Do You Have A 21st Century Brain?

Thought this was intriguing. It comes via the website "Big Think." This is Princeton Neuroscientist Sam Wang answering some probing questions about how we think about learning and knowledge in the 21st Century.

Do They Know?

I heard a colleague and friend of mine, a fifth grade teacher, comment to another in passing it was her least favorite day of the school year Friday. This past Friday marked the end of the first round of the NC End of Grade Tests, and the results were back. Teachers conducted one-on-one conferences with their students to share their results, and followed up with phone calls to their parents. 

In the last two posts I've discussed thoughts about our effectiveness as educators, and the mind set pertaining to whether standardized testing results tell us if we've prepared students to be lifelong learners, to think critically, creatively, and work cooperatively. As I left school Friday afternoon I fully understood where my colleague was mentally and emotionally. The push to get to and through EOG testing was draining enough, and pouring over the results was mind-numbing. I have questions.

Do those who set assessment policy know...

• what kind of pressure teachers put on themselves in preparation for these tests?
  
• how much time is spent on "assessment," and the preparation for it, rather than actual teaching?
  
• how much school personnel are reconfigured and school-wide routines disrupted?
  
• how much principals, assistant principals, and curriculum coordinators worry? 
  
• what kind of stress students exhibit during this period (sometimes to the point of illness)?
  
• that at no other time do we ask students to sit still and perfectly silent for long periods, an environment almost totally foreign to them and "uncomfortable?" 
  
• how many teardrops fall, sometimes even before students hear their actual results?
  
• how much impact this process has on students' feelings of efficacy (both positive and negative)?
  

Just asking the questions?

Mind Set

This post piggybacks on my last, which I had hoped would have drawn more comments. We are very appreciative of the two insights we did receive. We welcome more. It also draws from other blog posts which come courtesy of Will Richardson and his blog "Weblogg-ed."
A friend and colleague of mine called my attention to the first of two Richardson posts I want to reference in this one. It was Richardson's "Quote of the Month," and it resonated with me because of my own reflections on my effectiveness as an educator. Richardson pulled the quote from Education Week's article called "Bridging Differences."
The subtitle for this letter of response is "Test Scores and Reinforcing the Wrong Connections."

The writer is Deborah Meier:
"As long as we use test scores as our primary evidence for being poorly educated we reinforce the connection—and the bad teaching to which it leads. If by some course of action we could get everyone's score the same—even by cheating—I’d be for it, so we could get on to discussing the interactions that matter in classrooms and schools: between “I, Thou, and It.” I’ve spent 45 years trying, unsuccessfully, to shift the discussion to schools as sites for learning. Such a “conversation” might not produce economic miracles, but it would over time connect schooling to the kind of learning that can protect both democracy and our economy. Because that’s where schools are (or are not) powerful."

Whoa!
BTW - I'm not proposing or supporting cheating. Those are Meier's words.

Richardson followed on May 6 by blogging in "Wanted: School Chief Learning Officer" that he had recently asked a school superintendent - "What percentage of the teachers at your school do a good job of preparing kids to take meet the requirements, pass the tests, and get prepared for college, and what percentage do a good job of teaching them how to learn?"
The response he received was - “I think 90 percent of my staff is really good at delivering the goods, but only about 10 percent really get student centered, inquiry driven, lifelong learning.”
I would have hoped for the inverse, but Richardson's point was, "how much more we could do in emphasizing the process of learning as well, not just for students, but for everyone in the school."

At this time of year we play the numbers game with standardized testing - the preparing for and administering of it. And I'll reiterate that accountability is necessary and ultimately good. But I fear that we sometimes miss the point of it all when we struggle so hard to get our students to "earn" that number. If we let it all end with the formal test result have we truly prepared our students to be lifelong learners, and to think critically, creatively, or cooperatively? All educators have to answer that question for themselves.

As for me, I think it's the teaching between the testing that gets our students to that point of learning how to learn. That's how it connects with what we have started at our school with this Teach21 initiative. Most, if not all of the kinds of activities we have looked at, implemented, and planned for future use requires our students to think critically, creatively, cooperatively. And I believe it has started to connect our teachers as well. What we are doing requires a certain mind set. I see my role in all this should be to support, encourage, research, and collaborate with all my colleagues. That's where I hope my career is headed. To facilitate means to make easier.

