Project #3 C4T

For the past two weeks I have been following Joe Bower's Blog "For the love of learning". Mr. Bower, a resident of Alberta, Canada has been teaching for 10 years. He began his career teaching in a "traditional" middle school, using the conventional style of teaching that we all know so well. In 2004 he realized that this style of teaching was not for him. Not only was he miserable but he noticed that the students weren't very happy either. Knowing that there had to be a better way he started searching for less conventional ways to teach. Ways that would feed the hunger to learn and let children have fun in the process. He teaches his students that making mistakes is not always a punishable offense, making a mistake opens the door to learn. Don't we all learn something from our mistakes? Isn't the old saying, "hind site is 20/20"? He also believes and so do I, that teachers should not be the stern face at the front of the classroom tight lipped with no mercy. I think Mr. Bower says it best, "they should be safe and caring allies". He is no longer teaching in the "traditional" classroom, but can be found at a local hospital. In an unconventional setting where they assess children under the age of 18 that have a wide range of mental health related difficulties.

In Mr. Bower's "More on opting out of testing" post, on 09/03/11, he talks about ways that we can get rid of standardized testing. In reality, how can we base the success or failure of a student, teacher, or school on a standardized test? Why aren't teachers included in the debate on education reform and policy in the United States? He and many other teachers and researchers believe that making a stand and opting out of the testing process is our only option. Check out the article "Standardized tests: Time for a national opt-out" written by Shawn Johnson from Towson University, for more answers to these pressing questions.

Mr. Bower puts it this way:
"Most politician and policy makers have neither the know-how or courage to stand against standardized testing. I have little faith they will do anything different until the prevailing winds no longer blow in favor of these tests. Where the body goes, the shadow follows -- most politicians are shadows.
I believe with educators' know-how and the public's courage, together we can refuse our cooperation and no longer allow our children's education to be reduced to data for someone else's spreadsheet."

My comment on "More on Opting Out of Testing":
"My name is Lindsey Gipson and I am student at the University of South Alabama. I have been assigned to comment and summarize two of your blog posts. The summaries will be posted on my blog 09/10/11, here is a link to our class blog http://edm310.blogspot.com and my personal blog http://gipsonlindseyedm310.blogspot.com.
I couldn't agree more about standardized testing. These tests are ruining the education system. Teachers have to spend so much time preparing students for the tests that they can't really teach anymore. I think it would be awesome if everyone would come together and refuse cooperation. What a great notion!"

On 09/09/11 Mr. Bower posted, "Class size matters". I agree 100% that class size matters. Not even superman or wonderwoman can effectively teach a classroom of 25 to 30 children. Of course this is my opinion and after reading this post and the comments that other teachers left on this post, there are many other people with the same opinion. Although, as stated in his post, just having a smaller class size alone will not increase student learning, it is absolutely necessary. I leave you with an excellent quote by Donald Quinn that set the tone for Mr. Bower's post:

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." ~Donald Quinn

My comment on "Class Size Matters":
"I couldn't agree more. It is humanly impossible for a teacher (one individual) to properly educate a classroom crammed full of children. It's not fair to either party, everyone loses."

Everyone in the field of education and/or pursuing a degree in education should follow Joe Bower's Blog: "For the Love of Learning"!