Extras from chapter readings (week 6)

So this week, I should be focusing on performance objectives but my mind wanders to performance tasks.  I love ill-structured problems, or rather I love watching my students solve ill-structured problems.  I am a huge fan of Shelagh Gallagher's work with gifted children and especially her problem-based learning units.  My teachers complain that there is simply not enough time in the school year to implement units like hers because they are in a time crunch as it is to cover content before state standardized testing begins.  My district paid for DefinedStem.com which is a great resource for smaller, content-centered PBL performance tasks.  It is great!  Unfortunately, not enough teachers used it last year and they discontinued the subscription.  I am frustrated that teachers will not try new things and that administrators jump into a new model without preparation or adequate staff training and then discontinue when they don't see results - results that they shouldn't even expect to see without providing a little extra support or incentive.  Everyone agrees that we need to focus on critical thinking skills but everyone continues to teach to the tests.