This one has been around a bit, but worth sharing. It hits home right now as my daughter struggles through a slew of classes that seem to define her based on test scores. She’s more than that and it’s heartbreaking to see the impact.
http://youtube=http://youtu.be/D-eVF_G_p-Y
I don’t recall having a special supervisor for showers in middle school, or Junior High as it was sensibly called. The school was Ben Franklin, a typical post-war educational youth-storage bin.
-James Lileks
Loved this James Lileks quote about his junior high.
Another blog post — this one from a principal – about the value (or, lack thereof) standardized tests:
State Assessments Tell Schools, Students and Parents Nothing
He focuses on New York. Is it any different in Minnesota? Are the MAP/NWEA tests any different?
My daughter despises her science classes at school. She’s never liked them. I had assumed it was the subject. But I’m not so sure.
Turns out she watches science videos on YouTube — for fun. For example, she loves the ASAP Science Series. Go ahead – watch and test your hearing.
Maybe it’s not the subject so much as the atmosphere….. Filling in the bubbles on tests, memorizing a bunch of random information and having to write meticulous, pre-scripted lab reports isn’t exactly exciting.
I recently heard that our school district will be rolling out blogs for principals! I’m very excited for this change – it represents a complete shift in openness and communication style.
I ran across an excellent post by George Courous, “Isolation is Now a Choice Educators Make” about why principals should blog. As I’m sure some of the principals aren’t so sure about this new tool, I wish I could send them all to George’s blog, and this one post in particular,
An excellent concept for principals reluctant to make this change:
Blogging is an opportunity to open the doors to our classroom.
Hopefully, they want to open those doors.
George also discusses how blogging has opened his world. I saw this in action at the recent TEDxBurnsvilleED event I attended. He tweeted about how blogging is so important. It was obvious that many of those in attendance knew about George from his blog, and he was so enthusiastic to talk to everyone. Blogging has become key to his professional development, and I would concur. Hopefully these principals new to blogging find that as well. And, hopefully, the district is preparing them to make this transition!
In November 2013, I presented at the Museum Computer Network conference about helping museums learn to meet the changing learning for 21st century learners. My panel colleague is Darren Milligan of the Smithsonian.
I’m posting this not so you watch but so I can find this video easily as it is a handy reference for my work. (I mostly reference Darren’s talk, not mine!)
My Wired Life 