Thursday afternoons - PPA time!! Yeh! PPA time ..... ummm ...... Planning, Preparation, A..... Shit - I have no idea what the A stands for.
Let me ask the Internet!
Assessment! That's why I never remember that bit!
I hate assessing children, especially little children - they get all nervous, agitated, panicky. And they know when they haven't got it all right. Their faces fall, they get wobbly lips and you know that moment when a big fat tear just sits on the edge of an eyelash waiting for the next one to push it over the precipice - that moment kills me everytime!
This is my 10th year of teaching and now I try hard to make assessment fun, but when I first started the job .... I didn't know how to do that. They don't explain how in college (.... they don't tell you about lots of things that it is too early for me to get into now, those things just creep up on you like a nasty joke!) .... experience has made me realise that my "gut reaction" & "lets play a game" assessment is much better than a test any day! The closing comment a headteacher made on an (for once really worthwhile) assessment course has stayed with me to this day.
"A pig farmer doesn't spend all his time weighing little piglets to get them fat and round and ready for market, he feeds them! Don't spend all your time assessing your children - teach them!"
4 comments:
That's very wise!
While I aknowledge that assessments are essential for teachers and parents to tailor programs for a child's learning, it always causes the inevitable feelings of failure and dismay when a child sees that he/she is unable to do a task other kids their age can.
Poor little loves, you are good to them though and that's what counts!
I like the pig farmer thingy. Mind you I would have used puppies and breeder instead but I guess using pigs was ok, in a sort of way. Even though puppies are cuter..
When Miss 4.9 was in preschool in the UK she had sheets and sheets of assessment forms her poor teachers had to fill out! I was amazed at the effort that was put into them.
Here she has a huge scrapbook with her work and the occasional comment by her teachers - and we get to talk about it next Wednesday.
You know, this sounds like hard work Jo. Give yourself a couple of days off.
ms.mac - I agree about tailoring their education .... but I do go by gut reaction on assessment. saves those tears.
happyand blue2 - yeh it is a good analogy .... are you allowed to sell puppies at the market?
fi - now that sounds v. sensible! When is your end of term/year there?
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