Tests, Tests and More Tests…..

For anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t been watching we have the “The No Child Left Behind” Act/Law in the United States. While a good thought, it is not very well administered or thought out. What it has created is a litany of tests that have created an atmosphere that we have to teach to the test to make the grades or progress that we are mandated to make. Of course what this does is leave out creative teaching of what our children need really need.

Teachers no longer step out of the box because they are evaluated on how their students do on many different tests. Some school districts have several tests that they administer on a district wide basis, along with the state mandated tests. It makes me wonder when the kids get to learn anything. Maybe we need to take a step back, look, reevaluate and focus on teaching, not testing. Maybe that will give our kids the opprotunity to step out of the box, excel past the test and become a knowledgable adult. Maybe even some of those students will become the new Einstein or Gates of tomorrow.

There are many great teachers in our country that are being hindered because they can’t teach everthing they want. I miss the days when I was in school and we talked about history, did real science projects, had complete PE classes, including health classes and didn’t take tests except for the ones my teachers gave on the subject matter we had learned.

Maybe if the parents of todays children didn’t have to both work, or work two or more jobs we would have better graduation rates and better test scores.

Maybe we need a change, maybe we need less tests, more teaching and especially more parent involvement…..I don’t know, but that’s my opinion.

Remember, Anything Goes for Discussion at Dinner…..

Filed under: Education, Educational Technology

Get Those Lesson Plans

I found a site through my reading today that lets teachers buy and sell their original lesson plans. I though it was a very interesting idea, so I set out to find out more on the site and its idea. Here’s what I found….

The site is called “Teachers Pay Teachers” and can be found interestingly enough at www.teacherspayteachers.com. The site boasts 410 registered users, 81 member teacher-authors (members that pay a fee to have their work on the site for sale), 46 free downloads and 235 total products. The site was started in April of 2006, so it is extremely new and comes at a time when most schools are at the end of their school year. I would expect for it to pick up more member teacher-authors toward the start of our school year in August/September.

The negavtives that I found after browsing the site are:

The offerings seem quite sparse at the moment, with a lot of topics empty. I also found that not all authors gave a free preview of the lesson plan, while the descriptions leave a lot to be desired if I was going to pay for something sight unseen.

The positives that I found include:

The site layout is easy to navigate, with a learn more link that gives a lot of helpful information. The free downloads and previews that were available were professional and would be useful to teachers in those grade levels. The pricing is very affordable for authors at $29.95 annually with a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee, while the prices on the few things that I found ranged from two dollars up to twenty five dollars for a piece of software. This was just a few items, not the whole inventory, so prices may be higher or lower, but the prices I feel are very reasonable. While authors pay an annual fee, buyers pay no registration fee, but must become a registered user to purchase lesson plans.

Overall, despite the lack of inventory and the description issues, I found the refreshing and that as it grows will help promote positive learning for our children. I would recommend Teachers Pay Teachers to educators who are looking for new ideas or just wanting to share ideas for a little extra pocket change. For more information you can check out this article from the AP Teachers are selling study guides online.

Remember, Anything Goes for Discussion…

Filed under: Education, Educational News, Educational Technology