Sunday, May 6, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Current Issue
I believe the biggest issue in education today is standardized testing. Standardized tests are designed to see what a child knows in subjects of math, reading and writing. Although this may seem to be a great idea, when appiled on our classrooms, students and teachers alike suffer. This article from the Washington Post agrees with this opinion.
First, standardized testing puts pressure on students to simply cram information into their heads for a short time and regurgitate for the testing. This is not education. Education should be permanently learning information and applying it real life. It is this pressure that can put unnecessary stress on students. Due to these tests the myth that school is an unpleasant place is quickly becoming a reality for so many students.
Second, standardized testing put no emphasis no the arts. For many students music is not only enjoyable, but it is also attributed to high intelligence. Standardized tests seem to promote that mathmatics and literacy are the only important aspects of education. Many studies show that music and foreign languages can help motivate students more than any other factors as Youtube video claims.
Finally, standardized tests require teachers to be more drill instructors than helpful creative educators. All teachers will worry about is making sure their class receives good test scores regardless of the cost. Standardized tests create in atmosphere in the classroom wear math, writing and facts reign supreme, leaving no room for abstract thinking that should be encouraged.
In conclusion, I believe that if this trend continues, our students will become passionless about education and just "go through the motions" to do well on these standardized tests. In addition the passion of teachers will also dwindle. With neither the teacher nor the student truly caring, our education system will suffer and perhaps even fail. This is something future teachers cannot afford to let happen.
First, standardized testing puts pressure on students to simply cram information into their heads for a short time and regurgitate for the testing. This is not education. Education should be permanently learning information and applying it real life. It is this pressure that can put unnecessary stress on students. Due to these tests the myth that school is an unpleasant place is quickly becoming a reality for so many students.
Second, standardized testing put no emphasis no the arts. For many students music is not only enjoyable, but it is also attributed to high intelligence. Standardized tests seem to promote that mathmatics and literacy are the only important aspects of education. Many studies show that music and foreign languages can help motivate students more than any other factors as Youtube video claims.
Finally, standardized tests require teachers to be more drill instructors than helpful creative educators. All teachers will worry about is making sure their class receives good test scores regardless of the cost. Standardized tests create in atmosphere in the classroom wear math, writing and facts reign supreme, leaving no room for abstract thinking that should be encouraged.
In conclusion, I believe that if this trend continues, our students will become passionless about education and just "go through the motions" to do well on these standardized tests. In addition the passion of teachers will also dwindle. With neither the teacher nor the student truly caring, our education system will suffer and perhaps even fail. This is something future teachers cannot afford to let happen.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
First Impression of Twitter
My first impression of Twitter was that it is a great source to give and recieve information. I believe that twitter would be useful in the classroom only for communicating with your class. Twitter would be useless as far as learning because, I think that social networks are too distracting.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Blog Reflection
While making this powerpoint and the narrative to go along with it. I encountered a few problems with finding a good Youtube video to go with it and also I forgot how to make internal hyperlinks, but soon figured it out. This project was also very rewarding in that it help me prepare to make lesson plans and sharpened my skills using the powerpoint. In all this was a great project for our development as teachers.
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