More Quotes

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.  – C.G. Jung

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
Dr. Seuss 

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
Dr. Seuss 

Assessments

I don't really like assessments and I don't think that they give a correct understanding of what the child knows. We do multiple assessments in school, and we collect the data. We use this data to put children in groups or to see what level they are at for reading. They reason we use multiple assessments is because they are all different and tell us different information. For example in Kindergarten we assess kids to see if they know their letters, numbers, or what their Reading level is. So this tells me what they know. It doesn't tell me if they ate breakfast, or if they were able to get a good night's sleep, if they have clean clothes to put on their back. A child might do bad on one assessment and good on another, or bomb them all because they get anxiety about them. There are a lot of factors that assessments don't point out. I know assessments will not go away in the near future, so I will do my best to make sure I give them a fair shot.


I chose to research what assessments they are doing in Fiji, because I would like to go an volunteer there one summer. With the high poverty rate they have not all children are being educated. However this is the approach that the Fiji government is working towards. 
"In September 2005, an inaugural Education Summit was held in consultation
with educational stakeholders to review a 48-page document titled the Suva
Declaration: “Building a Strategic Direction for Education in Fiji 2006 – 2015.”
The document provided recommendations of six core curriculum ‘task-force’ groups on the following primary areas: the child, the curriculum, the school, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), human resources and the community."(Koya, pg. 30). They are working towards an Outcome Based Education. 

"While Outcomes Based Education (OBE) has been advocated in the West as a
means towards achieving quality educational outcomes since the 1990’s in the
USA and UK, the major policy changes in Fiji can be directly linked to FESP
 which adopts the Western Australian approach to outcomes based education."(Koya, pg. 31).
Educational Assessments are changing, so hopefully one day all children will get a good education there.
As I said before I don't really like assessments, but I make sure all of my kiddos get a fair results from them. What I mean by that is, if a student looks tired that day, I will wait till the next day to assess them.

Resources:
Koya. Vaka'uta, Cresantia (Frances). THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT:

 WHAT ARE WE ASSESSING AND WHY?

 An examination of the Internal Assessment Initiative at Secondary School Level

In Fiji . 2008