Comments on: Big Question #2: What Do You Believe?

By: What I Believe About Students? « Cruel Shoes

What I Believe About Students? « Cruel Shoes — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:56:19 +0000

[...] to make a statement about three things they believe about students. Awhile back, I wrote a post about what I believed about teaching in general, but not about students specifically. [...]

By: eplybon

eplybon — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:20:11 +0000

Jonathan,
I am happy to hear that you are able to teach away from the test and have had success. I’ve always believed that if we teach without worrying about the test, the natural result would be success on the test!

Thank you for your comments.
- Elaine

By: jd2718

jd2718 — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:35:54 +0000

hey, I buy most of that.

I’ve been fortunate to be in a school the past 6 years that lets me teach away from the test, with my promise that we won’t have disasters as a result (which we haven’t).

I like teaching methods, ideas, concepts, skills, and letting them settle into place independently for each student. (oh yeah, 9th grade math, algebra mostly).

Exposure to advanced vocab – very good. Memorizing vocab. Um. no.

Technology, as needed and as useful, not for the sake of technology itself.

In NY we don’t hug kids, at least not in high school if we want to keep our jobs

And I don’t know who that woman is (Laufenberg), but since so much of what you wrote makes sense, that’s probably on the money as well.

Jonathan

By: Susanne

Susanne — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:13:53 +0000

I believe that reflection is the most important part of being a teacher. No lesson is perfect, no teacher is perfect … reflection allows us to take one step further each year.

I really enjoy your blog. Thanks for your writings.

By: eplybon

eplybon — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:03:33 +0000

Yes, Lee, I do believe – firmly – that if I were able to teach my students the way I want to teach them, that they would naturally do better on standardized tests! We would no longer have to be so worried by the test and would think of it as a casual accounting of things already known.

During the last few weeks of my teaching career, I finally taught the way I wanted to teach and my kids GOT IT! I could ask them anything I’d covered in the class before and they had it! If I had only done that from day one – where could they have been?

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:31:07 +0000

What a great post! Thanks for taking this another step farther! One question that drives home my point.

You say, “I believe that if I teach science the way I really want to teach science, instead of teaching to a standardized test…”

Do you believe that IF you were allowed to teach science the way you really want to teach science, then your students naturally will do well on the standardized test?

I do and I can see that you do, too. And I wish more teachers would see things as clearly you.

Thanks for the post. I believe this has made many of us dig deep into our teaching souls and bring out some words of wisdom. How appropriate for Teacher Appreciation week! ~Lee

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:43:11 +0000

Elaine
Nicely done. I am the teacher who tagged Lee for this meme. It is so intriguing to read other’s philosophy. I agree with all of what you said.