One of my little boys gave me a book called "Life's Little Book of Encouragement for Teachers" when he moved away. It is filled with quotes and I love looking through it. My two favorites are:
"As a general rule, teachers teach more by what they are than by what they say."--Anoynomous
--I like this because teachers are role-models for children and we should be role-modeling positive things for our kids.
"The work can wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work."--Patricia Clafford
---I love this quote because I feel like parents and even teachers get too busy at times with work and telling kids different things they should be doing. We all need to just take some time and slow down and enjoy the world around us.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
My Personal Birth Experience!!
At the beginning of this course, we were asked to talk about a personal birth experience and I now have one to share! On Feb. 20th, my newest niece, Chyler was born and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. My sister was having a c-section, so my mom and I went down a few days early to help her and her husband prepare the house and help take of the little girls. My sister and her husband went in very early on Monday morning and we took the girls up to the hospital about the time that my sister was having her c-section. By the time we got up there, Chyler was in the nursery and my other nieces were so excited! They were smiling ear to ear and jumping up and down when they saw her. The nurse in was wonderful and let the girls help her wheel the baby back to my sister. They were so proud!! I loved being able to be a part of it and share in their joy! They live about 8 hours from me, so it was much more special to be here in person than through phone calls. I've loved every minute of it and I am so excited to share the pictures of all of my nieces. I do not have my own children yet, so these little girls are my pride and joy!!!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Thank you to all of you for a wonderful course!!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of the great comments on my blog and for taking the time to read what I have written. I enjoyed being in this course with all of you and wish everyone well in their future courses!!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Assessments in Europe
I wanted to focus on the Italian school system because ever since I visited there last year, I feel in love with the country and the way they live their lives over there. I had a hard time finding information beyond the early childhood years for schooling and assessment in Italy, but what I did find was very interesting.
-Pre-primary school has become a right of all children of Italy and 90% of 3-5 year olds are going to one of three kinds of early childhood school offered in Italy
-Parental participation is huge in Italy. A big part of Italian culture focuses on social relationships and children are very important part of those relationships. Parents and teachers create close relationships and, according to the article, sometimes parents are so involved that they continue their involvement with the school even after the child has gone on to another school. It also said that sometimes parents peak in the windows of the school to make sure the children are ok.
-Italians feel it is a social responsibility to teach children and they believe in high quality early childhood care and education
As I was looking for more information on primary schools in Italy, I came across a very interesting article about England and the testing that occurs there. Apparently, according to the article, tests are used to "police schoools and control what is taught." The tests hold schools accountable and they can very stressful for children. According to the article, children in England face the most tests during schooling than other countries in Europe. The article also listed some facts about a few other countries in Europe:
France
-Schools test facts and skills, but there isn't much formal testing and there isn't much stress put on students
Italy
-one test per subject per term. When it is time for the GCSE exams, children are given long breaks, but the tests are very stressful
Germany
-5-6 year olds-no testing done. Children are just "graded" on their behavior
-At age 7-there is continuous assessment and by 10-11 these test decide which secondary school the child will attend
It was really interesting to look at all of these countries. I see a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences too. While we have stressful testing of students, a test doesn't decide which secondary school you attend. To me, that seems harsh, but then again, maybe children would take tests more seriously if it actually accounted for something.
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/new.html -Italian preschools article
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/our-children-tested-to-destruction-779790.html ---Article about the UK and other European countries
-Pre-primary school has become a right of all children of Italy and 90% of 3-5 year olds are going to one of three kinds of early childhood school offered in Italy
-Parental participation is huge in Italy. A big part of Italian culture focuses on social relationships and children are very important part of those relationships. Parents and teachers create close relationships and, according to the article, sometimes parents are so involved that they continue their involvement with the school even after the child has gone on to another school. It also said that sometimes parents peak in the windows of the school to make sure the children are ok.
-Italians feel it is a social responsibility to teach children and they believe in high quality early childhood care and education
As I was looking for more information on primary schools in Italy, I came across a very interesting article about England and the testing that occurs there. Apparently, according to the article, tests are used to "police schoools and control what is taught." The tests hold schools accountable and they can very stressful for children. According to the article, children in England face the most tests during schooling than other countries in Europe. The article also listed some facts about a few other countries in Europe:
France
-Schools test facts and skills, but there isn't much formal testing and there isn't much stress put on students
Italy
-one test per subject per term. When it is time for the GCSE exams, children are given long breaks, but the tests are very stressful
Germany
-5-6 year olds-no testing done. Children are just "graded" on their behavior
-At age 7-there is continuous assessment and by 10-11 these test decide which secondary school the child will attend
It was really interesting to look at all of these countries. I see a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences too. While we have stressful testing of students, a test doesn't decide which secondary school you attend. To me, that seems harsh, but then again, maybe children would take tests more seriously if it actually accounted for something.
