I am not afraid of the Big Bad AI

 High-Stakes Testing & AI: Be careful of what you wish for? Upfront, know that I reject the notion that standardized testing should drive learning. 

The Impact of High-stakes Testing on the Learning Environment

“ Kids today are literally spending half of their school year on learning how to take a high-stakes test, testing is adding up to about 5 months of their schooling. In elementary school, we are teaching our students how to take a test through tutorials, then setting up practice labs, and then practicing the actual test, and then we add in staff meetings and staff tutorials, it is overtaking our schools. Day in and day out testing is at the forefront of learning, and it is consuming are teacher’s daily curriculum. The pressure is high when being put in a position of being sanctioned or rewarded so it is difficult to spend less time teaching the material that will be on an achievement test.” ~ Maddolyn Ritt (2016 The Impact of High-stakes Testing on the Learning Environment  > https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1660&context=msw_papers <

Should anyone be surprised that 2 decades of high-stakes testing reducing learning to multiple choice and brief correct responses have made it easy for AI to build essays using these kinds of responses? Never mind how such learning reduces how teachers and students interact with each other. AI is the perfect essay for questions built on those 5-months of endless test prep from grades 3 to 12. Testing companies/CEOs wished for ways to profit, and policymakers and legislators gave it to them. Perhaps our learning motto should be American Children are Test Scores and Profits? 

Negative Effects of AI in Education EDU Passport 

“To begin with, AI may reduce the opportunities for students and educators to interact and socialize with each other. These interactions are important for developing skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, and collaboration. AI cannot fully substitute the human connection and the emotional support that educators and students provide to each other in the classroom.”  > https://blog.edupassport.io/2023/07/negative-effects-of-ai-in-education-sector/#:~:text=To%20begin%20with%2C%20AI%20may,empathy%2C%20communication%2C%20and%20collaboration. <

Rather than discussing ways to enhance our human connections? Rather than discuss how AI may reduce how students and teachers interact and socialize, we are worried about AI writing essays for our students. Essays that over the past 2 decades have been watered down to factual short learning responses void of our personal, social, emotional, and cultural realities. Essay made to order for AI.
My students no longer question what they are learning, they really question why or what I ask of them. However, they always ask for the rubric, count the points, and chase points not learning. They play a game of filling boxes, not their minds. 

I have learned to ask those bigger questions about why and what we learn, asking learners to discuss, question, and respond not only with simplified facts, but to elaborate on how what they learn impacts them personally, socially, emotionally, politically, and culturally. Are there hidden agendas in what Dr. Turner is asking you to learn?  My best defense against AI, is to engage my students in discussions about bigger reasons for learning.

I am not afraid of the Big Bad AI,                                                                                                                Dr. Jesse P. Turner 
CCSU Literacy Center Director 

A short video blog on the above.

 Just in case you like to listen to the tune that inspired my morning walk it is Peter Seeger singing the cover of "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwUp-D_VV0 < 

High-Stakes Testing hijacked PURPOSE!

 

If you were to rank and sort my old high school according to today’s standards and test scores. James J. Ferris would rank at the bottom. 

A Ghetto school whose teachers could care less about test scores and rankings. Our teachers were on a bigger mission than test scores, their standard was far bigger than any Common Core State Standard. Their goal was to make us literate adults, readers who loved and valued books. Valued books more than movies, valued reading to understand books prepared us for the best of times, and armored us for the worst of time. They Left so addicted to books that there has never been a night without reading in my life.  

I remember Mrs. Sheeran saying we are going to read an amazing book. Imagine two men in love with the same woman, one about to be executed in his cell. The one she loved most was about to die. Girls, can you feel her pain? Now imagine the other who loved her so much he would give up his own life just to make her happy. She said boys all of you raise your hand if you would make the same decision? Only my hand was up. The others were you are crazy Jesse, she said not crazy, but a true Romantic. I am the books I read, and yes I am a romantic. Then she read Dickens's opening of “A Tale of Two Cities”

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Then we got lost in that opening quote for the whole class. Increasing the pacing of her lesson had no place. She regularly stopped time for us, again and again. 

Then she gifted us with reading chapter one for homework. I read the whole book that night. Then each night I read each chapter anew as any True Romantic would. We love learning about the French Revolution, London, and Paris. She had us from day one and held us through novel after novel. This is how teachers did it before these high-stakes tests; hijacked the purpose for becoming literate. I hope this is the way a few still do.

