As a year-long teaching intern I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to work in a school four days a week for the entire school year. While my graduate classes have given me the theory, combining that with a lot of practice in an authentic situation cannot be matched. In just a few short months I have learned so much about being a teacher in today's environment. I have not only learned how to teach math or science or writing, but I have been able to see the extreme challenges which today's teachers are up against.
The most difficult of these is the focus on standards and getting the students to pass the SOL's. SOL's in theory are not a bad thing, but I wonder if the designers of NCLB ever imagined a world where teachers feel compelled to teach to the tests so that their students get a high score. The students and teachers must work at such an aggressive pace to cram in all of the material that the students need to master. I know that everyone, teachers and administrators, are trying to do what is right. But, I feel so bad for the students at times when we've had to move on to new topics to stay with the pacing guide when they had not fully mastered the current material. We only hope that through our review sessions we can help them to master the concepts going forward. Unfortunately, I do not have a better suggestion for a way to measure that our children are learning the necessary skills to be successful in the future. As a teacher, I know that what I can do is to do my best teaching in a way that reaches all of the students so that they can, in turn, do their best.
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