The stress the past decade or so has been the decrease in public school funding, where administrations are looking to put the most money into the schools that have the greatest performance records. This has
many teachers, fitting into both the old school and the new wave movement to teach to the test. It’s a nasty piece of conversation around the water cooler that no teacher would admit to doing, but it’s done every day in schools all across the country, no matter their mission statement or philosophy. The budget must be met, and the way many are seeking to grasp at reducing dollars is to prepare students for a test that works only to demonstrate they have memorized the facts presented.
Take a Step Back
One sure way to remain off the list of poor-performing teachers is to actually teach the students the skills they need to make it in the world, not simply inane facts they can regurgitate to keep your paycheck safe. Before any assignment, review your teaching plan and curriculum guide and ask yourself what the practical application is. It doesn’t matter what the subject matter is as long as the lessons gained outweigh the time it took to introduce the material
Students learn best when presented with the material they can connect with, and by demonstrating how they can utilize it in a real world setting, they will retain it. Grades will improve with comprehension and then you can sleep the sleep of the just at night.
Teach to the Student
Students most surely learn at different rates, and of course, have different ways of digesting information and lessons. By recognizing this, a teacher’s responsibility to work in a manner that helps the student succeed by arranging lesson plans to be presented in the manner all students in the classroom can comprehend. Teaching to the majority and neglecting the others in order to achieve test scores is an outrage and unethical, so a teacher’s job is to learn each pupil’s method for absorption and making sure the lesson is presented in a way they can understand and interact with.
Teaching is about bettering our next generation, but to do so, we need to understand that the method is flexible with the end game results being a better person. Teaching to the test only betters the district’s bank account and justifies removing the arts from academia.
