For years I argued that I taught and tested what needed to be taught and tested in my classroom. I argued that I knew my students without completing charts or graphs on each question they missed. I argued that I knew my subject matter, and that I knew how to teach! But in the end, as testing has continued to take over our classrooms, I lost. So now, we plan for student success. And if we didn’t start that planning in August (which makes more sense), it starts to hit home in January.
In reality, those who are true teachers are already doing everything they need to do to help our students do their best on the end of year assessments. We pre-teach, pre-assess, teach, review, formatively assess, reteach, review, summatively assess, and evaluate. We work daylight to dark to prepare multi-disciplinary, differentiated, rigorous lessons. And we empty our own purses to see that our students have what they need to work toward success from where they are in their own lives.
Those tests – they do NOT matter. What matters is that our students are prepared for life. Life includes meeting deadlines (unit tests and project due dates). It includes rejection (poor grades and editing of papers). It includes competition (not everyone is at the top of the class). More importantly, life is about finding things that you love and enjoying them passionately.
Happy Teaching!