Hi :) It's Wednesday... my longest day. I'm exhausted and still have a week and a half until Spring Break. But we are in the middle of an AWESOME Oregon Trail unit that the kids are LOVING and it's honestly what is getting me (and them) through.
This time of the school year is difficult for all teachers. The state tests are looming and the staff lounge is abuzz with all sorts of stress and ideas on how to make sure our kids are ready. See, at this point, our jobs don't depend on how our kids do on these tests. But there is talk of making it that way. I'm not saying I'm for or against that (that's a completely different discussion). I'm just saying that we, as teachers, are working our asses off to prepare these kids for these tests, which don't actually measure the important things about the children we work with (i.e. growth over the year, compassion, the ability to work well with others, flexibility, creativity). And yet, we are still judged based on how our test scores come out.
I've talked to multiple people lately who have mentioned that they looked at test scores in order to choose the right school for their child. No judgement. However, it cut pretty deep to know that people assume that if test scores are bad, their kids won't get what they need. People assume that if test scores are bad, teachers aren't doing their job? I know for a fact that there are teachers that aren't doing their job, and that fact infuriates me. But don't assume that the test scores are a great measure of the quality of teachers that are in your local school.
Maybe I'm just grumpy and tired. But I'm interested in your thoughts on this. What do you know about it? What's your experience with it?
To make sure I end on a high note... I have to celebrate the fact that one of my kids, who isn't a native English speaker and who hasn't hardly written ANYTHING all year, wrote an ESSAY today! Bravo, munchkin. You are what is so delicious about this job.
