Leigh in Azerbaijan

While ever-wanting to improve my teaching practice, it’s good to read articles like this that make observations on teacher practice.  Sadly, I figure too often in the negative statistics mentioned, which is not to say I’m a terrible teacher - I think I’m doing okay - it’s a gigantic challenge to remain encouraging of students, to show them that they are in control of their learning,  and I know I’m always thinking about how things can be improved.

This article goes on to talk about what makes schools successful and then gives a personal opinion on what practices make a good teacher, including the use of rubrics.  What got me going on this blog is that a comment to the article pointed out that Alfie Kohn’s article, Trouble with Rubrics,  has a sobering assessment of rubrics as not only pointless, but that they even may detract from a student’s ability to think and be creative because they are primarily working to fulfilling the rubric rather than working creatively. He cites various authors and articles.

Anyway it’s got me thinking about whether the kids in my classes really know what they are going to be tested on next week.   Tests are part of the problem I know,  but while I have to work to with them I might as well do the best I can.