Final Post 6809

What an inspirational speech! The speaker’s main argument is that tests don’t prove how much knowledge a student learns and doesn’t prove the ability of the teachers and the schools. The speaker stated that tests don’t lead to education—they just look good. I completely agree with the speaker. Some students are not the best test takers. Students should not be penalized for this, just like they are because of No Child Left Behind. There are other ways to assess what the students have learned. Teachers are more concerned and pressured that their students get good scores on standardized tests to meet the annual yearly progress. Teachers are not focusing on the skills and interests of their students—if they did, the students would be more excited and interested in their own learning. Teachers need to harness these skills and use all available resources. By harnessing the specialized skills of our students, we will help our students to be more confident in the classroom and in their everyday lives outside of the classroom. Teachers need to teach their students how to be innovators and entrepreneurs, not just employees and consumers. Education should be personalized and strength based, where students make authentic and real products. So how does this speech relate to the course book “Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking out”? The future generations are surrounded by technology in their everyday lives. They are developing skills by blogging, tweeting, and gaming that could be used in the workplace. These are the skills we need to harness. From this point on, technology will be the forefront of many corporations and are students need to be taught how to use these skills.