TAKS Week

I am all in favor of accountability through testing. It is a good thing.

Students should be held accountable for the materials they are expected to learn in a grade, and if they fail to meet those expectations, they ought to be retained and *supported* so that on the second go-around they *are* successful. Of course, this comes with the caveat that the education system should be equipping every single student to have the choice of attending a 4-year university, and it that end goal, every decision (like, "You aren't ready for the 9th grade because you failed 8th grade math, and we want you to go to college, so you need to know this before you go on") should be made.

And not only students should be held accountable. The schools themselves ought to be held accountable for the product (education) that they are delivering, as well as the environment (safety, cultural exposure etc) they provide. So too should the teachers themselves be held accountable. If you are a disinterested, uncaring curmudgeon who is killing time, picking up a pay check, and terrorizing kids, you shouldn't be teaching.

Again, however, this accountability should come from a place of "We want our children to have the life options of attending a 4 year college, what do we need to offer to get them there?" Good teachers, good staff, and a good, safe environment are all important factors in this goal.

Just to re-emphasize, I think accountability/testing is good.

I think that NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and our state "high stakes" TAKS tests are stupid. I just survived a week of testing.

I do not know quite yet what would be a solution, but I know that the system we have now is broken and sucks. Just ask my students. Just ask teachers at my school.

To document, these are the things I did during the 6 hours that I was not allowed to do anything except "Actively Monitor" my classroom on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh yea, I was trained on what that meant.

1. Read Philippians 1
2. Read Philippians 2
3. Read Philippians 1 over and over
4. Read Philippians 2 over and over
5. Walked around the room
6. Walked around the room over and over
7. Took 15 second sit breaks at the back of the room where no one in the hallway could see me.
8. Took 15 second sit breaks over and over
9. Counted steps as I walked around the room
10. Counted steps over and over
11. Did a crossword (this was on the second day, when I got bold)
12. Folded paper cranes.
13. Planned the remaining weeks of school.
14. Thought about a project I am going to have my kids do
15. Thought about ice cream
16. Thought about ice cream over and over
17. Thought about injuring myself
18. Thought about injuring myself over and over
19. Prayed my students would do well.
20. Prayed my students would do well over and over.

P.S. I was lucky. Mr. F had to monitor on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.