The Art of Teaching

When I think about my take on assessments, a lot of things come to mind. I feel that assessments are extremely important to determine the success and achievement of students both throughout the lessons and units that are being taught in the classroom. Furthermore, the way we go about assessing students’ knowledge is equally important. While summative assessments in the form of standardized testing is not going away anytime soon, students need as many hands-on experiences to be made in the classroom in order to connect the classroom concepts to the world outside of the four walls of the classroom. The students that fill the chairs in our classrooms are unaware of the difference between formative and summative assessments. Due to students not knowing the difference between the two, it can lead to one not being able to see the relevance of all the forms of evaluation students become exposed to in the classroom. In traditional teaching techniques, educators lecture to students for mos...

Students are not a one size fits all group of individuals. I believe each student is capable of learning if they are in the presence a positive and safe learning environment. Students that are in our school systems may come from different socioeconomic status (SES) and this should not automatically put this connotation on a student that coming from a low socioeconomic status means they are not able to accomplish academic achievements. In addition to varying backgrounds, each student is unique from the things that interest them, their values, hobbies, and of course how they process information. Every student has a different learning style and thus has a different way of demonstrating their knowledge on information presented in the curriculum. Due to the ideal that no two students are the same, this also means that students express their comprehension of learning differently. For instance, one student may thrive on giving a presentation in front of the class, whereas another ma...

Standardized testing is commonly known for its uniform method of evaluating student performance. However, while these tests may have been designed with good intentions, standardized testing can ultimately do more harm than good. One of the biggest things I dislike about standardized testing is the fact that to prepare students for these tests, teachers have to "teach the test" (McMillan, 2008, p. 5). Given that teachers can be limited in how they teach the curriculum, it reduces the chances of making a fun and engaging environment for students to learn in (which is necessary in Science classes because this subject is not as exciting as other subjects to some students). This reduction in flexibility and creativity ultimately produces an overwhelming amount of pressure for not only students but teachers as well (ProCon.org, 2018). Teachers have to worry about how their evaluation may be impacted if their students do not perform well while not doing well on a standardized test i...