Monday, April 9, 2012

PAA draft

Shayleen O'Hayre


 Wanting to become a teacher, are tests a good indication of understanding how well my students know their information?

Growing up plan tests where just something that would be given every year for an entire day, never did any of the students think that it was something of importance. A piece of paper was given and you were to just simply color in a bubble. It was easy to just want to make a picture or something of that sort because to us it didn’t matter. We may have been able to color in those bubbles and pictures when we were younger but as each year went on the test became more of an importance. Those simple little bubbles were about to determine our futures. The schools we were going to and the places we would be at. It was no longer a little game, we had to take it seriously, and we were basing our futures on one test. For me my first big plan test was going to decide if I was talented enough to get into a prep school, and more so decide what classes I would be in. Was it really far that a simple test was going to decide what I did? To me it didn’t seem so, how could this one little piece of paper tell a school of teachers how smart I was or wasn’t? Weren’t my teachers keeping track of my grades for a reason, or was that just something they did for fun. I worked hard for those grades because I thought that they mattered. If they were that important, than why was a simple test determining my future? As years went on and more test were given I slowly started to understand, that was until it came time for the most popular tests the SAT and ACT. These two tests were really going to determine the types of places that I would be able to get into. Colleges looked at each test as if that was the most important thing, was a 3 hour test really going to be able to determine the colleges I got into? What was the point of four years of schooling if in the end it would come down to a test to describe how smart I was? Teachers work towards helping students understand the information and that is why they give tests. A plan test on the other terms doesn’t really matter if you understand the information at all it is more based on just the score. After taking the test there is no way of figuring out what you need to work on exactly. That doesn’t seem very fair to anyone involved with it. Asimple test that I may give my students is a lot different than a plan test that will determine their futures.

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