Damien at the Speed of Life

Teaching is in some ways like having too many toys and nothing to play with.  Back to school for the planner can feel quite overwhelming unless one has defined goals.  When you consider a child’s needs in 185 days and all the things you could do to meet those learning needs, it is overwhelming.  The National, state, and local district try to help with this but the targets are not always easily defined.  When they are clearly laid out, often the assessments we are given do not directly address the goals we are given.

So what do we as teachers aim at?

The answer is something I am multi-tasking on right now.  I took a break to write this post.  To map backwards from the next upcoming assessment.  In a few weeks, we will take out first Language Arts assessment of 2008-2009.  I am examining the test questions, determining the California content standards that will be assessed and then putting them together in a map so I can use every day to hit every standard while teaching.  These targets affect classroom environment and a plethora of other decisions you make as a professional in the teaching day.  So, the answer to the question: “What do you aim at?”  It’s not like knowing that a Delta faucet is the best to use when building a house. The answer to the question is “it varies.”  One assessment at a time.  Gone are the archaic ideas about planning the whole year in one sitting.  It has to be an organic thing with the clear expectations of the standards tests and “No Child Left Behind.”

An aside might be this: “What is left behind when our only goal with children is test scores?“