Assessments!

"Of all the tools teachers have, one of the most important tools to use is assessments - Scott Kinkoph

As a current and future educator I have a strong philosophy on assessments. I think assessments are the backbone of our teaching and learning. "It’s not a stretch to say that assessment is a hot button issue in education; however, you’d be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn’t see the value in measuring student progress." Every Teachers Guide to Assessments I see great value in assessments but there is also a downfall to giving these assessments. 

I think that it is important to CONTINUALLY assess and measure students learning. Continually is the key word because if we do not measure it frequently we will not have accurate and up to date data. Students are learning more and more every time we teach on a certain subject. If we are measuring their understanding or lack of understanding, we will better be able to reinforce or reteach the information they have no yet grasped.  

I really like the article Every Teachers Guide to Assessments because it tells the good bad and the ugly of assessments. "The information gleaned from assessments is extremely valuable. Besides a score, which gives quantitative data about how much of the material tested a students has mastered, information about student misconceptions can be determined by analyzing which distractors they chose and why." Every Teacher The information that is obtained by these assessments are important because we are able to either expand on a certain topic or move on because students have concrete knowledge about the content area. Although these assessments give us crucial information, we have to use them appropriately in order for them to fulfill their purpose for us as educators. 

After we acquire the results from the assessment we must use the information in a certain and useful 
way. If we find that students are struggling in a certain area we need to find other interesting ways to teach this information. If we as educators are able to take the information and reteach it in a different way , students may be able to grasp the information if we approach it differently. I believe that assessments are just as important to teachers as they are to the students. They allow us to evaluate our teaching skills along with evaluating the students learning.  Overall I think that assessments are very important for both learning and educating our students!