testing 1...2...3...

This week did Sage Testing. Basically, it is an end of the year writing test that measures how well a student understood the standards for that year. We are doing the writing portion in February. I will say that again. The end of the level testing is done in February. This makes no sense to me. How can you test the knowledge of students at an end of the year level standard when they have only completed half of the year? It blows my mind.

So that is why for the past few weeks, I have only been focusing on ways to help them on the test. Last minute prep sort of stuff. While important, it has taken the fun out of teaching English for me. Through all my methods classes, I was taught to teach in context. In other words, if I am teaching a class novel, the activities and lessons and learning are intertwined with what we are reading. I see it as a sneaky way to have students learn. They learn how to write arguments by tracing symbols in a piece of literature and giving their claim, evidence and reasoning. It seems more fun when attached to literature.

But I have not had the opportunity to do that for the first half of the term because I have had to focus solely on the testing. Needless to say, I am excited for next week and the weeks to come. I get to dive into the book and teach principles and incorporate the literature in my lessons. I will get to have discussions about the book and what the students are thinking.

I am not saying that only focusing on testing is a bad thing; it is just not what I see myself when I think of having my own classroom. If I can focus on the core standards and incorporate those into my lessons, then the students should be fine when it comes to the test.

This week, I had my first parent-teacher conferences! I was not as scared as I thought. I realized that my grades were justified and I really only had good things to say about my students. I will admit that sometimes I could not place a face with a name. There are a few things I could improve for next time:

• bring my seating chart.
• That way when I am faced with the dilemma of not knowing the face of the named child, I can quickly look and recall information about them
• bring a laptop
• This way I could access grades, attendance, and other important items I could need.
• post-its
• Luckily, my cooperating teacher had some. This is great for making notes that I can stick directly in the gradebook so I can remember and forget what I talked about.
• writing more detailed notes
• I always think I will remember, but chances are I will not.

Those are just a few things I noticed how I can improve for my next parent-teacher conferences. I did not have any parent yell at me, nor did I offend any parent...I hope.

This week was good in showing me the testing side of teaching. I have only experienced teaching at a student level, so it was pretty eye-opening to see the teacher side. It is quite mind-numbingly boring. But it is all part of the experience.