Friday, July 29, 2011
What is cheating?
Comments from a teacher who admits to assisting students on state testing...
Confessions of a Cheating Teacher
State testing dishonesty has been in the news a lot as far as teachers and principals sanctioning changing answers, etc... but the type of "cheating" discussed in the article must happen in every school. I'm sure I've "cheated" at times unintentionally. As a teacher you work hand in hand with every student 9.9 months of the year, then for 4 days you're supposed to have no interaction with them? Our whole goal is to work with students to give them ways to think on their own, yet we can't even say "well, think about what we did in class, what would be the best strategy we talked about for solving this?" All of our professional development, all of our teacher instruction encourages teaching for a 21st century student, yet we have to tell them that they (and their school) are a failure if they don't meet an arbitrary benchmark on an arbitrary multiple choice test. (Which, by the way, is 100% proficient by 2014.) When I practice questions with my kids, it's not that they don't understand the questions, it's that they are so used to discussion and analysis that they can't narrow down to 1 answer. Normally this would be lauded: "My students led their own debate about the merits of A over B for 15 minutes!" Yet somehow I have to make them understand that on these 4 testing days, only 1 answer counts. And if you have a bad day, you won't get into the class you want.
I watched Waiting for Superman last night, so I'm extra agitated about the education system. According to the movie, basically, charter schools are the best. More classtime and no excuses win! Of course, if every school was filled with super motivated students whose parents are super involved and everyone involved accepts that the school has the final say on discipline, etc... then we'd be back at #1. Is that really reasonable for the entire nation though? I interviewed at a super successful charter school and the kids all sat in class in silence, no interaction, no groups. It was a classroom management dream, but shouldn't a class have some collaboration and energy?
I don't know the solution. All I know is I have lots of great, talented kids in my classes. Many of them come from backgrounds ranging from tough to impossible. I know they have a good teacher in me. But as good as I can be for them, as much self esteem and grammar tips as I can give them, I can't make all of them good at taking a test for whatever reason (they're just too nervous, their parents don't get them to school on time, they can't relate to the stories about periscopes and President Reagan at age 11 no matter how much we practice), and without that they are deemed failures.
Back to funny dogs tomorrow.
Confessions of a Cheating Teacher
State testing dishonesty has been in the news a lot as far as teachers and principals sanctioning changing answers, etc... but the type of "cheating" discussed in the article must happen in every school. I'm sure I've "cheated" at times unintentionally. As a teacher you work hand in hand with every student 9.9 months of the year, then for 4 days you're supposed to have no interaction with them? Our whole goal is to work with students to give them ways to think on their own, yet we can't even say "well, think about what we did in class, what would be the best strategy we talked about for solving this?" All of our professional development, all of our teacher instruction encourages teaching for a 21st century student, yet we have to tell them that they (and their school) are a failure if they don't meet an arbitrary benchmark on an arbitrary multiple choice test. (Which, by the way, is 100% proficient by 2014.) When I practice questions with my kids, it's not that they don't understand the questions, it's that they are so used to discussion and analysis that they can't narrow down to 1 answer. Normally this would be lauded: "My students led their own debate about the merits of A over B for 15 minutes!" Yet somehow I have to make them understand that on these 4 testing days, only 1 answer counts. And if you have a bad day, you won't get into the class you want.
I watched Waiting for Superman last night, so I'm extra agitated about the education system. According to the movie, basically, charter schools are the best. More classtime and no excuses win! Of course, if every school was filled with super motivated students whose parents are super involved and everyone involved accepts that the school has the final say on discipline, etc... then we'd be back at #1. Is that really reasonable for the entire nation though? I interviewed at a super successful charter school and the kids all sat in class in silence, no interaction, no groups. It was a classroom management dream, but shouldn't a class have some collaboration and energy?
I don't know the solution. All I know is I have lots of great, talented kids in my classes. Many of them come from backgrounds ranging from tough to impossible. I know they have a good teacher in me. But as good as I can be for them, as much self esteem and grammar tips as I can give them, I can't make all of them good at taking a test for whatever reason (they're just too nervous, their parents don't get them to school on time, they can't relate to the stories about periscopes and President Reagan at age 11 no matter how much we practice), and without that they are deemed failures.
