#questionreflection

Beginning this semester, I was starting to get bogged down and scared of what the future held in terms of testing my students and being evaluated based on how my students perform. Overtime and through discussions in class and with my coaching teacher, I have become much more comfortable with the reality of standardized testing. Now that I know more about myself as a teacher, I am much less intimidated. I am confident in my abilities to provide quality instruction that will help my students do well on tests. Testing should not be the driving force of my instruction, but just another supporting topic (i.e. testing as a genre). If I teach the way I know to be theoretically sound, then my students will learn the content necessary. Before, I let testing scare me into teaching in a way that forced students to be passive agents in learning. Now I know that students learn best when they actively engage with material and take responsibility for learning. That is what I plan to implement in my classroom. I want to provide students the agency and autonomy to be learners and explorers in my classroom. By working with them to set a tone for the year, I believe that my students will not only do well on tests, but will become lifelong learners that love the acquisition of knowledge and the power that comes with knowing.