Tuesday, April 5, 2011

gerald weinberg

this is tough.. because on a whole, i think we need to abandon any standard testing, and i think school should no longer be compulsory.   [yeah - i know - ridiculous no? i really think not.]

i'm reading Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken - which is simply yet another affirmation that we are continually weeding out the zeros because we think they are worth nothing. (as a math teacher, also more proof that we've spent too much time talking about the zoom in rather than the zoom out part of math.)

i'm having a hard time and need major help here.
spending less on testing would be a great help financially.
making school a game, is brilliant, and i'm sure i'm doing it disservice by speaking now, because of how little i know of it. but i'm currently stubborn on this, who decides what basics are - that are put in that game, or in the project (based learning) or whatever?
yes - this is all better, but why do better when we can beat that? isn't our aim indispensable people? happy people? people who have defined and attained their own success? isn't our aim a better community? society? world?
haven't we looked around enough to see that we are not drinking life in?

ok. so - in helping a district decide their curriculum goals - when i believe that's a major part of the problem. or how to improve testing - when i believe that is a major part of the problem.
and yet - helping a district to jump ship may not even be listened to.
do keep making tweaks? at least suggestions that are better, or do you keep focusing on the jumping ship?

anyway..
these are great posts by Weinberg.. whether we're testing the way we test now (or slightly better)- or whether we have jumped ship and these are iterations within a person, continual 24/7 feedback, where bugs are embraced, celebrated...

the parable of the ones
testing without testing



___________________________________