Standardized Testing is not for everyone- Entry 4
Reflect in your journal on the advantages and disadvantages of standardized testing.
You know, I really don’t think that advantages really go with standardized testing. It just doesn’t seem like it fits very well. But, I know that that isn’t the case. Unfortunately there are some advantages to standardized testing and there are some disadvantages. One advantage, in my opinion, would be that they can provide a basic understanding of the students’ understanding of the material. Although the test itself is not the most precise way of measuring understanding, at least it does provide for the teacher a way to see if what they are teaching is being met.
Another advantage would be for the student to practice really thinking about the information that they were taught and to fill it out in a test form. Although they might not like it nor enjoy it, it does help them with measuring where they are at and what they could do to be better.
But the disadvantage that would come with that is for the most part if the student does not do well on the test the reaction norm is to typically not try at all. To them there must not be much hope with them succeeding in the class and in doing well on the test. It typically does the opposite, instead of encouraging success and meaningful purpose it encourages disappointment, failure and no hope. For the most part, I have never heard of someone who enjoys standardized testing and wishes that that was the only form of testing.
All together, the reason for standardized testing is that it is an easy assessment of knowledge and understanding. It helps colleges weave out those students who might not do well in their schools and it helps teachers, hopefully, to check to see where they stand and how their students are doing with understanding the material. However, I don’t believe that it measures all understanding nor does it measure what the student knows. I really feel that tests just scare individual and then they tend not to do too great on them which might reflect on the individual that they don’t know a lot even if that isn’t true. But I guess since it can’t be changed perhaps it can be made more suitable for the students and teachers.
Reflect in your journal on ethical methods you can use to help students on standardized tests.
Continuation of the previous reflection…
I feel that training the students with taking standardized testing while they’re young and creating it into a positive “activity” rather than a negative connotation might work. Then as they progress and become older teaching them how to relax and how to study for them. I often feel that we don’t quite understand how to study for them and what to expect that we just don’t and then hope for the best. I think another way of supporting standardized teaching by building up the confidence of the student no matter their outcome. By truly helping them, they will feel successful and that they are so bright and smart. By doing this, it might create for the student a stronger foundation for what they will be able to do in the future.
In the end- I feel that teaching about honesty and why we take the tests and that there is a positive side to it, might help lower the cheating, the fear and the thoughts of not being able to succeed. It is giving the students the tools that they need and helping them see how they can use them in their own lives.
Family Unit... What is it? Entry 5
Explain how the family structure has changed over the past. Include examples from your own experience.
This topic drives me crazy. I find it so amazing that the family structure has changed so much since the 1950s. I know that even by the 1950s the family structure had changed, but I feel that the change is so dramatic right now; I really wouldn’t know how to define family. It is amazing that we went from the standardized mother and father figure to the father father, mother mother, perhaps grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, or just a mother or just a father.
To me this presents a lot of strange circumstances both within teaching and within my own family. To talk about how some kids have a mom and dad and how some of two dads etc. doesn’t allow a clear definition of the word and it provides conversation where all parties have to talk about the change and then decide for themselves their own definition of a family. It really is ridiculous. The fact that I can’t even define what a family is now is beyond me. Nonetheless, it is the challenge that I do have to face and that I do have to address, which means that I have to be prepared for whatever comes my way and be willing to address in and acknowledge it with a smile.
From my own experience a family unit becomes one that will stand with one another no matter the circumstance. Where they, as a unit, will defend and protect one another. As the structure of the family unit changes, the purpose of it doesn’t-well except for the whole male male situation the purpose of having children is the only thing that is adjusted. Actually, everything changes. The fact that no mom is in the home or a dad changes the outcome of the kid. But as long as there is that support and love, I still feel that a family unit can exist and can become something great, no matter what it looks like.
Diversity- Entry 6
Reflect in your Journal how multicultural education is as important for members of the dominant group as it is for minority and underprivileged groups
Ok, so I feel that all and all this topic is getting old. But that is probably because of the multicultural class that we are taking right now that makes you feel like somehow you are the slime of the earth because you were born white. That’s right, I’m white. I don’t see any problems with that. But nevertheless, I will answer the reflection question with all the fiber that is in me.
From being in a multicultural class it has changed my view on the multiculturalism that is around me. I think that everyone should take a multicultural class that is fair on all cultural and that would offer views from each cultural that we live with. By taking the class that I am in I find that society is really messed up. We go around trying hard to not be prejudice or racist but I feel that we don’t really know what those terms mean. I also feel that in today’s society there is no tolerance for the other race. It’s as though we demand our rights, we demand respect and yet we almost refuse to give it. We become stubborn and obstinate in what we feel to be right. Example? The homosexuals.
Right now they are up in arms trying to prove to the world, or just the states, that gay marriages are the next step to utilizing rights and privileges. They demand that all support and demand that all somehow change what they believe in order to believe that their marriages are good and in many ways are compared to the heterosexual marriages of today. While their marches go on they almost shove anyone who would believe otherwise by …. This doesn’t make sense to me. They demand tolerance for their beliefs while mocking and rebutting against other beliefs. There is the demand but no tolerance for others.
Anyway- gaining education of diverse cultural that we have here in the states would provide understanding and perhaps tolerance for the other. It allows each of us to step into the shoes of another and to gain a better understanding of who they are and why they do what they do. It might also provide for the schools a better purpose to accomplishing what each student can achieve, rather than what their cultural or circumstance has labeled them as. And in the end we all need to be tolerant of each other- which means that we need to be educated about the other. Education leads to tolerance because it requires us to at least understand.
Disablitity as a strength- Entry 7
Reflect on the inequities that can occur because of a disability labeling.
The term “disabilities” has never been the “favorite” word of mine. It symbolizes a negative view on the individual who carries it. This could vary greatly from just name calling or to someone who actually carries the title because they have something that would challenge them in doing various activities.
As far as I can tell, labeling never does anyone good. Especially if the labeling has to do with a term that is negative and that is not favored with the population. I feel that using such labels automatically puts a clutch on the individuals’ progress in achievement. This becomes extremely true when the individual truly does have a disability because everything that happens to them happens because of their disability. The inequities come the minute they step into a room, no matter where that room might be or the crowd that they might enter.
In the classroom the inequities could be easier tests, even if they could be challenged to do more. Maybe not choosing them to answer a question or not letting them have a chore to do. Also, in the classroom they could experience criticism from the other children who might mock them and might not help them our or let them play with them.
Bettering Elementary Schools- Entry 8
Reflect in your journal how you think elementary schools could be reorganized to serve students better.
Now this is a difficult question to ask, “How do I think elementary schools could be reorganized to serve the students better.” I have never really thought about it before, to me why invent the wheel again if it already working? OK- I know that that probably wasn’t the greatest comparison, but it will do. True, there are ways that elementary schools could work better, but I really don’t know how. So here are a few thoughts on what I would change that could better serve the students.
So I think that the best way that we could better help serve students would be providing more hands on opportunities to explore all parts of life and what it has to offer. But teaching them about differences that others bring to the table to learning about various jobs to various aspects of the community and what it has to offer. It would provide a way to open their eyes to opportunities beyond the normal ones. It could be fun and would open the door to other possibilities and that is always fun.
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