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Re: TeacherInsight - Thoughts & Advice
Posted by rich on 7/01/09

    On 7/01/09, Miss Independent wrote:
    > I was always under the impression that student-centered meant adopting to the
    > student's various learning styles and modifying lessons to accommodate all
    > students. The goal isn't to water down content, but alter it in such a way that
    > it becomes accessible to everyone.

    That's a really fine line. Alter and water down. And does it mean that each
    student will do the assignment differently? That I will have different
    expectations for assessment? Or that I will have the same assignment for all,
    but it will be so easy that it is acheivable for all? These are tough questions.

    I think it depends on how you handle
    > these assignments and whether you are doing these "student centered"
    assignments
    > to either make life easier on yourself or if you're doing to really help your
    > student.
    >
    > It just makes me think that in the end the TI is an instrument that can't
    > differentiate between authentic student-centered teacher and just plain
    laziness.

    My definition of student-centeredness is acting in the best interests of the
    student after careful reflection. Therefore, I'm not sure why holding content
    in high regard is not considered to be student-centered. I would have loved to
    have had a math teacher who thought that math was the coolest. You have to be
    shown how to love a subject. Instead, I had teachers who were pretty
    indifferent to the subject and my response was "Why bother if the subject
    doesn't even excite a math teacher?" I now deeply regret not pursuing math
    further and my math education was a strong factor in that decision. I'm not
    even sure that a couple of them were much good at math. What makes test scores
    increase is exposure to strong content. And helping students acheive is
    probably the single-most student-centered thing a teacher can do. After all,
    you're a teacher, not a therapist.

    That being said, I think that caring for students, being compassionate, and
    focusing on individual needs is important. Very important. A student must know
    that you will act in their best interests and that makes it easier for a student
    to accept when you tell them they need to redo an assignment.

    Mark's post again confirms my suspicions that principals really don't know how
    to identify what they want in a teacher and are all too willing to let Gallup do
    their thinking for them. I am far from convinced that Gallup can identify decent
    teachers either. When 90% of my students anonymously evaluate me as an
    Excellent or Very Good teacher for 7 years, but TI puts a hand up and says, "Oh
    no you don't," something is wrong. The TI is not identifying people that
    students will respond to and learn from. And in my definition, that is not
    acting in the best interests of the students and is not student-centered.

     
     

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