Week Four of LIH (Capstone Class)

I wonder how my grade will go since my instructor hasn't been reading my blog. This will be the third time I send her the link.

The week started with disgust. I'd seen that Ken Robinson speech on TED before, and he makes fantastic points about letting children learn they way they are "meant" to learn. And then there's the article about fostering creativity. But seriously, how creative can we let students be when we HAVE TO PREPARE THEM FOR THE SOL TESTS!!! Everyone gives lip service to the idea that "we don't teach to the test," but who's kidding whom? My school district has had 2 testing scandals in the news, and the blame was thrust upon the teachers. But teachers are under the thumb of administrators who push the test because that's what schools are judged on.

Where are the parents in these lectures about creativity? The fundamental problem with letting kids be creative is grading, and we can only get away from grading if parents let us--not going to happen. So how does a creative teacher grade a student who does an interpretive dance of the Underground Railroad against a students who creates a Goolge Earth mapped route of the railroad, against the kid with pencil and paper who writes a report? I already hear the cry "Rubric," but none of this will work or stick unless the parents can be convinced that it is the right way to go.

So we need to start inviting parents to these educational conferences and to join these educational social networks--and I don't mean the "homeschool" parents. We need parents who are trusting us to educate their children to be successful members of society to understand why Problem Based Learning is better for their child than rote memorization.

As it is, I do my best to let students be creative, but with SOLs, time constraints, and lack of resources at home (no one ever thinks to use the public library), to be "fair" I have to make it all doable and equitable at school.