Project 3

My First C4T Assignment
     For my first C4T assignment, I was given John Spencer's blog, Education Rethink.  My first comment was left on his blog post entitled The Greatest 21st Century Skill.  In this post, Mr. Spencer tells a story about a weekend he had to work at home on school related projects.  He described how his son wanted him to come pick oranges with him.  Mr. Spencer told him that he had to work.  Later, Mr. Spencer's wife takes the boy out to pick oranges and tells him that his father can not come because he has to work.  Mr. Spencer thought about it and decided that his schoolwork was not worth missing out on his moments with his family.  He says at the end of his post "figure out what matters in life and then have the courage, patience, and endurance to live accordingly."  I think this is a great statement.  Many people get so caught up with working that they forget to stop and smell the roses.  We only live once, and we should not waste time doing something meaningless that we could be spending with the ones we love .  I think this is a great concept, and I loved this post by Mr. Spencer.
     The second blog post from Mr. Spencer in which I commented was 10 Reasons Why Most Tests Lead to Lower Standards.  This time, Mr. Spencer talked about the problems with testing.  He gives ten reasons that support his argument that most tests lead to lower standards.  One of the examples he gives is that children just cram material into their heads just long enough to do well on the test, then they forget the material.  I totally agree with his ideas.  I can actually say that I am guilty of this practice.  Who isn't?  Even though I agree tests are not helping students learn, how would you give students credit without tests?  If a student knows there will be no test, he/she will probably not look at the material at all.  This is sad but true.  I don/t see any clear solutions to this problem.  On  different note, Mr. Spencer also had a wonderful drawing he had done himself in this post.  I have really enjoyed reading what Mr. Spencer has to say.