Week 9 Reflection

1. What resources or ideas did I share this week? Mostly I just shared my frustrations, but I'm glad anytime I get an opportunity to share Seymour Papert's view of the world.  The things he was writing in the 80's and 90's could have been written today, so imagine the frustrations he felt then! But he was spot-on in everything he imagined and predicted about schooling, technology, teaching, and how kids learn. By sharing the frustrations I have with my own district, I also hope this makes others realize that with the New Evaluation System, even though the test scores only comprise a part of it, and the rest is pretty good stuff, the focus will be on those scores, because teachers feel like the rest of it is within their control.

2. What did I intend to be the impact of my resources on others' learning? Hoping people will just keep remembering that even though we have politicians who are trying to keep education locked firmly in the 1800's, there are alternatives, there are things we can do, and there are better ways.  We don't have to teach to that test, we can teach "around" it.  I firmly believe that the byproduct will be that oh, by the way, they happened to do well on the test too.  That point of view is going to be a hard sell in this environment they have created.

3. What actual impact could I discern?  Unfortunately, it seems many teachers share the same worries as I do about what will be the ripple effect here. In our state, this year and next are going to bring some shifts, but I fear not the right ones, as the student score portion of the evaluation system will initially drive things, at least until some way can be put in place that allays peoples' fears.

4. What will I do differently next week? Well, I'll try not to be such a negative Nancy and bearer of doom and gloom! What we really need to be looking for right now is a way "around" this, (just like teaching around the tests). I really believe that we need to work hard at coming up with a model of how good portfolio assessment can make up a significant part of that little blue box.  Yes, test scores have to be there, but I really think that if we include our own better measures of student achievement (dreaded words), that we can minimize the impact of that particular factor, and thus minimize text anxiety (on the part of teachers).

5. What resources did others share that made a difference to my learning? Well I don't know if it made me feel any better, but @akteacherlead had a really fantastic post that included other barriers that we really need to be aware of and also working with.  Although test scores are my primary concern right now, we have other fires that we need to be working on as well so that we all can move forward.