PARCC and it's stupidity

I’m pretty confident when I say that there is no one who hates standardized tests more than me.  God...the PSATs, the SATs...run me over...I beg of you.  I totally suck at them!!!  I freeze.  I freak out.  I forget how to use my pencil. Does anyone have a Xanax?! :-/  How can a 15 year old be expected to sit back so calmly and quietly and complete a test that could determine where their future lies?  Crazy town, really!  I did horrific on my SATs and the anxiety I had while taking them was palpable to others surrounding me.  I can certainly relate to many of the teachers interviewed in this article who felt that the PARCC tests “had a negative experience for their students.”  Shouldn’t teacher objectives be focused around motivation, promoting interest and higher level thinking and making children feel capable of their abilities?  Why is it that we utilize such norm-referenced measures to compare our children?  Can’t we just work towards empowering what students are capable of in other ways?  I will piggyback what one teacher said around the topic of time.  The amount of time that is spent towards juggling schedules for children to take such tests is ludacris. Time could be utilized so much better.  How about getting children together to work on projects? How about challenging students by promoting their individual upper level thinking skills instead of seeing how they do compared to others?  

I felt it necessary to ask my husband about the PARCC tests and how it operates within his school. My husband is a high school phys ed and health teacher and was able to provide me with some insight around the “nutty-ness” that goes along with coordinating PARCC.  His opinions were similar, if not exactly alike, to another teacher who expressed “wasted time.”  The time it takes to create different schedules and create block periods so that these kids can “squeeze the test in.”  Fitting in a large amount of mandated curriculum in a smidge of time, while finding the student’s understanding of it all invalid. Horrible.

Why can’t we respect and honor our teachers thoughts and feelings around such a heated topic?  Aren’t they the masters of all of this?  Or does it really all just have to do with a face on a the dollar bill?...

I believe the authors of this are arguing the same thing that I am....get rid of these damn things....

Sticks and stones...

From as far back as I can remember I have struggled with acceptance.  Acceptance of my whole self- inside and out.  I have struggled with the scars that have been instilled in my mind from “the bullies who felt like moral champions.” I can recall specific instances where I was bullied on the bus ride home from school by a couple young and immature male classmates of mine.  I was probably only in the second or third grade at the time, but it was at that young age where I was told I was “fat,” “chubby,” “chunky,” you name it.  It was at that young age where bullying truly impacted the perception that I have forever had on my body.  I was a bit more “rounder” than some of my close friends and am humorously reminded of my “pretty plus” days, when I was forced to wear clothes in the “big girls section.”  Now, don’t get me wrong...I certainly was not obese by any means...and looking back, I was actually quite “normal.”  I was a little bit heavy set and “matured” a bit sooner than many of my peers.  I was what you would call “a bit different from the rest.”  The bullying, the insults, the jokes all impacted me in many ways.  I can recall a time when I walked off of the school bus and hurried home as quickly as I could so that I could free myself of the tears that hid behind my blue eyes.  I shut the door and cried.  Cried because I was hurt.  Cried because I felt judged.  Cried because I felt different.  Cried because I just wanted to be like the rest.  How terribly mean children can be.  How terribly sad that we live in a world where we “can’t all just get along.”  

While working at Butler Hospital, I have been helped many, many people who struggle with depression, thoughts and attempts of suicide and self injurious behaviors, feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness and despair.  The list can go on. I have been a shoulder for them to cry on and I have been an advocate for improved mental health.  I remember times when I felt sad and lonely all because I was judged by the size of my clothing.  The feelings of despair that I had is something I would never want another to experience.  To feel unaccepted is an awful way to feel.  So, how can I help others feel loved, worthy and accepted?  By doing just what the authors of Safe Spaces insist we should all do.  Accept, educate, include, change our ways, challenge assumptions and really….don’t assume.  Don’t make an ass out of you and me.  

A lot of what I spoke to in my final paper reflected the term perception.  I continue to feel that word is one of strength and power.  How we perceive others and how we perceive ourselves can take such a toll on the world and how we live within the world.  We need to see others perception.  We need to understand others points of view and respect one another.  We need to see that we are all different and we need to love and embrace one another for our differences.  Not judge.  We can not be the red pen that erases one’s definition of self.  

I believe this article argues that “challenging assumptions is difficult work, however we need tools to do it well, to do it at all.”  We need to integrate and interpret the differences within the world in our classrooms so that all children can feel safe and accepted.  We need to strive to help others find their voice and challenge them to raise it.  

What a wonderful resource GLESN truly is.  How wonderful to have this powerful tool for others to seek out in times of need.  How wonderful that our educators are being handed this opportunity for growth and empowerment within our school systems.  I found several different articles that I found to be quite intriguing.  One that particularly stood out to me however, included some very alarming statistics around suicide.  Something that boggles my mind in so many ways.  There is always help. There is always opportunity for wellness.  We just need to advocate for it and talk about it.

Aria & Collier

Public individuality versus private individuality…

Google defines individuality “as the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked.”

Distinguishment.  Uniqueness.  Differences.  All characteristics that make up oneself.  Poor Ricardo.  Ugh, Dr. Bogad this was a sad one for me.  Having to compromise what makes him and his family a family.  Their heritage; their language; their close-knit-family- all taken away from them in order to make themselves fit in with society.  Ricardo’s parents are informed that they must start to speak English instead of their native language, so that their children can learn the language of public society.  Ricardo points out in this article that “they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family’s closeness.”  He speaks of his later developed confidence in himself to finally fit in with public society and expectations, but also recalls the despair he felt when surrounded by his now forever changed family.  The shyness that his father exhibited when surrounded by the English language, the memory of laughter and jokes replaced by utter silence at the dinner table.  How the “dramatic Americanization of their children,” had now somewhat made his parents a bit more confident living in this society.   

What stood out to me the most in this article was when Ricardo states, “I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier.  The belief, the calming assurance that I belonged in public, had at last taken hold.”  How awful to feel as if you don’t belong.  How awful is it that we all just can’t get along and accept one another and adapt to others uniqueness.  How awful that at such a young age he noted that his language and heritage made him disadvantaged.

Collier’s article on “Teaching Multilingual Children” seemed to contradict a bit of what poor Ricardo had to go through.  It speaks of how demanding and challenging it is to be a teacher; especially to those who may not be proficient in the English language.  It encourages teachers to be aware, respectful and accepting of a student’s home language and to incorporate that into their learning.  It is important that the child does not lose sight of who they are necessarily, and that they “need to incorporate their own language to help them master the English language (pg. 225).”  Collier goes on to mention that children who are able to first master their own language {prior to being “forced” to learn English} are more academically successful in the future.  She later goes on to state (pg. 227) that “eradication of their language turns students off from education and never encourages school achievement of minority students.”  This brings me back to Ricardo’s mention that he would have “felt much less afraid if teachers addressed him in Spanish {his native language} and that he would have trusted and responded in ease.”  

I can’t imagine how incredibly challenging a bilingual classroom must be for both students and teachers.  I applaud both parties for the tremendous courage they have to be apart of these classrooms.  I believe that Collier argues that teachers need to be sure that children don’t stray away from their native language, but that they first learn {that} language and then work towards teaching them English.  She believes it is imperative for teachers to be respectful of children’s home languages and incorporate that into their everyday learning.  The respect and patience that teachers exhibit will lead to future growth for these children.

I thought that I would include a little added humor in this blog….and who doesn’t just love Joey!? :)