It's that time of year again...

It is coming to that time of the school year again for many of us.  That time when goodbyes are being said, friends are moving on, graduates are taking the next step in their lives, people are making travel plans, and for the most part schools are buzzing with excitement.

Students are rushing around finalizing projects, finding their textbooks that they shoved in their lockers back in August and have forgotten about, filling out checkout forms, and worrying about whether all of their hard work they have put in all year will be negated by the final exam.  Questions about what is going to happen over the next several days loom in their heads.  What will be on the final exam?  What if I have two, or maybe three exams, in one day?  What do I do if my family wants to leave to go on vacation early? 

While the students are getting close to hitting their panic button, many teachers are scrambling like crazy to get those last tests in before grades are due.  Did I get all my content covered?  How can I get this covered before the exam?  Are my students going to read, do math, work on their Group 4 projects, write their Extended Essay, or are they going to take an SAT prep class?  What do I put on the exam?  When are grades due?  How many comments are "enough"?

Why do we do this to ourselves?  What is the point?  Why are we stressing out over these minuscule irritations and not focusing on what is really important...How have I made an impact on my students' learning this year?  How far have my students progressed in their learning?  Have my students truly benefited from our time together this year?  How have I grown as an educator this year?  

These are the important questions we should be asking.  These are the end of year assessment targets we should all be focusing on, not how well do our students remember the information we deem important for them to remember.  I am not against end of course assessments.  I am against end of course stress and chaos.  For nothing.  Make the assessment meaningful.  Make it useful.  Don't make it the ultimate measure of what your students have learned in their time with you.  An end of course assessment should be just that, an assessment at the end of the course.  It should be no different than any of the other assessments throughout your course.  It should measure what your students know at that point in time.  It should not "weigh" any more than any other assessment you have given already.  It should be included with all of the other assessments the student has already taken so that you can articulate an accurate measure of their learning for the course/year.  Not what the student was able to remember or regurgitate back to you on the day of the exam. 

  

So, why do we do this?  Why do we concentrate on these assessment tasks and not on our students?  Why do we stress our students and not celebrate their learning?  Why do we put so much emphasis on a single test at the end of a course and not on ones done throughout the course?  If you have an answer, I would love to hear it.

Last Three Days

As I sit here at my desk with three days left of school, I had yet another pondering..."Why?"

Why do we have a schedule to see all eight blocks in one day?  Why do we have an entire day dedicated to an assembly and yearbook distribution?  Why do teachers have the same last day as students?  Why am I writing this blog?  While I don't have clear answers for all of these questions, and several more that are buzzing around in my head, I will offer some thoughts about each...at least from the desk of a High School Math Teacher.

To see all eight blocks.  This gives our students the opportunity to see each of their classmates and teachers one last time together as a unit to get some closure on the school year.  Meeting after taking the final exam (which has been graded and put into the almighty grade book) also gives an opportunity for students and teachers to discuss feelings about the final exam, which in turn also leads to questions about their final grade.

Day for assembly and Yearbook.  Being that we are an International School, we are a transient population.  We move a lot.  New people are here every year.  This closing ceremony is, again, a way to give closure to students, teachers and administrators.  Sometimes we laugh.  Sometimes we cry.  Sometimes we wonder "WHY?"  In the end, we all get to finish out the year together and that is important.

The same last day.  This is fairly common in International Schools so it is probably not even on many other people's radar, except mine.  Having teachers and students end on the same day is nothing less than chaotic.  Chaotic for the kids, chaotic for the teachers, chaotic for the parents.  This is simply because it is a mad race to try to get everything accomplished.  Is this what we have taught our students all year, rush like a demon to get your work done?  I hope not.  I think taking even one extra day after the kids leave for summer break would a huge relief to many teachers.  It would also allow teachers to concentrate on what is important on that last day, the kids not the paperwork.  The last day with your students should be special for both you and them so why ruin that by mixing in administrative paperwork and checkout processes with tears of joy, gifts, celebrations and all the happy memories of the school year?

As I am finishing this post, my students have started to come in my room.  It is at this point that I have realized that kids have an amazing way of seeing & feeling things as well as an uncanny way of summing things up with excellent viewpoints.  For example, I just heard this being said from one student to another "Want to tell me what the point of this is?  No one's going to be here."  This statement was not said in a nasty tone, it was actually said with honesty.  She was looking for an answer from her classmate.  They sat their books down, turned and walked back out of class to discuss many other things in the three minutes they had left before class.  They didn't have any idea that I could hear them talking, but I found it very interesting that they were discussing the same things I am writing about.  Think about how they will remember the last day of school.  Not as a time of closure.  Not as a time of getting resolution on an exam question.  Not as enjoying a celebration of another year of learning.  They will remember this day as "Why...", or maybe not.

Yes, I distributed my exams back to my students as expected by them and we discussed (very quickly) the results and I allowed them to ask questions.  Then I played my favorite beginning of summer song, Summertime by D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.  And yes, I sang along.  This is hopefully how my students will remember their last day with me as I will remember the looks on their faces as they watch and listen to me sing along.  This was my answer to the "WHY" question.  What is yours?

What does really matter?

Being this is my first post on this blog, I am not sure how many will find it, read it, and respond to what I write, but that's ok.  

As we prepare to close out another great school year we rarely stop and think about what really matters.  We busy ourselves with writing that perfect final exam.  We use the phrase "you will see this again next year" or "I am getting you ready for next year" way too often...was what we were doing all year until now not getting our students ready?  We stress the importance of doing well on the exam, or final assessment, or last project of the year because...well...it's the last one of the year.  

We constantly tell ourselves, each other, and our students this is what we HAVE to do at the end of the school year.  Why?  If your only answer is "this is the way it is every year", you may need to rethink some things.  I may need to rethink some things.  As I sit here writing this post, I have realized this is my 31st end of school year process in my life, 18th as a teacher.  In these 31 years I have also realized that I have gone through the same, or at least a very similar, process in each of these 31 years.  Has education not changed in 30+ years?  Are we that set in our ways of "this is how we have always done it" as educators?  Surely we have new ways to measure student progress from September to June.  Right?

I don't have an answer for this right now, but I am definitely thinking twice about the exams I have written, proof read, copied and stored in my file cabinet waiting to be distributed in a week.  Am I really measuring what my students learned in my classes by giving one two hour exam?  And, yes I realize that the exam is only part of their grade, but if that is the case...why put so much emphasis on them?  Why give them at all?  Isn't it better to give a final grade based on how the students have performed progressively throughout the year?

So, what made me think about all of this today?  This article that I found on my feed this afternoon:  Reconsidering End of Year Grading for Student Mastery by Starr Sackstein.  If you are now pondering some things about your end of year, read the article.  It certainly has made me rethink some things I do as an educator.