As a teacher that is one of the most annoying thing you can hear “Test? What Test?” I have just been talking aobut it for days now, hello?! Lately “assessments” and “tests” have been on my mind. Not the big standardized ones (boooo) but the every week/day types of assessment. Last week while sitting in my daughter’s gymnastics class, the older class was stretching and the group of girls were talking about school, they all went to the same one. They did not like their 6th grade science teacher (gasp, I am sure my kids don’t always like me, it is 6th grade lol) and were talking about how stupid she was.  This caught my attention. What makes this teacher so stupid was “I made Cs on both of my tests but I have an A in her class.” That made me laugh because I may also be an idiot too if the gymnastics girls were to judge me. I may not have students with Cs on test with As, but I know for a fact I have plenty with Fs on tests that have C averages.

Well here is how and why this “stupid” teacher has grades this way. A test happens one day out of the 2 to 4 weeks I spend on a unit. During that unit kids make graphic organizers about what they know. They participate in class discussions, peer discussions, and sometimes lead discussions. Students make posters, vote on edmodo, draw pictures, present information to the class. You cannot do any of this without knowing the material. Duh! Well sometimes students try to do it without doing more than copying or reading from a text book, but they learn fast they will have to redo. A test is just one day, yes it is used to summarize all the information from the unit, but I can prove piece by piece they know or do not know the material. Everyone has had a bad day or have been distracted so this test is not a good measure of an entire year. Plus t has happened more than once a student makes As on tests but Ds in a class – any one can memorize a study guide but not have a clue what it is about!

To use more than a test to assess students takes time and creativity, but you know sometimes a “test” with flour and a rock can sometimes be more accurate than a pen and pencil test.

Today I read this article on how Obama is linking problems with our economy to education. It caught my attention because my last post kinda said that as well. BUT these posts are a lot different. According to Obama, our job shortage is causing our economic issues. Ok I’m agreeing so far, it’s this next part that is causing me to scratch my head. He is saying that jobs are going over seas because other countries are passing us in education. Um I’m sorry Mr. President. The jobs in America are not going elsewhere because of advanced education in these countries. When was last time you bought something made in Finland. I will admit that while jobs are going to China and China (Shanghai & Hong Kong) are tops in education (here is a list of countries) but I’m sure not much in my house was made in Finland. Or Poland or Iceland or even Estonia for that matter. If it is from Italy it has to do with fashion and not cheap!

Companies are outsourcing to India or Mexico. The US is ranked 20th among the world in education, Mexico 51 & India is not even on the lost of top 68. We are outsourcing because it is cheap labor. We are outsourcing because so many people in those countries are being trained to work on assembly lines and not question authority. Um HELLO isn’t that what we don’t want education to focus on??

Education’s focus right now needs to be guiding students to be problem solvers, idea planters, learners, not assembly line workers for the lowest price. Education needs to be creating CEOs & entrepreneurs not better test takers. We are finally moving away from “sit in rows, listen, be completely compliant” classrooms (or I hope so!!) and now we hear we are a doomed country because of this?

I’m glad money may be pumped into education but don’t just make up a reason. Do it so we can be a country that leads the world in innovation. Yes I believe that trade jobs are important and needed for the US to operate but that does not need to be the norm nor the goal. In his plan he says money will go to hiring more teachers & repairs of buildings. I hope that is right. I also hope technology goes along with those repairs and hope teacher training goes along with the new teachers. Mr. President, the teachers you have today aren’t teachers so they can teach to tests & create a compliant generation. Teachers are teachers to change our future. Remember that before you start suggesting otherwise.

***To those leaving comments (which is always welcome): If there is no “anti-spam” word when leaving a comment, click “change users” next to the comment box. I will show the :anti-spam” word! I do not understand why it does this.***

Lately I had been reading and reflecting on post about “21st century” schools & learning. Two post that really stood out lately were Seth Godin’s Back to (the wrong) School post and Akevy Gleenblatt’s post about how tech does not equal 21st century learning. These post really have really have had me thinking about our society and wondering if it would be different if schools had been different in the past. I hated school growing up. I am not a very compliant person plus add to the fact that I have very strong opinions about things and I was a teachers worse nightmare. Luckily I had great parents who fostered my thinking outside the box, who bought me a commodore 64 at age 2, who allowed me to drag them around civil war battle grounds while on vacation in 100F heat bc of my love for history. Without this encouragement I wonder if I would have been turned off to learning, if I would have fallen into the compliant “just get the job done” mindset. I wonder how many brilliant people were discouraged because they did not fit into the normal student profile. What a waste.

The 20th century way of learning has one description: desk in rows, printables (I just gaged typing that word), workbooks, reading from textbooks, flash card memorization, pure teacher lecture (no discussion), copying notes from board, silence. We have all been in that classroom and even have taught that way – I know for 2 years I did. Yes students come out of this classroom able to take tests and even smart, the problem is these are not problem solvers or entrepreneurs. I wonder often if our problems with climate change or the economy would even be there if we had prepared our society to voice opinions and solve problems beyond 2+2.

The 21st century way of learning really does not have a set way. I think about my teaching team. I can confidently say that 3 of 4 of us are constantly striving to be 21st century teachers. I can also say that other than the 3 of us using edmodo we do everything differently, but our students are better for it. 21st century classrooms are as different as the students in them, and that is ok. This is why no one has a perfect definition of 21st century classroom.

I read information about schools and district really striving for 21st century learning. But they have to find the model that works for them. I read this post in the Back to School edition of Project PLN about Dr Bob Dillon’s school in St. Louis and thought immediately that his school is a perfect example of 21st century learning but when I read this ABC article last week on Patrick Larkin’s school I thought the same thing, even they are so different. You can compare and contrast these two schools all day but you can’t say they are not 21st century schools and amazing learning is not happening there.

So when it comes down to it we can give a lot of “don’ts” when it comes to 21st century learning but the best dos we can give is to: encourage learning, problem solving, welcome student opinions, and take advantage of the resources that are available in today’s society. We need this as soon as possible. We have to stop our deteriorating climate, political system, and economy so these students we are teaching today will have the future we now are missing out on.