So as I was reading the Kids Take on "The Test" article I thought it was pretty crappy that the students were being taught TO a test. The article describes how a middle school class in Palatine, IL used Problem based Learning to develop test taking skills. I did think it was pretty smart of the teacher to connect the students to the test by showing them how it affected their school. It was almost propoganda. When the skills development was being explained it made me cringe. When you teach kids test taking skills, you arent really teaching them important skills for future use, you are really focusing on what is obviously important to teachers, money and repututation for their classroom. I understand that it allowed the kids to get better test scores and made them not think about what they were doing but.....IDK I am having a hard time justifying teaching to a test. The awesome thing is that it really motivated the kids to want to learn and actively engage in the process. All the responses put forth by students said that they had fun in school WHILE learning. That seems to be pretty hard to do sometimes. I do think PBL is a great way for kids to learn new skills and attract their attention to the classroom, I just dont agree at all with the project which this teacher chose to do the PBL on.

As I was reading this article I was trying to think about the kids from my middle school and high school who later came out. The article talked about the levels that an individual experiences homosexuality as an adolescent and I can't remember these people being open about it during these days. They definitely hid it back at school and didnt really open about until later. I am guessing this is becuz of the large stigma that homosexuality brings in rural setting. Even if they knew they were gay, most of these people would not tell any peers about it at school to avoid being made fun of. Adolescents is the time when kids are exploring their sexuality and making theirs their own. This article helped me understand when this process takes place in young people and will help me in the future to deal with students who are dealing with these changes. Hopefully there are more articles written about this, im sure I will need help dealing with students with this issue as I have not had alot of training or experience in this matter, though i do not see it being a problem for me.