Learning as a Way of Teaching

Thanks to Audacity and a few iPods, our students took final exams 21st century style.  Instead of leaving the classroom to have tests read to them by another teacher, students stayed in the classroom and listened to their test on iPods.  They had the power to listen at their own discretion without having to be singled out.  Of course, they did look different since they had iPods and the others didn’t.

Their teacher made this comment:  “Instead of hanging their heads, they were actually excited about getting the help.”

The hardest part of the whole process was creating the audio files, and that process is not hard at all.

Now if I can just get the school to buy 10 more……

A group of Houstonians are taking on the TAKS test.  They say that preparing students for the TAKS test is taking up too much instructional time. 

First, let me say that a lot of energy is put into the TAKS test.  Yes, our school’s rating hangs in the balance, and there is even the question of “Will my kid pass to the next grade if he does not pass the TAKS?”

One has to argue, though, that if we teach the TEKS; then aren’t we preparing students for the test?  OR is the problem that we are focusing on test taking strategies too much?  Well, why not?  Students have to take tests in college and need to know how to prepare for them.

If I am taking the BAR exam, I would want to know what kind of questions that will be asked and how to take the exam.  So to say we are teaching to the test, there are two ways to see it.

Which way do you see it?