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/new.html -Italian preschools article
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/our-children-tested-to-destruction-779790.html ---Article about the UK and other European countries
How should children be measured and assessed?
Assessment is such a huge part of a 7-11 year olds life due to No Child Left Behind. It is because of this that schools have been pushed to teach towards a test and make sure child pass this test, so that they do not lose funding for their schools. All children in schools, even ESL and Special Education students will soon be required to receive a passing grade on these tests or funds could be lost.
To me it really makes no sense at all. When I was doing a long-term sub position for 8th grade English, ISAT testing was coming up and everyday the principal would come visit me to see what kinds of things we were doing to prep for the tests. It was the only time he ever came to visit our room while I was there. Too much importance is placed on these tests and it stresses out administrators, teachers and children.
There are many problems I see with standardized tests (multiply choice, fill in the bubble). The first is, what if a child is learning English as a second language? There is a lot of cultural bias in standardized tests. There may be vocabulary on the test the child is unfamiliar with or whole sentences they may not understand. How is a child going to do well on this test and how is that even fair to the child?
The second part of standardized testing that I do not like is that it teaches memorization of facts and nothing else. Children do not know how to apply what they've learned to real life situations. Just because a child does well on a test, doesn't necessary make them smart and if they do poorly, it doesn't mean they are dumb. What if they didn't sleep enough the night before or simply, do not care?
The third thing I do not like about standardized testing is that social studies is completely left out of these tests (at least in Illinois it is). Part of my passion for this lies in the fact that I majored in Social Sciences in undergrad, but isn't it important to understand our location in the world and the affects we have on others, among other things? This information is completely left off of standardized tests. There is also no part for testing social skills, which is really important, especially for children 7-11 years old.
Now that I'm done ranting about my dislike for standardized testing, there are some ideas I have about methods of assessment that can be available for children. Gardner discusses multiple intelligences and I truly believe in these and think that assessments should be made available that fall under all of these intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. An assessment you could do is allow children the choice of working individually or with a group. If they choose to take the assessment on their own, it can be a standard logical test. If they choose to work in a group, this covers intrapersonal and interpersonal because the children have to work together as a group and also find their role in the group. Then you give the children a choice of how they will complete the assessment. They have to act out something, they could make up a song or dance number or create something, such as a diorama that explains what they have learned. All of the learning styles are covered, so each child could choose how they best learn and you would still have a way to assess each child.
For children that are not to the age yet of going this in depth on an assessment, I do not really feel any standard assessment is necessary. Allow the child to play and move freely within their own environment and observe them. A teacher will learn a lot through these observations and you will get to see what the child excels in and what they are struggling with. Through these observations, you can formulate goals and a plan of action to help the child learn to their full potential.
To me it really makes no sense at all. When I was doing a long-term sub position for 8th grade English, ISAT testing was coming up and everyday the principal would come visit me to see what kinds of things we were doing to prep for the tests. It was the only time he ever came to visit our room while I was there. Too much importance is placed on these tests and it stresses out administrators, teachers and children.
There are many problems I see with standardized tests (multiply choice, fill in the bubble). The first is, what if a child is learning English as a second language? There is a lot of cultural bias in standardized tests. There may be vocabulary on the test the child is unfamiliar with or whole sentences they may not understand. How is a child going to do well on this test and how is that even fair to the child?
The second part of standardized testing that I do not like is that it teaches memorization of facts and nothing else. Children do not know how to apply what they've learned to real life situations. Just because a child does well on a test, doesn't necessary make them smart and if they do poorly, it doesn't mean they are dumb. What if they didn't sleep enough the night before or simply, do not care?
The third thing I do not like about standardized testing is that social studies is completely left out of these tests (at least in Illinois it is). Part of my passion for this lies in the fact that I majored in Social Sciences in undergrad, but isn't it important to understand our location in the world and the affects we have on others, among other things? This information is completely left off of standardized tests. There is also no part for testing social skills, which is really important, especially for children 7-11 years old.
Now that I'm done ranting about my dislike for standardized testing, there are some ideas I have about methods of assessment that can be available for children. Gardner discusses multiple intelligences and I truly believe in these and think that assessments should be made available that fall under all of these intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. An assessment you could do is allow children the choice of working individually or with a group. If they choose to take the assessment on their own, it can be a standard logical test. If they choose to work in a group, this covers intrapersonal and interpersonal because the children have to work together as a group and also find their role in the group. Then you give the children a choice of how they will complete the assessment. They have to act out something, they could make up a song or dance number or create something, such as a diorama that explains what they have learned. All of the learning styles are covered, so each child could choose how they best learn and you would still have a way to assess each child.
For children that are not to the age yet of going this in depth on an assessment, I do not really feel any standard assessment is necessary. Allow the child to play and move freely within their own environment and observe them. A teacher will learn a lot through these observations and you will get to see what the child excels in and what they are struggling with. Through these observations, you can formulate goals and a plan of action to help the child learn to their full potential.
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