tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post8793351830687240272..comments2023-10-21T03:54:12.029-04:00Comments on A Gift Universe: Teaching to the testSheilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-64510864698820645082011-06-23T20:54:18.415-04:002011-06-23T20:54:18.415-04:00Yes, kids are very burned out. When I taught comb...Yes, kids are very burned out. When I taught combined first and second grade, I felt very sad. The first graders were full of excitement and so eager to learn. The second graders, though -- they dragged their feet. They cared about their grades. They freaked out about everything that might be a "test." Sometimes they would say that they hated school.<br /><br />There's a lot I could blame. Their parents put too much pressure on them to get good grades (like it matters at that age!) and they were naturally competitive. But I think more than anything else, it was how MUCH I had to teach them in one year and how little time they had to play. Why do seven-year-olds have to be in school for six hours a day? Why do they need homework? (Yes, I had to give them homework.) No wonder all they wanted was to get out and play!<br /><br />Something about school kills the excitement and love of learning that kids come in with. It's why I have no desire to stick with the system or send my kid(s) to school.Sheilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-9662046597419685682011-06-23T18:27:12.659-04:002011-06-23T18:27:12.659-04:00I could not agree with you more. I'm not a te...I could not agree with you more. I'm not a teacher, but as a parent I wish we had a more progressive academic system. I feel like we're burning kids out with testing and (insert problem here). Whatever happened to that excitement about learning that they start out with? We don't test them when they're taking their first steps but they still learn to walk, no?Sarah @ BecomingSarah.comhttp://www.becomingsarah.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-50070523253206789732011-06-23T07:04:27.151-04:002011-06-23T07:04:27.151-04:00The trouble is what you do with the other kids at ...The trouble is what you do with the other kids at the time. Teaching kids is a combination of teaching and babysitting, and I was always tied to the class schedule.<br /><br />Seeing as I was required to give four tests a year, and needed more for my own information (two months into the year is kind of late to fix a problem), it just would have been a time issue.<br /><br />I can see why they do that for PhDs, though. It's a much better way to assess someone's knowledge than a test is.<br /><br />When I was in high school we had pop oral quizzes often. The teacher would just go down the row and ask each of us a question. But the very notion of doing anything like that terrified my students to the point that I gave the idea up. They are just so trained into the cram-test cycle that it was very hard to break it.Sheilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-49147348468073049062011-06-22T23:10:21.045-04:002011-06-22T23:10:21.045-04:00This is why PhD.s are still awarded by oral examin...This is why PhD.s are still awarded by oral examination. It'd be nice to take just 15 minutes with each student and just converse with them on the curriculum --- or take two at a time, for half an hour, and watch the interaction carefully; although, with 120 students, that would get to be a great drag; 40 hours, altogether, with decent intervals. You'd have to take a week and give them each a day and a slot... on the other hand, how long would it take to grade an exam paper? (I'm quite slow at that sort of thing!)<br /><br />But, altogether, I don't know!some guy on the streethttp://epistle-null.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com