I Feel Alive

It's Memorial Day weekend! It feels so good to be out hiking again. I
need to shed some of that first-year teacher weight I've gained....
This school year was probably the hardest, longest school year of my
career. Actually, now that I think about it, my first year as a
preschool teacher might have actually been worse, but still. It's been a
rough year and I'm so ready for the summer. As hard as this year has been, I've learned so much and have made some great memories and friends.

Most people already know that next year I'm moving to 4th grade. That means
I'll have some of the same kids (which I'm already having nightmares
about). Besides that, it will be a much needed fresh start in a new room
with a new team of teachers to get to know and work with.

This summer I'll be taking 4 classes that I need in order to get my teaching
license. It will be crazy this next year, but I'm hoping to get my
level 1 license by next summer. Besides that, I'm planning a couple road
trips and to be outside as much as I can.

Choose Your Own Adventure Moab 2016

This weekend I took a much needed break by going to Moab with my ward. It was awesome! It was structured as a choose your own adventure so there was so many possibilities for fun. I went horseback riding for the first time (for longer than a few minutes) and loved it. I feel good and ready to face these last couple weeks of school. The song I used in the video is one that the student choir sang at school last week and it was stuck in head all weekend, so now it's going to be stuck in yours. haha

SAGE Testing

Today I've seen and heard several ads about a report KSL is doing tonight on whether or not parents should opt their children out of taking the SAGE test (standardized test). I feel that as a teacher I should share some of my thoughts about this, so here it goes:

First of all, the SAGE test does not accurately show children's knowledge of the the core standards. I reviewed the grades my students received on assessments and compared them to their SAGE score and they don't match or even look similar except in the case of my VERY high level kids.

I think the main reason for that is because the SAGE test questions are difficult to figure out. It's not a typical ABCD answer choice like tests used to be. You have to manipulate things within the questions in a certain way to get the answer. Yeah, that sounds like fun, but in reality it's not. Basically what I'm trying to say is that the questions themselves prevent the kids from doing well on the tests. They have training tests teachers can do with the kids to help them know how to manipulate things to answer the questions, but most of the question types, especially for math, are complicated and not even on the training tests. As a teacher it's frustrating to see these kids basically give up on the tests because it is hard to figure out how to answer the questions. Besides that, correct me if I'm wrong, but the tests they will have the take in the future to go to college are still ABCD tests. If we want our kids to go to college, shouldn't we be giving them tests that are similar to the ACT and SAT? They don't have questions you have to manipulate stuff for do they? I really wonder if they do now.

The other problem with the SAGE test is that the questions get harder or easier based on how the student answers the questions. That seems great, but the problem is that when questions get harder and harder, it is discouraging and makes the kids feel dumb even though it wasn't because they didn't know the material.

Now, before you think I'm saying parents should opt their children out of taking the tests, hear me out. I would much rather them change the test than for parents to opt out. No school is doing very well on these tests, which ought to tell us something. Most people would probably think it's because the education system is failing and teachers are terrible, but that's not entirely true (although it probably is partly true). If you're going to test everyone, don't make it impossible to do well on it!!

Part of the problem with parents opting their kids out is that the parents who do that are the ones with the kids who actually would do well on the tests, which messes with the whole average score and the and such. There are some parents who I wish would opt their kids out because their kids have special needs and these tests are not designed for them. 

Another thing about testing is that there are people trying to pass laws that would require teachers' pay, evaluations, and other things to be based on the SAGE test results. I pray they don't ever do that. Seriously. We don't get paid enough as it is. Anything being based on the SAGE scores would be WRONG. 

Lastly, SAGE testing is all over for this year, so it's kind of pointless to be doing a debate about it now. I guess it could affect parents next year though.

The only thing I'd also want to change is when testing is done. We're done with testing and we still have 3 weeks left of school. We rushed through our curriculum for testing so now what do we do?? We are literally killing time until school ends. The kids are done and so are teachers. Only 13 more days.