Cheating

Wow cheating... big issue

I remember when we used to put crib notes in pens, write upside down on out cap brims, and use morse code while tapping our pencils. Yeah we did all sorts of things that would be called old school today. Today, technology almost scares me, students can take an images of a test, pass it to the local brainiac who will text to all his friend a crib sheet. the other one is the I-pods, someone makes a pod cast of the answers and the kids listen to it before a class. My personal favorite still has to be the one where the kids set up a hi-resolution spy cam on the white board and watched the teacher grade the test and simple wrote down all the correct answers, texted the answers to the jocks at $5 a pop and to the in crowd for $10 a pop. I'm not sure wheather to nail the kid for cheating or congraulate him for finding a business niche and exploiting it. still it worries me

I know that the old school methods of no caps, clear desks and the like don't always work. I know that some teachers have more then one version of the test printed out and and some space students out, if they have the room. Me personally I would make my class a dead zone as far as cell phones, blackberries, i-phones and psp's on a testing day . I would also use slightly different variations of the test for each class. I would also make testing a limited option, since I would rather see projects and portfolios for some parts of the covered materials.

challenges

Initially I think of a challenge as something to overcome. In teaching, the challenge to me is adapting my teaching style to accommodate the various student's learning styles as well and the complexity of the information. I also think that I should challenge a students perceptions and world paradim. I also think that the challenge is to do more with less funding, especially in the public school. As for testing... challenge takes on a different meaning. I think that challengeing students into learning something or accomplishing something has much more merit then just shoving facts and figures in their face and hoping that they can remember some percentage of the information on some test. However, imparting useful knowledge doesn't seem to fill the tests score requirements. I think the real challenge is to find that perfect balance of instruction, testing and fun.

Assessment and Learning

Honestly I'm not 100% sold on assessments. They seem to be a mixed bag. I can see how some people need some sort of grading in place, but I can also see how much stress, anger and fustration they can cause. I often wonder, besides giving me feed back on my teaching style ,and making parents and adminstrators happy, what purpose do grades serve? I mean it seems that grades exist mainly for principals, department heads and parents happy with their kids progress. I often wonder what would happen if I did away with grades and went another route, like portfolios and projects, or self grading. To be honest I really don't like grading daily quizzes. for the daily stuff I like journals and current events. I also hate taking time out to explain how to take tests. I would rather spend more time teaching and encouraging critical thinking skills development.

Now Learning. I honestly can't expect a 14 year old freshman to have a handle on their learning styles like a 22 year old college student can. My job at that point is to help the freshman get a handle on their strengths and weaknesses. I think that the name of the game, teaching students how to learn.