Thursday
May 01, 2008
This week’s Carnival of Education links to a great set of writing about education all over the web (including a post right here on TEN!)
Most interesting to me this week was Bill Ferriter’s take on Carl Chew, the Washington State teacher who refused to administer his state’s standardized tests.
I think that refusing to give the state test is a pretty arrogant and egocentric thing to do...To willfully ignore the methods selected by elected officials essentially says that we don’t respect the values of the communities that we serve.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of testing at all...In many ways, testing has destroyed what I do in my classroom each year, changed the dynamic of teaching and learning completely, and has done far more damage that it has done good.
But it is a system selected and believed in by the people who pay my check. And (in theory) it’s based on the values and beliefs of a group of people that go far beyond me. For those reasons, I choose to honor and respect the system even though I don’t totally believe in it.
He follows up with another post here.
Other Carnival entries to check out:
Larry Ferlazzo’s further tips on classroom management. (A follow-up to what I posted here).
TweenTeacher suggests that building confidence is an essential test prep strategy.
Learners Inherit the Earth criticizes an alt-cert teaching fellow program for perpetuating an us vs. them dynamic between fellows and veteran teachers at their school.
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