Blog Post:
One thing I discovered about myself is how I truly think I have made the right decision in wanting to become a teacher. After going to the three schools to observe the classes and while doing my observations I learned how much I do want to pursue a teaching career. The only difference is that right now I feel as if I may want to become a 5th grade teacher instead of possible 7th grade. Coming into this class there were not many concerns I had. If anything it was just the ability to treat all the kids the same, even if they are a pain in the butt, but now I feel like I am able to do that based on what Bill Ayers has written.
I really enjoy the idea of being able to influence our future generations in a positive way. I hope to teach math but not only teach my students math, I would talk about life how it is and what they should expect as they get older. At the same time I think it would be nice to teach and at the same time coach. I would want try and get a job at a school that has high standards with both education and sports, most importantly education.
Proposal:
The topic I have in mind is that of standardized testing. Standardized testing has been a tough topic throughout the years in school districts. There are many forms of standardized testing. Before the No Child Left Behind, standardized tests were mainly for high school junior and seniors who are hoping to go to college one day. The tests used for these students are ACT and SAT. These tests are suppose to symbolize what each student has been able to learn inside the classroom and to measure how each student is doing on the core subjects and to show what they may need help in.
In schools today, standardized testing has taking a prominent role. States will spend hundreds, thousands of dollars to make sure these standardized tests are taken and to make sure teachers teach toward those tests. Even though teachers may have an idea of what the test may look like, they have no idea what is really going to be on the test, therefore, it puts them in a big hole because their may be a whole section in the test they did not get to teach and the students will have no idea how to complete the section. Testing results would be greatly different in certain subjects because in subjects such as reading and English there are multiple choice questions and for English the questions are more for grammar and common sense. Reading you will have to read a passage and answer questions based on the passage, the answers are right in front of you. So students will be able to do better on these sections if they have not been taught them. But, in math you either have the right or wrong answer, you either know how to do a problem or you don't. Will all this being said, math teachers may be at a disadvantage because of this.
Issues that I find in this topic is the fact that it does not truly test students intelligence. Especially with the ACT and SAT. These two standardized tests really show well a student can sit in a classroom for a few hours and take a timed test real early in the morning. Also, there are some topics on the test that most will have no idea how to do so they will end up having to guess on questions just because they were not aware of topics on the test. There is an increasing debate on the validity and true value of standardized tests today. There are more and more people realizing that standardized tests are not the way to go and are truly unfair to both the students and teachers. It is unfair to punish a teacher for how poorly a student does on a test they were not prepared for because the teacher does not have the questions coming directly of the test.
There many issues I, personally, have with standardized tests. My class in high school got stuck taking 28 standardized tests in our four years in high school. This was an awful experience because not only did we have to take these tests, the tests would always take priority over other classes so we would miss important lessons in class and miss what we needed for tests or quizzes. Another way this effects me personally is because my mom is a teacher and if she would have stayed at her old school for another couple years, her pay would have been decided based on how well the students did. My mom was a fifth grade math teacher at the time and had 6 IEP students in her class. This could hurt teachers with IEP students because those students need extra teaching and extra time taking a test that they will not get when it comes to standardized tests. To rate teachers based on this is absolutely insane.
I have connections within this field because I can ask my mom, a teacher, how standardized tests directly impacted her and students. She could give me a first hand account on how she taught to the standardized tests and made sure her students were prepared to take them.
I really want to know why the government would want to base teachers pay based of young kids test scores. Teaching is supposed to be something that can inspire and help kids grow up and respect the world around them. Other than a students family, a teacher is around the kids more than anyone else in their lives. To punish a teacher for their students poor results on a test made by the government is wrong. If one teacher has all honors students and one teacher has regular students with a couple IEP students in there, to compare one to the other is wrong. Yes, both classes have the same test but there is honors and regular for a reason. One class excels more in that subject than the other.
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