Introduction: Gabbie Cruz

Hello! My name is Gabbie Cruz. I am a second year early education major at Kutztown University, and I am participating in a research study on standards-based assessment for mathematics in elementary school classrooms. Throughout my experiences in the American school system, I have found myself frustrated by the fact that the focus in classrooms is less about learning the content and more on getting good grades. This is detrimental students for a variety of reasons - the main reason being that students are too busy trying to look good on paper that they aren't actually able to exhibit the skills they claim to have. For that reason, my philosophy on teaching is to use a variety of assessments and activities that will allow students of all learning types to exhibit their knowledge on the subject at hand while using some of those activities to also work on social and motor skills. This will allow them to move on to the next grade level and eventually apply their knowledge in the real world.