Not all anonymity is born equal.
For the longest time I left my blog open to anonymous comments because I found many of them were from what appeared to be educators who wanted to speak up in an effort to challenge the status quo in favor of progressive education but fearful of reprimand.
Unfortunately, due to multiple unfortunate circumstances and grossly inappropriate comments from unhealthy individuals (cowards) who chose to use anonymity as a cloak of immunity, I can no longer afford to allow anonymous comments.
I've also found my small share of trolls on Twitter. I don't use the block function often because I'm all for disagreement and cognitive dissonance, but when name calling and personal attacks become the standard, you no longer get to clutter my inbox and timeline.
Anonymity can be used to be courageous in the face of oppressive rule but it can also be used to be an asshole.
Showing posts with label anonymous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anonymous. Show all posts
Friday, April 6, 2012
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Opposing Pedagogies
Here is a post by an anonymous Alberta teacher who is frustrated by how different her teaching philosophy is compared to the teachers in other grade levels.
by Anonymous
I am a Grade 8 middle school teacher in a K-12 school. My biggest challenge is that I have a distinctly different pedagogy from my high school counterparts.
For years I’ve been struggling with the notion of grading. It seems to only serve two purposes to me: reward/punishment, and ranking/sorting. Over time I’ve made baby steps towards change within my school. The first was to eliminate final exams in middle school (though not Grade 6 PAT’s of course). The second was to eliminate our percentage based grading system and follow a different model. I understood that elimination of all grading wasn’t going to be possible but I saw this as a step forward.
Now I’m moving forward with the final stage of implementing my true pedagogy, elimination of testing and formalized grading (with the understanding I still need to do report cards).
My beliefs:
What I have been told by high school teachers:
I find it depressing that another high school teacher has told me that in the end, it doesn’t really matter what I teach them. I have to make sure they can sit still, take notes, be quiet, not interrupt with questions and just learn what “is going to be on the diploma.”
I’m on the front lines. One administrator supports me, one doesn’t. One high school teacher is interested in my thoughts but shrugs and says he can never do it because he has to make sure his students do well on diploma exams. He stands with the rest of the high school when he says it’s our duty to make sure these kids are ready for high school diploma exams since that is what “sets them up in life”.
I’ve been told that if I don’t give final exams they will not be prepared for the pressures of Grade 9 PAT’s and therefore will suffer in their marks. If I don’t give grades I’m doing my students an injustice because they will be shocked when they get to high school about where they truly stand. They will experience frustration, disappointment, and may be more likely to drop out (seriously, someone really told me that). Parents will be furious because they will find out for the first time their children are not actually the “good” students they thought they were in middle school.
I, however, am prepared to fight the battle. Twitter has connected me with other like- minded teachers, such as Joe Bower, and other professional education authors such as Alfie Kohn and Diane Ravitch. I may be an island within my school, but I am not alone in the profession.
Someone on twitter once told me that I am successful in life now because I knew how to take exams in high school and university. Well, if my Math Diploma mark, or the D+ I got on my first year philosophy course, or the C- I got in my introductory chemisty course are examples of the grades I had, then they had little to do with the success I am experiencing now.
What I struggle with now is how to fight within a system that has teachers and parents so entrenched in the idea that the grade on the report card determines everything. I got a 56% on my Math 30 diploma exam despite the fact that I had an 89% walking into that exam.
A grade does not determine who you are or what you are capable of.
Nor should it.
by Anonymous
I am a Grade 8 middle school teacher in a K-12 school. My biggest challenge is that I have a distinctly different pedagogy from my high school counterparts.
For years I’ve been struggling with the notion of grading. It seems to only serve two purposes to me: reward/punishment, and ranking/sorting. Over time I’ve made baby steps towards change within my school. The first was to eliminate final exams in middle school (though not Grade 6 PAT’s of course). The second was to eliminate our percentage based grading system and follow a different model. I understood that elimination of all grading wasn’t going to be possible but I saw this as a step forward.
Now I’m moving forward with the final stage of implementing my true pedagogy, elimination of testing and formalized grading (with the understanding I still need to do report cards).
My beliefs:
- I can assess without “grading”
- Students should be able to argue for the mark they think they’ve earned
- It is possible to show learning in a variety of ways, not just with tests
- That if we are preparing students for tests, we are not preparing them for life
- Student engagement increases exponentially when you present them with projects that ask question they feel are worth answering
- Critical thinking challenges students far more than a multiple choice question
- I am paid to teach students to think, not to “cover” curriculum. I teach thinking through curriculum.
