testing

On Making Sense of One’s World Through Inference

June 15, 2010 Jose

Two weeks ago, I had the strangest dream where I was back in college on a panel in the midst of a few familiar people, one of whom I disliked for the majority of my organizational career. I remember her spouting some nonsense about the so-called Black Agenda and what we “need to be doing” [...]

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FACK! [Or, 5 Ways To Handle The Day Before The Big Math Test]

May 4, 2010 Jose

To new math teachers, this sort of stress only compares to that getting injected with a thin, long needle for the first time or sitting in a dentist’s chair with your mouth full of something-caine waiting for a root canal. You know it’s going to benefit you in the long run just to be over [...]

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The Real Purpose of Math Is …

April 21, 2010 Jose

Anyone who’s ever had to fill in this blank understands my pain: “The real purpose of learning math is _____” I have a variety of answers, but usually, it’s straight-forward: much of the math you learn is applied to real-life situations, and the ability to do it yourself with no need for a calculator makes [...]

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Doing a Touchdown Dance, Throwing the Chalk to the Floor

June 9, 2009 Jose

Imagine spending 8 whole months with 2 hours in mind, and those 2 hours have a major impact on your “teaching” career. You prepare with that in mind. You start with diagnostics, already have your eye out for certain warning signs, keep your pencil sharp, and make sure your lessons integrate techniques to help students [...]

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Communicating The Inability to Communicate

May 7, 2009 Jose

Today, I proctored the listening portion of a state exam that determines whether or not a child knows the English language or not. My first instinct with this particular statewide test is that, through my own informal observations, students can pass the regular state exam but when it comes to this particular exam, some never [...]

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Incalculable

October 11, 2007

Every year, sometime in September, teachers and administrators get a huge stack of papers describing to us exactly how our kids performed in the 2-3 largest tests in the city (for those outside of the city: Math, English / Language Arts, and Mastery of the English Language). I honestly feel sorry for the tons of [...]

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