Since I'm trained as a biologist and an educator, I've always embraced the phrase "variety is the spice of life", but this year I'm trying to live it in my classroom. True I've always incorporated some variety into my daily approach to education, but this year is different. This year I'm taking all the transformational talk surrounding the new common core and the essential standards (not to mention the whole re-vamping of the AP Biology curriculum) and really embracing the idea that we can accomplish a cultural change in education one classroom at a time.
I like the idea of formative assessments (although I hate the name) because it validates what all good teachers are doing anyway - getting feedback from students and responding appropriately. As a science teacher, classes are a daily experiment with data collection. I also like formative assessments because of the change it has made in grading. For some reason it is easier to read something a student wrote, make comments and hand it back than it is to put a number grade on the paper. The biggest issue as I see it is the adjustment students have to make to getting feedback instead of a number grade. The other even bigger obstacle is getting them to embrace the struggle and let go of the idea of a "right" answer. This is a huge cultural change and it is painful.
The roots of this curriculum change are far from nefarious, but the implementation will take the tenacity of gangsters. Teaching is an art - an intellectual art. It requires skill in motivating rebellious teenagers (in my case) to not only be cooperative, but to step outside their comfort zone and share their explorations. If we are serious about embracing the diversity of our students and making a safe environment for all of them to learn in ways that are most meaningful to them, then our cultural change needs to reach far beyond each individual classroom. The issue for many educators is will we stick with it? It will be difficult to transform student learning patterns, but they are much more open and flexible than many teachers, administrators, parents, departments or schools of education and certainly more than any politician out there.
So why embrace this change? That's a question I hope to answer in this blog. It is my own personal journey through the public education system and I'm hoping it will sustain me for a few more years.