What I have been told by high school teachers:
- My students are not prepared for the realities of high school
- That it’s my fault when they get an actual grade and are devastated because that’s not what they thought they would get
- That they have no understanding that a 45% is a bad thing
- They are stressed when it comes to tests because they didn’t write any major exams in Grade 8
- They have unrealistic expectations about how they will do academically because high school is about tests and exams – not about projects.
I find it depressing that another high school teacher has told me that in the end, it doesn’t really matter what I teach them. I have to make sure they can sit still, take notes, be quiet, not interrupt with questions and just learn what “is going to be on the diploma.”
I’m on the front lines. One administrator supports me, one doesn’t. One high school teacher is interested in my thoughts but shrugs and says he can never do it because he has to make sure his students do well on diploma exams. He stands with the rest of the high school when he says it’s our duty to make sure these kids are ready for high school diploma exams since that is what “sets them up in life”.
I’ve been told that if I don’t give final exams they will not be prepared for the pressures of Grade 9 PAT’s and therefore will suffer in their marks. If I don’t give grades I’m doing my students an injustice because they will be shocked when they get to high school about where they truly stand. They will experience frustration, disappointment, and may be more likely to drop out (seriously, someone really told me that). Parents will be furious because they will find out for the first time their children are not actually the “good” students they thought they were in middle school.
I, however, am prepared to fight the battle. Twitter has connected me with other like- minded teachers, such as Joe Bower, and other professional education authors such as Alfie Kohn and Diane Ravitch. I may be an island within my school, but I am not alone in the profession.
Someone on twitter once told me that I am successful in life now because I knew how to take exams in high school and university. Well, if my Math Diploma mark, or the D+ I got on my first year philosophy course, or the C- I got in my introductory chemisty course are examples of the grades I had, then they had little to do with the success I am experiencing now.
What I struggle with now is how to fight within a system that has teachers and parents so entrenched in the idea that the grade on the report card determines everything. I got a 56% on my Math 30 diploma exam despite the fact that I had an 89% walking into that exam.
A grade does not determine who you are or what you are capable of.
Nor should it.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Alberta teacher excuses their child from PAT
This is a guest post by an anonymous teacher in Alberta who has chosen to opt their child out of writing the Provincial Achievement Test.
by Anonymous
Not My Child
As a teacher, I have witnessed a change in education. From the technology in the classroom to the pedagogy that has been developed to implement the changes, teachers have come a long way. One thing that hasn’t changed is the need for standardized testing to be used as a tool to assess how children are doing in classes.
In Alberta, the government mandates teachers to administer a standardized exam at the Grade 3, 6, and 9 level as well as a Grade 12 Diploma exam. This year I have had the opportunity to teach a 30 level class. To say the least, the stress on me has been great to get results that are on par with the Education Plan within the school. As an adult, I am used to these pressures but as I watch the kids that I teach lose sleep over an exam, I begin to wonder the value of the exam.
This year, my daughter went into Grade 3 carefree and loving school. I still think she does, but watching her this year I can see the passion for learning regressing. This is no fault of the teacher; a gentle and kind person who is ultimately being graded herself on the students' performance. I know that the powers that be are not looking at the results, but I will say when the results come into the school, the teachers are the first to look at them and be disappointed when their students don’t do as well as they hoped, and
then asked by administration how they can get those test scores higher.
There in lies the problem, who are these standardize exams for? Are they for the kids to see if they are meeting the standards or for the administration to see if their teachers are meeting the standards?
Minister of Education David Hancock said in a debate in March of 2009 over motion 503 (the elimination of PAT exams for Grade 3s) that teachers are in the best position to assess the learning and the progress of their students in the classroom. He goes further by explaining that teachers are trained professionals and that only they know the diversity and disparity of their classroom. In saying this the Minister is acknowledging the importance of teacher and more importantly that their assessment of their students needs to be trusted by all the stakeholders in education.
When I wrote my letter to the school on Sunday night excusing my daughter from her PAT this year, I thought long and hard what I wanted to say. I was torn between angry parent or tired teacher. The parent in me wanted to talk about the stress that has been placed on me and my child as we have prepared all year to write one exam on one day. The parent wanted to say that the build up to the exam has taken away from the fun of school. The parent wanted to say we should trust the teacher and her assessments of where my child is in Grade 3. The parent in me asked why my child has to be ranked so early in her learning career.