Blessed by incredible teachers,                                                                                                            Dr. Jesse P. Turner
CCSU Literacy Center Director 

If you want to hear the song I listened to on my morning walk today it is Lou Lou's " To Sire With Lov" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV1qmmMwc9M  < 

Momma, I can can see clearly now

 I would give it all up to go back to that dark day to say grace with Momma. 

Holidays have a way of lifting and breaking people, the lifting is easy, the breaking, well that takes more time. I am as blessed as any man, sitting around the fire here with our daughter, peeling potatoes with Carolyn, and singing Happy Chapin’s Greatest Hits on Vinyl. Loving every tune… Mr. Tanner, Cats in the Cradle, Taxi, 30,000 Pounds of Bananas, and All My Life is a Circle played. War is everywhere, but here at 110, we are safe, fed, warm, and blessed as can be. 

But then reflections come around, to that not quite 12 years old, Father abandoned, Thanksgiving before eviction. In every friend’s home, their Turkeys roast. Momma put our Thanksgiving feast of spaghetti and sauce on the table, reached across the table, and said join me in saying Grace. Now, I am not the soul I am today. I was just a boy consumed by anger and confusion of his life turned upside down. I yelled at her, saying it sucks, we have NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING, to be thankful for, and ran out of the kitchen. Put on my sneakers and ran out of the house. Leaving her alone. Alone, when she needed me most. Alone, like a million mothers. 

Kicking garbage cans, blaming my mother for everything. Knowing quite well, he left the month before when I jumped up and took the slap meant for her. Screaming I won’t let you hit her…he would be gone the next day, not even a note. As cruel as it sounds, he left for me, understanding his addictions, hate, and abuse would end up being on me. She knew; she accepted, she understood goodness in his leaving.

It would take 2 years of being homeless, and 15 more years for this boy to understand. He would come home to die, and she would take her grown son to visit him. Why, are we doing do, I hate him. He is your father, and if you love me, then you must forgive him, and love him. She said to go into the chapel for a bit. Looking up at the cross, I say he is not deserving. But, who is deserving? I pray forgive me, forgive him, forgive us all, Lord. Manhood is never easy, never simple, but it does come around.

I man up, go up the elevator to see this man, hold his hand, and say the word through crying eyes, I love you, Dad. That moment turns the tide, and I start a new manhood journey to being a better me. Momma knew it wasn't about her or him, it was always about their boy.  Not every I love you is real, comes easy, but every real I love you makes a boy a man. 

Thanksgiving regrets, after that Thanksgiving tantrum, I returned home to find Momma sitting in the dark, drinking her tea, smoking her cigarette, and crying. I wanted so much to run to her and say I am sorry Momma. I was just an angry confused little boy and rather than run to her I ran to my bed. I was not the man I am today; this man's stuff comes too late. I would give all I own to go back, say grace, and hug her until my arms were too weary to hold on. Things would change, the sun would come out again, and an angry and confused little boy would eventually become the loving son his mother needed. 

I love holidays, but memories do come around to students lost, Francisco and Alex, dear, sisters Jessica and Maryellen, Niece Cathy, and dearest brothers from other mothers, Jose, Anthony, and Michael. Greif comes around, but I am not the boy, I am a man grown to understand that the sun shines on many beautiful holidays. I am the man blessed with still more good ones to come. I am thankful for this day. I send my Thanksgiving wishes for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, and every corner of the world. May peace and love rain down on all people, everywhere, all faiths, non-believers, races, and LGBTQ sisters and brothers.  Someday I too will be no more, but love is infinite, it has a way of hanging on long after. I know the love we share matters more than hate, and it is love that carries through. Momma, knew that and made sure I did as well. She left me a lifetime of her mother's love to hold me strong. Thank you, Momma. 

Today is good, today is blessed here at 110. I have only one regret, one I would give all I own to change. I would give it all up, to go back to that dark kitchen to say Grace with Momma and enjoy that most blessed Thanksgiving feast of spaghetti and sauce. Embracing her, loving her, saying Momma I finally understand. 

Blessed by the highs and the lows of a blessed loving mother who knew the sun would come out tomorrow. Cling to the good ones, God sent them to hold us strong. 

Wishing all a million more blessings,                                                                                                     Jesse the boy who understands 

If you want to know the tune on my mind this holiday. It is Jimmy Cliff " I can see clearly now" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c 

If I could time back time

Momma's boy until we are no more