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  Standardized tests: what are they good for? Absolutely nothing (did you sing the song in your head?). But wasting money,  time, and sanity. I get why our country implemented strict standardized testing. The United States has fallen behind in both  reading and math with much of the first world counties and we wanted a way to improve our standing. Of course they would  come up with testing as a way to hold our students, teachers, and schools accountable. There is a long history of testing in the  United States, but it really took hold with the passing of “No Child Left Behind” in 2002. This policy “mandated annual testing  in  reading and math (and later science) in grades 3-8 and again in grade 10,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). This law had an  outrageous requirement “that 100% of U.S. students be “proficient” on state reading and math tests by 2014,” (Encyclopedia  Britannica). Even if I wasn’t in education and knew little about testing, an...

I have said from the beginning of my teaching career in 2013, as I gained experience with having access (though very  limited, at the time) to Chromebooks in my classroom that it was both a blessing and a curse. According to American Universities, School of Education, “many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the last decade,” (see link below). I would argue that most of these high-demand jobs have something to do with technology. It should be a schools job to teach students how to be responsible users of that technology. There are many tools teachers can use to  incorporate technology on the classroom, ranging from videos, textbooks, the Google arsenal of tools, learning management  systems, robots, artificial intelligence. When taught and used responsibly these tools can greatly improve engagement and  “more inclusive learning environments,” (American University). I really like this line from American University “The promise of  educational techno...