When is a test not a test?

Apparently my son’s maths teacher has been banned from using the word “test”. He was also told he couldn’t call them “assessments” either.

So today they had what the teacher has decided to call “a celebration of knowledge”.

😆

Did everyone get a medal?

It’s not an American school!

surely it’d be a numberwang ?

I can understand it not being a test, as if he is not being tested, nor is his knowledge. It does sound like an assessment, but of course assessments have some many negative connotations nowadays, it makes it difficult to choose the right word. What would you suggest?

Quiz

Did the teacher use the blackboard..? Oh, wait – that’s yet another word we can’t use… 😕

You just made that up. There has been no prohibition of the word Blackboard, it happens that very few schools still have blackboards, but in fact the VLE which most schools and colleges use is actually called Blackboard and this has been unproblematic. Funny though, because there is a word I would use for those who practice this lazy derision and in fact that really is a word we can’t use, in here anyway

You just made that up.

I’m not so sure the blackboard ban thing didn’t happen as knee jerk reaction or misinterpretation in some nervous local authorities. I certainly remember several teachers in the late 80’s /early 90’s telling us they’d been told by Strathclyde Council not to say it. This was about the time we were offered a week’s amnesty to remove racist graffiti from jotters etc and a hysterical teacher sent me to be headmaster because she overheard me saying that Michael Jackson wanted to be white.

Strange times and confused people.

Well I’m sure I’ve come across the term “chalkboard”.

Oh and during my time as a public health engineer (sewerage) manholes became access chambers.

As for test, how about “evaluation”?

let’s see who is stupid day ?

Formative and summative assessments. That’s what they are.

Kid a a borders primary was suspended and a parents meeting called because he sang bah bah black sheep. (Roberton primary, it’s shut now there were only a dozen kids )

We cant have mocks anymore as it makes them sound funny. Its all Pre Public Examinations now!!

Purely advisory questions?

You just made that up. There has been no prohibition of the word Blackboard, it happens that very few schools still have blackboards, but in fact the VLE which most schools and colleges use is actually called Blackboard and this has been unproblematic.

Many years ago i worked for a company making childrens easels, eg BLACKBOARDS, the ones in charge decided the use of the word Blackboard could be seen as derogatory, so i was sent a memo telling me in future they where to be called Chalk boards, a few weeks later got asked to manufacture some as a trial with a white faced side,eg white boards, and a chalk board side, i rewrote the memo and sent it back saying some people may find the use of the term Whiteboard offensive and they should be called Painting easels, never got any more work from them.

The same people decided all toys that children hit with a hammer or some other item would be banned from sale, no more hammer peg, or a few other toys.

Our rugby tour to Blackpool, Whitehaven & Cockermouth was cancelled for obvious reasons

We tried to go to Scunthorpe but the firewall blocked it.

It’s a Knowledge Audit

A test is not a test when it’s a PISA assessment – much of which is a computer guessing how a pupil who might have sat a test might have answered a hypothetical test….and now we seem to be basing education policy on it.

You just made that up…

I’m a teacher… I never make stuff up. 😉

It’s like the motorbike “certificate of basic training”. It’s not a test, you can’t fail. Oh, can I just have the certificate now? No, you have to complete the training succesfully. So it’s a test? No. At the end of the day, once completing the training, do I definitely get the certificate? No, if you’re not good enough you don’t get it. So it’s a test? No.

I teach a group of kids with learning and behavioural issues, they are doing a course which is national 3 equivalent to lower than afoundation gcse.

There are assessments. Do you go lightly and give pupils with very few positive experiences of conventional education a positive outcome or do you fail them for not getting 8/16 on a test?

Talent Contest

When you know the correct answers in advance. 😉

X Factor.