Teaching the kids not to the test

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Home : 2008 : February : 19

Teaching the kids not to the test
By angel77

This has been one of my greatest concerns. Learning should be enjoyable, should make an impact on the child. Children should look forward to coming to school. What has happened to sponteneity, to fun, to creativity?
Teaching
to the test, as many teachers must do because their principals are adamant that TEST SCORES MUST GO UP!!!, is deadly for little ones.
Here in Ontario we have the Grade 3 and Grade 6 assessments, done in May and held over 5 days.
We have 3 workshops leading up to this for teachers and reams of paper and staff meetings before and after the test on comparing our scores to

the board and province.
These are 8 year old kids being tested! I can still remember a child looking up at me and asking why I couldn't help her - I was a teacher wasn't I?
We know who our weak students are. Must we make them feel even worse when they have to write these tests?
Why can't we spend the money on more teachers, aides and books? What a novel idea!
the amount of money spent on creating, printing, marking and summarizing these tests is incredible.
Sorry - better get off my rant now!