TAKS
Why
should an agriculture teacher care? What’s in it for us? It is so easy to write
a “regular” quiz, why take the time and effort to make a TAKS formatted test?
As I wrote my very own TAKS test I asked myself these questions. Matching, true
and false, and simple multiple choice would be so much easier and less time
consuming, but then I thought about the students and changed my tune. TAKS
tests are easy for some, challenging for some and almost impossible for others.
Many times the students in our classes will be those struggling to make it by,
and we must take it as a personal challenge to help these students. As
educators it is our responsibility to help students succeed in life and in the
classroom.
Even though some
may say that agriculture classes are easy “blow off” classes, we have a huge
impact on our students and can greatly impact their progress. We should take
some time each day to help our students with the current standardized test that
they are faced with. We can make TAKS formatted quizzes and tests to help the
students become more acquainted with the style and format of the TAKS. We could
also start each day with a few bell work problems dealing with a different area
of the TAKS each day, i.e. math on Monday, science on Tuesday, etc…
Students are under
an enormous amount of stress as they prepare for and take their exams. If they
do not pass the test, they do not move on to the next grade level or graduate.
Teachers are also extremely stressed as they are held responsible for their
students’ results. As agriculture teachers we can be a help to both of these
groups. We can help alleviate some of the stress on teachers by easing their
load. For students we can provide a new perspective and another avenue for
help. Teachers are exhausted from TAKS overkill and students are tired of
hearing the same thing from the same teacher repeatedly. Students are often
times closer to their agriculture teacher and would greatly benefit from our
help.