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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]I do think it's possible for someone like to me to face less burn out because [b]we have never known the "old" way before data collection and high stakes testing was a thing. [/b][b]That's the way we are learning teaching goes, you know? So for us, that's the only way we've known it to be[/b], but I can see how if you taught for a long time before that became big, that shift could be so frustrating. My big goal as a teacher is to find ways to still teach kids above and beyond the SOL standards and still make it interesting and valuable to them beyond "here's what you need to know for the SOL."[/quote]

I have been teaching for 29 years and what you are saying scares me to death.  I have watched as great teachers retire and new teachers begin.  The new ones don't know any other way except this "teach to the test" mania.  It will be private schools for my grandchildren.  [/quote]

Just because we know we have to teach them what's on the SOLs doesn't mean we won't do everything we can to teach beyond the test as well. There have always been good and bad teachers. Nowadays, the good teachers are the ones who will make sure the kids know what they'll need to know to do well on the SOL, but will also go beyond that and indulge in "real" teaching, where they're disseminating valuable information in an interesting way to the students to keep them engaged and hungry to learn. That is my personal commitment to the kids that I currently student teach and will eventually teach on my own: what they need to know for the SOL is the floor of where I need to be in terms of instruction. That's the most basic level of teaching, and to only teach that isn't fully committing to being a great teacher. I have no plans to tailor my instruction purely to what is on the SOL without including anything else. The good teachers will have that mindset. The bad ones will, yeah, just teach to the test. But again, there have always been the teachers who go the extra mile and devote themselves to the kids, and those who do the bare minimum and walk out of the building at 3 pm. [/quote]

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