School is out at last And I'm so glad I passed (Ry Cooder)

Term 4 has arrived and that's usually a combination of the manic and a blur. Second week now of eight. And that's almost gone.

For the students, Term 4 is all about sitting exams. Especially so in the Year of Covid-19 disruptions. First some practice ones and then the external NCEA high stakes ones.

I'd like to put Mr Exam on trial.

All up students will be on exam leave for 27 out of the term's 38 days. 

So, of those 27 days some revision will be going on and maybe some learning but it will be more along the lines of how-do-I-get-prepared-for-passing-exams?

Funnily enough though - after leaving school there are no exams for our students. So we are, in effect, training them to do something they never have to do again.

Your witness...

Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw - a hundred billion bottles (The Police)

Back in the day (1973)...

...er...and now (2019)

It's examination time.

As I did a recent exam invigilation I thought about what had changed since my days of sitting school exams.

• Pens writing on exam papers? check
• Times written on a board? tick
• Rows of desks? you bet
• Quiet students? check

As I did this mental tick box, I realised that only one thing had changed.

Water.

Every student had a water bottle on their desk from which they took a slurp every so often.

Luxury.

Apart from that though...

The tragedy of the last hundred or so years of education in NZ has been THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

It's crazy. Crazy, I tell you!

As we think so we become (Buddha)

Week 8, Term 3...hhmmmm...must be practice exam time, right? 

I am not a fan of Benchmark exams. 
Here's why:

• They mess with my routines
• The marking trebles  
• Exams (hand writing essays while sitting for hours) are not cool in the personalised blended educational world of 2016

And yet, I am a fan of Benchmark exams.
Here's why:

• They give the students new routines to embed
• Students get quality feedback on their progress
• Exams provide an individual snapshot of an ability to think on the spot in the personalised blended educational world of 2016

See, I do get it!

Mention of routines reminds me of this, the habit loop, from the Ditch That Textbook mastermind - Matt Miller:

We are a creature of our habits. Duhigg breaks down how practically any habit works in this cycle:

• Something triggers a routine in your life (the cue).
• You perform that routine.
• You get some reward (the reason you keep doing the routine).
• If the trigger didn’t exist, we would never engage in that habit.

The rewards from Benchmarks seem fairly obvious - successes and failures are individually recognised!

Top tip - read that Buddha quote again!