A Word of Thanks

I would like to thank all of my classmates for such a wonderful and successful semester. I feel that I have grown so much during this time and I will take everything that I have learned with me as I progress in this field. So much has been discussed throughout this semester that it is hard to just pick one thing that I loved the most. The videos that were provided by Walden University were such a big help in understanding how children developed through the years and I am glad that I am able to be apart of the Walden community. I would like to thank our wonderful instructor for opening our eyes to so many different issues as well as fascinating developments within children. I wish everyone a great Christmas Holiday break and a wonderful 2013.

Education is the Key to Unlock Treasure

"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure" ~ Emma Goldman

To Test or not to Test?....that is the question!

In the society that we live in there is pretty much a test fro any and everything imaginable. Don't get me wrong most testing strategies are good especailly when it comes to overall health. I for one am truly grateful for the test that can determine cancer and other termianl diseases but when it comes to education, the United States has gone a bit over board. In Louisiana, testing is required to see if a child is ready for pre-K and Kindergarten or whether a child can progress to the next grade. When it came to aptitude testing I was a complete wreck. My palms would become sweaty and I would be extremely nervous because I knew that if I did not pass the LEAP test, then I would be held back in that same grade. Testing and assessments should be done to measure the amount of knowledge a student has but I believe that their present grades within those subjects should aslo be taken into account. Many students have excellent grades on their report cards and then when it came time to graduate they could not because of their scores on the states testing exam. Louisiana testing is a statewide assessment regardless of what area of the state you are living in. Some parishes have better schools than others and often if a school ranks too low on testing then the state can take the school over. In other countries testng is peformed more on a local basis. Finland assessments are performance-based and created locally (Parker, 2012 www.adn.com ). Teachers in Finland focus more on preparing their students for critical thinking skills and often have test scores higher than U.S students on international assessments.

Parker, Tim. Standard tests don't promote real education.  April 6, 2012. www.adn.com