When I came to the teacher part, I saw the same arguments. I have been working so hard to get my students ready to write two exams in June that I have forgotten all about the fun of school. I am tired and stressed at the results that will come back in September and how I will rank within my department, and I wish the stakeholders would trust me and my assessment of their children in the classroom.
I excused my daughter from writing her Grade 3 PAT this year because it was the right thing for me to do. I trust the public education system and what it does in society. We are graduating young men and women who have had to write a story from a picture prompt or an essay from a quote. Unless they are aspiring to become a writer, how many jobs do you know that ask this of their employees? Maybe that is the final word here. If we can try to justify these exams as tools to assess, why are these exams not used in real life? I would love for the public to show me a standardized exam that they have to write for their job that begins with a picture prompt or a multiple choice question in order to test their knowledge. I would hate to know that the air traffic controller guessed on his multiple-choice exam that got him into the tower.
I don’t want my child ranked, a number in the system. I want her to be free to make her own choices in life, and one of the choices I have helped her with is for her not to write a Standardized Exam in Grade 3.
by Anonymous
Not My Child
As a teacher, I have witnessed a change in education. From the technology in the classroom to the pedagogy that has been developed to implement the changes, teachers have come a long way. One thing that hasn’t changed is the need for standardized testing to be used as a tool to assess how children are doing in classes.
In Alberta, the government mandates teachers to administer a standardized exam at the Grade 3, 6, and 9 level as well as a Grade 12 Diploma exam. This year I have had the opportunity to teach a 30 level class. To say the least, the stress on me has been great to get results that are on par with the Education Plan within the school. As an adult, I am used to these pressures but as I watch the kids that I teach lose sleep over an exam, I begin to wonder the value of the exam.
This year, my daughter went into Grade 3 carefree and loving school. I still think she does, but watching her this year I can see the passion for learning regressing. This is no fault of the teacher; a gentle and kind person who is ultimately being graded herself on the students' performance. I know that the powers that be are not looking at the results, but I will say when the results come into the school, the teachers are the first to look at them and be disappointed when their students don’t do as well as they hoped, and
then asked by administration how they can get those test scores higher.
There in lies the problem, who are these standardize exams for? Are they for the kids to see if they are meeting the standards or for the administration to see if their teachers are meeting the standards?
Minister of Education David Hancock said in a debate in March of 2009 over motion 503 (the elimination of PAT exams for Grade 3s) that teachers are in the best position to assess the learning and the progress of their students in the classroom. He goes further by explaining that teachers are trained professionals and that only they know the diversity and disparity of their classroom. In saying this the Minister is acknowledging the importance of teacher and more importantly that their assessment of their students needs to be trusted by all the stakeholders in education.
When I wrote my letter to the school on Sunday night excusing my daughter from her PAT this year, I thought long and hard what I wanted to say. I was torn between angry parent or tired teacher. The parent in me wanted to talk about the stress that has been placed on me and my child as we have prepared all year to write one exam on one day. The parent wanted to say that the build up to the exam has taken away from the fun of school. The parent wanted to say we should trust the teacher and her assessments of where my child is in Grade 3. The parent in me asked why my child has to be ranked so early in her learning career.
When I came to the teacher part, I saw the same arguments. I have been working so hard to get my students ready to write two exams in June that I have forgotten all about the fun of school. I am tired and stressed at the results that will come back in September and how I will rank within my department, and I wish the stakeholders would trust me and my assessment of their children in the classroom.
I excused my daughter from writing her Grade 3 PAT this year because it was the right thing for me to do. I trust the public education system and what it does in society. We are graduating young men and women who have had to write a story from a picture prompt or an essay from a quote. Unless they are aspiring to become a writer, how many jobs do you know that ask this of their employees? Maybe that is the final word here. If we can try to justify these exams as tools to assess, why are these exams not used in real life? I would love for the public to show me a standardized exam that they have to write for their job that begins with a picture prompt or a multiple choice question in order to test their knowledge. I would hate to know that the air traffic controller guessed on his multiple-choice exam that got him into the tower.
I don’t want my child ranked, a number in the system. I want her to be free to make her own choices in life, and one of the choices I have helped her with is for her not to write a Standardized Exam in Grade 3.
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