Old School vs. New School

Kawehi- When reading your post, a couple of things came to mind. First, I agree totally that there are just some things that require drill and practice. Multiplication facts are an example of this. In third grade here in Arizona, we teach what multiplication means (groups of) but knowing the facts is a necessity has students get older. The other thing that came to mind when reading your post about the combination of 'old school' and 'new school' is the idea of standardized tests. Do you ever wonder if we are testing kids by 'old school' standards, but are teaching them by new world standards? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do think about the 'old school' and 'new school' often. I think that new teachers are the minority in schools, especially with all the budget cuts and tenured teachers being protected by the union. Here is a link to a pdf with information on Idaho's "Students Come First Plan", www.standwithluna.org/uploads/1/7/4/2/1742616/factsheet.pdf According to this source, "States across the country are working on laws to eliminate, and phase out or reform tenure. Colorado, Delaware and Rhode Island have already approved legislation that will tie a teacher’s tenure to performance..These states recognize that tenure may have been a rite of passage in the past, but it now serves as an obstacle to improving schools." So to connect this to your question, my thoughts are that we are teaching students that require us to think in terms of the times. What worked yesterday may not work today. We must always be reflective in our practices and know that to improve our teaching practices to meet the needs of students we need to reevaluate them and check if everything is still working right. Just like a car you have to take preventative actions by servicing your car regularly. If something is wrong you can address it before it get out of control or so bad you have to replace the whole thing. So just like we now fix new cars by taking a diagnostic we need to really figure out which parts needs fixing, or if it is really bad then we might just need to get a new car. Sorry to talk in analogy but that's how my mind works. I can't say that we are all teaching new world standards but there are a few of us and we are still testing kids by 'old school standards'. Until we figure out how to fix the areas that need fixing will be driving a car that may not be performing correctly.