A perpetual teaching struggle but especially this time of year: the classroom that prepares students for success on standardized assessments + the classroom that prepares students with skills and mindsets they need moving forward? Two very different classrooms.
@MarcusLuther6 College educators come on this app every day and tell us that students aren’t prepared to do the critical thinking college requires. We have to be honest about what we sacrifice when students are “prepared” to test well standardly, but not prepared to think at a higher level.
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 It’s weird. You read about a professor having a personal gripe. As a K-12 teacher, I think, why don’t you just tell them on syllabus day, here’s how I want it done, there’s a link in the syllabus showing you how and things you submit that don’t conform won’t be graded. 🤷🏼♂️
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 Idk but HS teachers, especially good English teachers, DEFINITELY prepare their students to be communicatively well rounded AND to be prepared for standardized testing... I know I did. Now that I teach ES, I can say that a lot of issues students have began sooner than later.
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 Yes, and…I’m an asst. prof now, former MS math teacher - I push back on that in my dept. Name a time they WERE prepared & what could they do? What can Ss do now that’s new & important? Would YOU (prof) say you are preparing Ss the best you ever have? It’s always last year’s Ts.
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 And no wonder what the companies tell us, standardized tests neither measure nor reward that kind of critical thinking.
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 I truly stopped caring about testing. My students need to be able to think and explain their thoughts. A standardized test doesn’t do that. I have argued with admin about it and will continue to aim more for critical thinking. Otherwise, what are we doing?
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 I feel like, if they aren’t prepared, it’s my job to prepare them. It’s really hard to teach criticality to preservice teachers because they’ve been socialized into test prep schooling, but it’s part of my job to break the socialization in whatever ways I can.
@heymrsbond @MarcusLuther6 Great discussion of this major paradox @MarcusLuther6 and @heymrsbond It is something we are trying to transform in our Master of Science in Biomedical Science #BMSC program at @WFUbiomedgrad @wakeforestmed Asking the question: How can we empower students to have both?