Back to funny dogs tomorrow.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Dog in the tub
Whiskey does not react well to even the hint of thunderstorms. Any ideas for dog storm anxiety?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
More Summer Reading
9.5 down, 5.5 to go
A Visit from The Goon Squad: Really? This is an acclaimed book? It just made me annoyed. In theory, it tells the stories of about a dozen quasi-connected people. But really, it starts to tell the stories of these people, gets you interested, then moves on to someone else without a satisfying conclusion to any of the characters' stories. The characters come back later, but how did they get married!? What happened to their dreams!? Where did this kid come from!? You never find out. Plus, all the people are at some sad, unfulfilled point in their life without any sincere efforts to improve. Maybe, along with movies, I'm just not cut out for serious intellectual-ism anymore in my life. But from the second chapter on, I just felt like this book was written for the purpose of everyone talking about how unusual and innovative (aka pretentious) it was rather than actually being a good story. Second disappointing Pulitzer winning book this summer!
The Hunger Games: so far so good. Much more up my alley. Quick read, not totally predictable.
Nothing Daunted The story of two wealthy women in the early 1900s teaching in Colorado. Most people would think this sounded boring. I thought it sounded interesting. It's boring. It's just way too much detail about tangential characters without really getting to know them. I'll give it a little more skimming time, but after today I'm done.
The Memory of All That: I liked this book. I like stories about the early 20th century, and I like George Gershwin, and this was well told.
The Carrie Diaries: Meh. Nice quick beach read, but nothing special. Much better than Trading Up, which I'm currently reading/not enjoying, but a lot of continuity issues with Sex and The City considering it's supposed to be a prequel.
A Visit from The Goon Squad: Really? This is an acclaimed book? It just made me annoyed. In theory, it tells the stories of about a dozen quasi-connected people. But really, it starts to tell the stories of these people, gets you interested, then moves on to someone else without a satisfying conclusion to any of the characters' stories. The characters come back later, but how did they get married!? What happened to their dreams!? Where did this kid come from!? You never find out. Plus, all the people are at some sad, unfulfilled point in their life without any sincere efforts to improve. Maybe, along with movies, I'm just not cut out for serious intellectual-ism anymore in my life. But from the second chapter on, I just felt like this book was written for the purpose of everyone talking about how unusual and innovative (aka pretentious) it was rather than actually being a good story. Second disappointing Pulitzer winning book this summer!
The Hunger Games: so far so good. Much more up my alley. Quick read, not totally predictable.
Nothing Daunted The story of two wealthy women in the early 1900s teaching in Colorado. Most people would think this sounded boring. I thought it sounded interesting. It's boring. It's just way too much detail about tangential characters without really getting to know them. I'll give it a little more skimming time, but after today I'm done.
The Memory of All That: I liked this book. I like stories about the early 20th century, and I like George Gershwin, and this was well told.
The Carrie Diaries: Meh. Nice quick beach read, but nothing special. Much better than Trading Up, which I'm currently reading/not enjoying, but a lot of continuity issues with Sex and The City considering it's supposed to be a prequel.
Friday, July 15, 2011
So this happened today...3 pilar cysts removed from my scalp. MMM. I'm the weirdo who asks to take a picture before I go. The nurse, though initially amused, was very helpful in trying to get the right angle. This is the 5th cyst I've had removed in the past 6 months. They're not harmful, just gross and annoying (except the ones on my back, which got inflamed).But there's also no way to prevent them.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Summer Reading!
This summer's goal: read 15 books. 5 down, 10 to go. So far:
My Booky Wook 2: Not nearly as hilarious as My Booky Wook, but many LOL moments, especially for Russell Brand Fan #1 (me)
The Long Goodbye: major sad town, but also really interesting portrayal of the illogical and persistent nature of grief.
Tinkers: how did this win any prize, let alone a pulitzer? A couple interesting passages about epilepsy treatment/views in the past, but major snooze town otherwise.
the Art of Racing in the Rain: love. Maybe just because I'm a dog owner, but I thought this had a very interesting perspective.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: OMG. Just started this, but I"ll be finished by tonight. Amazing story, amazing scientific information that can be easily understood.
My Booky Wook 2: Not nearly as hilarious as My Booky Wook, but many LOL moments, especially for Russell Brand Fan #1 (me)
The Long Goodbye: major sad town, but also really interesting portrayal of the illogical and persistent nature of grief.
Tinkers: how did this win any prize, let alone a pulitzer? A couple interesting passages about epilepsy treatment/views in the past, but major snooze town otherwise.
the Art of Racing in the Rain: love. Maybe just because I'm a dog owner, but I thought this had a very interesting perspective.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: OMG. Just started this, but I"ll be finished by tonight. Amazing story, amazing scientific information that can be easily understood.
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