Until our measures of accountability change we will continue to prepare our students for the test as best we can. Whatever the method, I just hope we look at what it really tells us, and keep it all in perspective. Teachers - value those moments of teaching between the testing. Students - good luck with the testing!

Photo by Sidereal via Flickr

How Do You Measure Your Effectiveness

It's that time of year again. The final push in the marathon school year that ends with North Carolina's End of Grade Tests. I always have a mood change when the stress of the daily grind takes over at this time of year. I asked myself, "Why am I feeling this way?" I have some ideas.

This mood hit full force this morning on the way to work when I realized that most of my Wednesday afternoon would be reserved for test administrator training. That's usually a 2-hour or so ordeal where we go over things like the Testing Code of Ethics (again - and yes it's important), and dissect the test administrator's manual. Highlighters whiz across pages at breakneck speed and we all pay special attention to all the warnings and directions about how to administer these assessments reliably and ethically.

I fully understand assessment is necessary, and accountability is ultimately a good thing. Every business has it, and education needs it too. It's just that I have an issue with what our method really tells us at the end of the year.

This morning I was helping third grade students take multiple choice test items using ClassScape. Teachers can pull test items by state goal and create assessments that return detailed data about what students answered correctly and incorrectly. It's a powerful tool that lets us as educators know how our students are doing and what we need to review and reteach. It's basically an EOG test on the computer. Usually, when our students come to the lab I see a little excitement in their eyes and motivated pupils who know we're going to do something creative and "cool." Today, the reaction was just the opposite. That reaction was powerful too.

I can't answer for for anyone except myself, but I know I got into education because I wanted to make a difference. I know that's cliche', but it's accurate. I believe most good educators got into the business for this reason as well. But what does that look like? How do we define and assess the difference we made at the student level like we attempt to using standardized test scores?

The fact is - I don't think we do, and that leaves me with an empty feeling.

At the end of the year all we are left with are rosters with scaled scores, percentages, breakdowns, and roman numerals. That doesn't tell me enough about my effectiveness as an educator.

I'd like to know that I helped develop more than a good test taker, but helped develop the whole child. I'd like to be able to look at my rosters and say, I helped motivate a child when there was little motivation. I'd like to know I taught students successfully to understand and accept classmates that were different with different opinions. I'd like to know if what I taught was clearly conveyed as necessary for successful living. That list goes on, but you get the point.

I want to try something different with our students using our teaching blog at the end of this year by allowing them to reflect on their school year and see what they can convey about what they have learned. I'm still working on the prompt, but at least I will have an assessment of sorts that is bigger than any scaled score. The responses will be valuable because the students will define the assessment by reflecting on what was significant to them. It won't be constricted to an A,B,C, D answer on a bubble sheet. I don't think students reflect enough, and that is a valuable lifelong skill to master. Of that I am sure.

Help me, if you will, shape this prompt. How do we as educators measure our authentic effectiveness?

Catching "Chocolate Fever"

After our video conference with author Robert Kimmel Smith (Chocolate Fever) the students had so much to say about their experience. Each student felt that they had a personal connection with this author, the world of books, and even publishing. They gained a personal insight into the world of literature that you don't get from just reading a book and writing a book report. I have asked my students to share their reflections about our video conference and how it made reading this book a very personal experience.
From a teachers perspective I feel that the little bit of time that I spent getting this experience set up was so worth it. To get ready Robert Kimmel Smith and I had a "practice" skype session to see how everything would work. This was new for him too since he had just gotten a new computer with a web cam. Once we were both comfortable with the logistics we were ready to set a date and time for the video conference. I then emailed him the questions that the students had written so that he would know the things the students wanted to ask. Since this was the first skype experience for the students as well we then set up a practice skype session. I took the class into a classroom with a web cam and my fellow teacher Ms. "A" was in another classroom in the school that also had a web cam. We "skyped" from one classroom to the other! The students loved seeing themselves on the screen and had to get all the wiggles out! They practiced reading their questions and then were ready for the big day. During the next week every time I saw one of these students in the hallway they would ask, "Are we going to skype today?" Over and over I continued to hear this question! Eventually the big day came and they could hardly contain their excitement! Once the video conference began the students were so engaged! They were having a real life experience with a book that I bet they will remember forever! See what one of our colleagues said about this experience on her blog "Technology" (Image from Madeleine_'s Photostream via Flickr)