I read Karl Fisch’s post about What Matters? with great interest. I think Karl and his group of teachers are really doing a fantastic job with their students. We need to hear more about what is going on with our students. I recently skyped with Karl and Anne Smith. It was great to connect and talk possibilities. Anne Smith has the most amazing blogs. I have poured over them and I think the thing I like the best is the way she includes her students in the reflecting and thinking process. It is front and center and the focus is always on the students. Anne says:
I am just having a difficult time trying to find the line between feeling like I am leading them to the answer I am looking for (i.e. my what matters example) and having them struggle to find their own understanding – what I feel like they should be looking for.”
That really resonates with me. I have exactly the same feeling when I work with my elementary students and push them to reflect about their own learnings. It is not something they are used to doing. Also getting them to be risk-takers and not focus on what the teacher wants with their answers but instead what do they want? What do they think would work? I think it is a scary process at first for the students. Yet I believe with all my heart that if we worked at getting more responses from them, help then learn how to write reflectively and honestly, and give them opportunities to do this frequently…..we would all learn much that would help us in this journey. They need to be in on these types of conversations. And what better place to have these conversations than on blogs!
I am working with a language arts teacher, Mary Ann, who is just beginning to blog. She has read through Anne’s blogs and I can just see the light bulbs going off in her head. See her first two posts, Water, Water, Everywhere! and Say it in your own words! Great posts for a beginner, right? She is still pouring through Anne’s blogs and those light bulbs keep flashing! I know we will be starting Mary Ann’s students out on some type of “What Matters?” post. What a model from which to learn! (Thank you Anne!)
Tomorrow I go back to the school. As usual, I can’t wait!
I read Anne’s post about testing too, and I really feel her struggle. As an elementary school teacher, I am in the middle of an over testing nightmare. I must spend almost 2 weeks testing, losing valuable class time! Some test the students will have (whether given my me, the county, or the state) is always in the back of my mind. I too am torn between seeing the value in these, but the overuse of them. Accountability in education is important but over testing is wrong on some many levels.
Too much testing is definitely something that can a negative impact on teachers and students. Teachers become frustrated at the lost of so much class time and students may have increased test anxiety. What happened to “informal assessments”? When teachers could get to know their students on an individual basis and determine what students’ needed based on their progress on class assignments. If we are to truly differentiate instruction and meet the learning needs of all students, then teachers need time to get to know the students that they are teaching. We have become too obsessed with scores and grades. Too often students become associated with a number or percentage on an assessment. There has to be a balance between accountability and individuality.