Testing

It is the archaic question, are we testing our students too much? With the new push to have data to analyze, we find ourselves giving our students massive amounts of tests and quizzes.  I often struggle with whether to give my students multiple small tests or 1 big test.  The benefit of multiple small tests is their average won't be effected if they do poorly one day.  Moreover, I can pinpoint exactly what they are struggling with and not have to set up an entire day to analyze data. BUT that means I am giving my students a test every couple of days or weeks.  If I give the students 1 big test, then what if they are having a bad day or something happened at home before they came to school?  Moreover, the big tests are at the end of unit which is also when the district gives their tests.  I also worry about creating test anxiety with my students.  I don't want them to stress out over a test that isn't going to matter in a year.  SO what do I do?  Give them multiple small tests which takes up instruction, or give them 1 big test that creates anxiety?

Google Docs in the Classroom

I have started using Google Docs in the classroom.  Slowly, I am convincing my teammates to join me in this adventure.  The students are excited but when they go home they often encounter problems.  This combined with a lack of understanding from some parents causes a lot of emails after school hours.  So! I created a How To PDF that I am sending home with students that parents will have to sign.  Hopefully this will solve a lot of problems...It is translated into Spanish, but the I found the translations on Google Translate, so they may not be accurate...

The decision to stay in the classroom or to get out...

               This is my third year teaching in a 6th grade classroom.  This is also my third year of working on a team where I was the youngest and most inexperienced member.  I knew going in to this profession, that the burnout rate was/is high.  I knew that there was/is a lot of discontent in the educational profession.  As many non-educators say, teachers are under-paid and under-appreciated.  However, as most teachers say we are overworked and understaffed.  The reason why I make the distinct difference between the two supporters is that teachers knew going in that we weren't going to be paid a lot.  I don't know any teacher that got into the profession thinking they were going to make enough money to live comfortably.  The truth is we need to be married, live with a roommate, or work another job to make ends meet.  We also knew going in that we will rarely EVER meet a child or a parent that appreciates the amount of work we do.  Because frankly, NO ONE except a fellow teacher knows how much work WE ACTUALLY DO.  I don't know any good teacher that comes in 5 minutes before the students get there, looks at their pacing guide, goes ok...this is the lesson I will teach today, and then leaves 5 minutes after the students leave.  THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY.  What about the copies? What about the presentation (smart board, PowerPoint, Elmo, etc.)? What about the GRADING? What about the numerous phone calls to administrators, parents, colleagues, human resources, etc.? WHAT ABOUT THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF EMAILS YOU GET IN ONE DAY? What about the fact that we are the only profession that cannot just call out sick? Even when we are sick we have to prepare for it.
            This amount of work makes me think about the discussion that I constantly hear from my colleagues:  Should I stay in the classroom?  What can I do to lessen my workload? It is depressing to hear my teammates talk about how if they were looking to get into education now they wouldn't do it. I even had a teammate tell her daughter to not pursue becoming a teacher because it is too much work and not worth it. This was a teacher that had taught for over 20 years! With these new forced collaborative meetings, data dialogues, data analysis, data walls, data discussions, and harder end of year assessments, teachers are left feeling ineffective.  Does all the work we do even matter?  This amount of extra work that is being added each month forces good teachers out of the classroom.  I have seen effective teachers that love being with students, thrive on planning innovative, hands-on lessons, just not be able to do it anymore.  Instead they go into being an instructional coach, administrator, school based technology teachers, etc. just so they can still be with students but not have to do all of the extra work that being a classroom teacher entails.  This leaves all of the teachers that are either trying to survive or fly under the radar.  So this leads me to my ultimate question:  IF all this extra work is supposed to help students succeed, why is it pushing effective teachers out of the door?

Talking: What Do I Do?

I have noticed that with my 6th graders if I say, "this assignment is individual, please do not talk." They will always end up talking and I will always end up shooshing them.  However, if I tell my students, "you may work together on this assignment, please share your ideas,"  they rarely, if ever talk.  So what do I do?  If  I say they cannot talk when I want them to talk they are going to think that I am not true to my word or that it is okay to talk at inappropriate times.  What should I do?

Pictures

When I travel, I often find myself thinking about ways that I can incorporate what I am seeing/doing into my lessons to make them more engaging.  This mindset further shows that teaching is not a 9-5 job. I recently traveled to Arizona and had the fortune to visit a cave dwelling (a topic that is covered in my 6th grade Social Studies curriculum.) Taking some real life pictures allowed me to use them in my morning message and discuss the Pueblo Indians in an authentic way. Having this rich discussion got me thinking, with a simple picture I was able to reinforce S.S. ideas that the students will be tested on, I shared a part of my travels, and I showed students that learning continues after you leave school.  Moreover, it added spice to my morning message.  Before we even discussed it, the students were standing around and discussing what the pictures were and what they could see in it.  It was one of those golden teachable moments that unintentionally happen that I will spend all year trying to recreate.