Blog #4

Currently I am teaching 7th and 8th grade science and advanced science. For my 7th graders I use the McDougal Little module series and for the 8th graders I use the Glenco module series. After reading chapter 2 from Slattery I am taken aback on how easily my teaching experience has become a victim of teaching to the test. Thanks to Tyler ever lesson I write and assessment I create is delineated from his magic curricula formula to answer the essential four questions of lesson development. Through this reflection I feel that instead of creating critical thinkers, which all along I claim to be my objective, I fear I am creating limited thinkers who will take their experiences within my classroom and soon forget them. Unfortunately with the proverbial elephant in the room called "accountability," many of the discovery projects I use to incorporate throughout the year within the science curriculum have been replaced with OAA prep material. Perhaps this is one reason why I have gone back to school to get another degree, some of the joy of teaching has been lost, and unforeseen is the loss of the joy of learning. Perhaps we should return to the days of Dewy where the notion of curriculum is the experience of the individual should be more thoroughly investigated. Experience is basis of true learning and the standardized tests are not based on experience they are based on an individuals ability to decipher information. If we really wanted to test what children have learned they would be able to take the test periodically thought out the year until they pass it, mastery learning what a concept ;-) Students do not have uniform experiences throughout their life and to test them all on the same scale is absurd. That being said, possibly I need to rethink bring the joy of experience back into the classroom and put the OAA prep materials to the side to see if love of learning will make the difference.