Teaching for Tomorrow Article

The "Teaching for Tomorrow" article reflects what I think what we've talked about a lot in class.   That traditional assessments for the most part are based on rote memory.  Now, I should say for the most part because I think our State Assessments do require application and evaluation of knowledge to some extent, but not to the extent they should and since they're the basis of public perception and cramming information does occur.  The focus should be on progress and and development of skills of course instead of remember pieces of knowledge in the short term.  Rote memorization does have place in education(times tables, periodic table, definition of literary terms), but then application of that engrained knowledge in the memory needs to occurs.  Kids like rote memorization; it's easy;  I had a poetry test where students were given literary excerpts of poems and then identify what literary terms were used.  I had several A grade  students say, "Mr. Mohr, if we just had to match the definition with the literary term, I could do that."  I told them think is hard;  I had students do poetry project power points where they had to choose a selected theme and explain how three poems the choose incorporated  that theme and how poem connected to them as well as a reinforcement tool of literary terms used in the poem.  Most had no problem adding the "bells and whistles to their power points(right brain creativity); however, students wanted me to give them the answers to high level thinking skill and when I told them that thinking took time they were frustrated.  Am I perfect with using high order thinking skills? No;  I'm trying incorporate more activities that will prepared students for the 21st century especially after that class, but I have to be willing to break out of my comfort zone and realize  the way I was taught could've been better;  You learn best by doing;  Any beginning teacher will tell you that of those classes you took don't prepare you for the real deal.  I think  that none of the teachers at O'Neill Public Schools come near the example of pure rote memory teaching the author gave in the book.  I know few teachers that comes close to that.