Monday, March 23, 2015

The outcomes of no change

I came across this quote a while ago and it made me stop and think. 
"If you focus on outcomes you will never change. If you focus on change you will get outcomes." 

Outcomes come slowly to begin with. But they will never come if we do not change. As a teacher I wait for those numbers to start pouring in over the summer. Ah standardized test scores. How glorious and nerve wrecking at the same time. Will the outcomes be what we aimed for all year? There are always let downs and surprises that come out of this discovery.

What I have been wrestling with this year is the quote above. The outcomes of these new common core state test scores seem to be a mystery not to mention how they will affect teachers and students is relatively unknown. Because these two factors are not chiseled out in stone the outcomes are taking a back seat this year. It's not that I'm ignoring potential outcomes; I just do not know what these outcomes are nor how they will affect others.

 Change has played a major role in teaching this year. The old test has retired and a new kid is on the block. Hello Florida State Assessment. Our song and dance for the FCAT is out dated. Causing us to develop new tricks in order to impress Mr. FSA.

 It's like going on a blind date. I am unaware what this person will find admirable. So what do you do in this type of situation? You change because quite frankly there is nothing else you can do. Change your clothes, jewelry and slap on a fresh color of polish because you have a boy to impress. Unfortunately this so called boy comes in the form of a test and could care less what you look like. Unless you are clumsy and some how mess up this computer based test by exiting before you were told to. So here's to the year of change. May the outcomes be ever in our favor. 

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