Teacher of the Year

[George Sheridan <gsheridan@BOMUSD.K12.CA.US>]

"Teacher of the Year Takes on Testing, p. 21" says a headline on the cover
of the October issue of NEA Today.

Inside, an interview is titled, "Top Teacher Tackles Testing. Teacher of
the Year Michele Forman questions 'obsession with testing.'"

<<Michele Forman doesn't waste any time. The morning this spring that she
was introduced to the world as the 2001 National Teacher of the Year,
Forman was speaking out on the dangers of high-stakes testing in an
interview on National Public Radio.

<SNIP>

<<You say you want students to feel less bound by rigid learning
expectations. What does that mean?

<<Part of that is our obsession with testing; part is strict, mandated
curricula. We need to articulate curriculum and coordinate it so it makes
sense. But when it becomes so prescriptive that it leaves the teacher few
alternatives for creativity, when teachers feel bound to cover issues to
the degree that we can't stop and explore, that's destructive. <SNIP>>>


George Sheridan
Black Oak Mine Teachers Association, CTA/NEA
P.O. Box 703
Garden Valley, California 95633

Every victory brings another. Carry it on.

**********************************************
The sender is solely responsible for the content of the message. The
message does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National
Education Association, the California Teachers Association, or their affiliates.