tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post214315335806087950..comments2024-03-15T02:09:23.712-06:00Comments on for the love of learning: We need more... standardization?!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15047405950514440042noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post-17322790293397804482010-10-24T21:51:02.914-06:002010-10-24T21:51:02.914-06:00Hi my name is Toni Parrish and I am a student at t...Hi my name is Toni Parrish and I am a student at the Universtiy of South Alabama majoring in elementary education. I am taking Dr. Strange for EDm310 and I have been assigned to comment on your blog. I chose this blog because it is a subject that I have wondered about. I don't think that standardization is good for the students at all. Just think, all teachers are different and their way of educating a student is also going to be different. Once there is a teacher/student bond created and they are familiar with the way each other learns and teaches it's hard to break it, and for the principal to dictate what should be taught and when is just not fair. I understand that they want every grade level to be on the same page and for the parent complaints to cease, but they must also realize that the most important people here are the students. I will elaborate more on this soon on my blog:parrishtoniedm310.blogspot.comToni Parrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12987019536977416750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post-42324017017818156212010-10-22T16:54:54.946-06:002010-10-22T16:54:54.946-06:00I concede jzurfluh's point that we need to mod...I concede jzurfluh's point that we need to model and value collaboration. Certainly I have benefited from my school-based professional learning community's work to develop collective assessments, activities and rubrics. Our work on reading competencies has proved particularly helpful this year. Dialog and reflection about the appropriate assignments is also invaluable. <br /><br />The teacher's professional judgement about his or her own class must remain paramount in my mind. If the teacher has no professional judgement then administration needs to take action. Otherwise, we need to be able to differentiate for our students. The proof of this for me is those rare times when I have had an opportunity to teach the same course to two different classes. The classes always seemed to get different courses because they are different people combined into different groups. Positing a collective agreement about the most appropriate approach to a learning outcome seems to me to disregard differentiation and multiple intelligences. Can a professional learning community develop differentiated approaches to a learning outcome? Yes, but then it will not be particularly standardized.Alan Stangehttp://www.alan-stange.canoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post-88789000857450730152010-10-22T16:41:14.502-06:002010-10-22T16:41:14.502-06:00I know a certain HIS dept that welcomed standardiz...I know a certain HIS dept that welcomed standardized pre and post tests. Think there was some comfort to "knowing" what to teach, having somebody else make the test for them, and in the end they can more easily blame the kids for the test scores.Paul Bogushhttp://blogush.edublogs.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post-19360950559360042212010-10-22T09:30:55.830-06:002010-10-22T09:30:55.830-06:00I think both groups missed the point. Teachers as...I think both groups missed the point. Teachers assumed that standardization meant similar assignments (like assessments). Administrators assumed that parents wanted consistency between teachers. The real issue is about consistency of pedagogy and effective practice. Are there core beliefs about effective practice and assessment that drive this dialog? Are parents reflecting on inconsistent methodologies and a lack of cohesion that is representative of an organizational culture that drives effective decisions about the kinds and types of assignments most appropriate to the content and goals of the curriculum. It's far too easy to kick parents back to teachers and find that teachers have undercut organztionals in favor of their own agendas. Administrators have to be involved and effectively communicate emerging issues of organizational competency to staff. It's an addaptive problem, so staff have to be empowered to solve it. To ignore it devalues the collaborative nature at is essential to engaging parents on behalf of their children.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2707703066300530859.post-39995993944017598112010-10-22T06:51:18.906-06:002010-10-22T06:51:18.906-06:00"If teachers are trusted enough to spend a go..."If teachers are trusted enough to spend a good chunk of every day instructing, coaching and teaching students in a way that is tailored to the learners' needs, then why aren't teacher trusted to assess their students' based on the learners' personalized needs?"<br /><br />In point of fact, I am afraid that all this standardization is largely motivated by exactly this distrust. Somehow, we are apparently not getting it right in the classroom. Only some lingering pragmatism restrains the policy makers from attempting instructional standardization.Alan Stangehttp://www.alan-stange.canoreply@blogger.com