabet. Not sure how to go about this, but it's just an idea. (CVT-connecting alphabet to all areas of life)

Struggles While Teaching Lesson

Speech Lesson

We quickly realized that it is very difficult to teach while being informed by all the learning theories. Our first activity was allowing each table group to discuss how they would go about making a speech to the one of the two speech questions. First off, there maybe could have been a better way to go about this activity. Instead, we could have let them try a quick impromptu speech in front of their own small group. This would allow speech exploration in a “safe” environment with people they feel comfortable with (it would also be a concrete activity). I also realized the importance of questions that require higher-level thinking. Many of our questions could be answered with one or two words instantly. We didn’t have any questions that would take the students a few seconds to process. Some possible questions could be, why is it important to have good impromptu speech skills? How could you get back on track after having a bad start to a speech? Both of these questions may have multiple answers, and they could foster some classroom discussion. I also now see the importance of flexibility because students may not always volunteer if they don’t feel adequate for the task. We will have to work on our “thinking on the spot” skills as teachers, being ready to react to the way that our students respond to a planned lesson. 

Jalapeño Dilema

Everyday I go to Hubble North and get in the sub line to order a turkey sub with all the usual toppings such as lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, green peppers, mayo etc. Then I find myself always asking for jalapeños. Today, I thought about this behavior and asked why I do this? Come to think of it I don't even like hot food. I usually ended up sweating profusely and seem to never enjoy my sub. Every time I subconsciously just gravitate towards jalapeños. I believe the thinking behind this behavior can be explained by learning theories. As I thought about this I thought back to my early years when I started putting jalapeños on my subs, I have concluded that this behavior was very socially constructed which can be connected to social learning theory. I think I started doing this to be sort of a “more knowledgeable peer”, I thought for some reason that putting unique toppings on my sub made me some sort of sandwich connoisseur. I know this is really stupid, but I probably did this because it looked “grown up” and cool to put a lot of exotic toppings on my sub in front of your friends. This schema was formed, and I haven’t taken the effort to change it yet (cvt).

Questions about using all learning theories?

            As future teachers, our goal should be essentially to help our students learn and for them to reach their potential as a student. We should always be searching for ways to give the students what they need as learners. I believe it’s important to teach in a way that is informed by all learning theories; however, I don’t think it’s all that important to classify and nit pick whether or not every learning theory is being applied. If classifying becomes the focus, I believe more attention will be given to the theories rather than the actual students. I'm willing to bet that there have past teachers that have used all the theories to inform their teaching, but students still walked out of his or her classroom learning nothing. I would first ask myself are my students actually learning the material? I believe this question directly relates back to the learning theories because these theories attempt to explain how humans learn. Not one of these learning theory can completely explain learning which is why there are numerous learning theories. My teaching will be affected by all of the theories. I will ask myself how are the different theories being incorporated throughout each of my lessons. At the end of the day, however, I want to be able to look back and conclude that my student have learned, quite frankly I believe this conclusion must be proven by using assessments. These assessments will also be informed by the different learning theories to ensure that the students understand every aspect of a particular topic.

             One thing that we learned in class was that often times there are activities that can't be clearly traced back to one of the theories. For example when all the theories are used at one time it may be hard to distinguish what theory the ideas are coming from. This is probably when learning and teaching are at their finest because the brain is being forced to stretch and reconstruct. Teaching isn’t in a vacuum, as teachers we must use theories but not let the theories use us.