I understand...

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Home : 2008 : February : 19

I understand...
By TchrBlr

TeacherCarrie- you, so eloquently, put into words exactly the way I have felt this entire year. I too have been teaching 4th grade for 3 years now and this is the first year that I have tried to "go with the flow" and teach
the test like everyone else. I have never been so miserable and unhappy in my classroom.:(

I come from an Early Childhood Ed. background and I highly believe in developmentally appropriate, hands on, experimental, play to learn situations. But, I too have lower test scores. I have the least experience on our team of 5, and I know my teammates have been able to some-what strike

a balance, but I cannot simply skill and kill all of the time!:mad:

I know that I need to improve our practice on paper and homework review, and I am working on that. But I cannot, philosophically, allow myself to be sucked in to all the demands of testing. Unfortunately, my school is on strike 3 and we HAVE to pass the test, so I can't justify simply NOT teaching SOME of the test. I have been doing morning language warmups and math warmups in testing, bubble format. I teach testing strategies everyday through content subjects. But I will not throw out the curriculum or the discovery learning either. So we still apply "real world" learning through math and science.

I commend you for staying strong and true to your beliefs. It is important that we do not lose ourselves in the world of high stakes testing. I always try to be the teacher I would want my own children to have. Keep up the good work, you have nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty about. Test scores are not the ONLY indicator of a good student and certainly not those of an excellent teacher.