In a blur…. and then it’s gone

This is a weird time of year in education.  We’ve been in the middle of high stakes testing (for third graders of all things! Geez, they’re babies!), all the portfolio-type events are taking place, and it’s close out time.

That testing thing.. I approach it with feelings of dread, panic and sometimes a little relief.  This week my students took the Mathematics MCAS.  As I read the testing script (yes it’s a script!), and told my sincere-faced, panic striken 8 and 9 year-olds that they could not use their cell phones or cheat I was once again reminded of the insanity of it all.  What makes anyone believe a pencil and paper exam in an artifical environment proves whether or not they “got it” or I’m a proficient teacher? 

The test examiner/proctor is given specific directions: no reading (unless it’s an accommodation for special needs), no looking over the students’ shoulders to see what the test item is about, no facial expressions, don’t check the booklet to see if they’ve turned 2 pages at a time and missed 6 problems…. what are we doing to these kids? They’re 9!

What I saw with the children I monitored would make anyone proud.  Keep in mind that 13 of my 19 children have been identified as English Language Learners — with limited English proficiency.  And bear in mind that the questions on an MCAS test might seem reasonable to you or to me — as we (or at least I) are proficient in the mother tongue — the nuance of phrasing often escapes my charges.  Given this, my children stayed with it…. over 3/4 of the group took the full test time to work through the test items and then went back to check their work in each session.  I’m not confident that they will score well, but I do know that they made their best effort.

This past week I read an article in the Marshall Memo, a periodical shared with interested staff at my school by our principal.  In this last edition, Issue 234, the article How can teachers teach so students remember? caught my eye.  The author points out that it is sometimes a year OR MORE before concepts and ideas that are taught become part of the student’s knowledge. 

So, there’s no point in cramming the MCAS’s topics down student’s throats, there’s a great possibility that what I’ve been teaching throughout the past year won’t be remembered — so just what is it that we’re evaluating here?

 

Building…. Changing

About 18 months ago, Adrien’s dissatisfaction with working solely in software engineering prompted a change in his vision — and consequently mine.  When you are miserable about your work life, whether you chose it or it chose you, it makes for some long, depressing weeks. When the question is “Is that all there is?” and the answer is “yes”, a change needs to be made.

So it began with a new camera — a Nikon D50 and some course work at Better Photo.  This of course led to lots of practice and experimentation which led to another camera (a Nikon D200) and more equipment purchases.  Last summer, Adrien started to put his photography out into more public forums — an Art Fair, camera club contests.  He’s had several shows — a solo show at the Westford Parish Center for the Arts, a group show at LTC in Lowell, and has 3 art fairs and two showing scheduled for the summer.

Last November, things had progress enough so that Adrien procured studio space at Western Avenue Artists Studios in Lowell and joined the Loading Dock Gallery. A giant step was taken in April when he took a part time leave of absence from his day job at IBM.  Now to get busy with the building part….. he (and we) are learning a lot about marketing art — and about what not to do.

Here’s some photos from his portrait portfolio (including the ONLY picture of me that I’ve ever liked):

What do you think?  Check out Adrien’s Galleries at Adrien Bisson Photography.