Forget the test! Teach thoughtfully

I divided this topic about tests and teaching into three parts because it was getting so long. This is part 2.  It follows part 1.

Teach thoughtfully - “Boring” is the first word many students,
especially the ones who need it most, will use to describe school.
This is because the teacher-based tradition in school has often become
irrelevant to their lives. The industrial-based school system seeks to spit out cookie-cutter products that have been molded into joyless automatons.

None will be left behind. Schools have not changed to meet the changing needs of their products…uh…students.

Students are not widgets! Student come to school with different backgrounds, motivations, and needs. We cannot stuff them into a mold and hope they conform. We must meet them where they are, and bring them along on their learning journey to a point much farther than they could have dreamed coming to on their own. We must teach them what kind of person, what kind of learner, and what kind thinker
they are. The learning must revolve around the student, not the student around the learning. Students should be the primary focus of our classroom, not the content. The students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care, so teach thoughtfully.

Teach deeply…teach thoughfully, and the tests will take care of themselves.
(Thanks Durff for contributing this idea.)

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