You know, my (English) high school taught towards tests, in a big way. I blame the tests, not the basic motivation. Because, when the test involves writing off the cuff chemistry essays, I damned well had to have learnt the material to ace the test.

This is why our state tests (in English) are geared toward skills instead of content. It allows us to teach "to the test" without sacrificing curricula. I would be teaching the same skills in general.

The Supreme Court makes it legal to buy wine by mail!

lalalalala... dances around in circles in hopes of being able to buy Nashoba wine again...

[link]

I was thinking about talking about the issue of trust and expectations -- if you expect students to act like five-year-olds and not care about their education, well...

I was reminded of it this morning when someone posted to their lj about gigantic "Do not share this CD! Music-sharing is stealing! Bad! Evil! We will catch you!" warnings, and how irritating they were.

I don't know how it happened, but I mostly missed the whole-teach-to-test phenom when I was in HS. I don't doubt it exists now, and it probably did then. I just got lucky. The funny thing is that it was especially true for the AP classes, which are designed to end in a test!

I really wonder how those teachers are coping now, and if they are just going along as usual. For the most part, they were innovative and really worked on teaching you not just the materials, but how to think critically.

Goodness gracious, doesn't anybody proofread headlines?

they were innovative and really worked on teaching you not just the materials, but how to think critically.

That's what I try to do.

So, months and months ago I bought a game from MSN's games site. Paid with a credit card, got the game, boom. All set.

I'm signing into Hotmail today, and it tells me that the credit card I have on file with them is about to expire and I should update it. Um, excuse me? No. One payment, one time. This makes me nervous.

Good!

I honestly don't know what it is like at my hs anymore. I know my history teacher got state teacher of the year in the past five years (as he should!) but most of the politics of curricula I hear about is from my mom, so it is elementary level. And it can be really insane depending on the principal. There are some who would interpret guidelines as strictly as possible, leaving teachers no room to do anything but what is on the page.

"Three Men and Adena" is truly a classic, Nilly. I still can't get over how it makes me hope for a different ending every time, even as much as I've seen it. I think I feel about Baltimore the way Ed felt about NY.