In graduate school, I had a professor that was Amazing. I learned so much from her class. She allowed her students to take charge of their own education and to be creative about it. We would read a couple of chapters, participate in threaded discussions and projects, and when we came to class, we'd choose something that we enjoyed and learned in our readings and we would add in how it applied in our lives or a real-life situation. Taking her tests was my favorite part and I am a student that hated taking tests and still do when they are done different than her tests. She would give us about 10 to 20 questions (Quizzes only 5 questions) and then we talked about what we learned on those topics and she was smart, nobody could ever cheat in her class, she gave out three different tests. I wouldn't cheat anyway, but I did see students who tried too. She would grade on our knowledge of each topic/question. She was Very fair on her grading. I Always did Great on her tests.
If you give me a multiple choice, standardized test, fill in the blank test, or any other type like those, I would fail and fail Badly. I knew the classes I was taking. I read the materials, did the homework, always A's on my papers and essays, but those tests killed me. They would bring my average from an A down to a B-, but any class that I am allowed to write about what I know and my life experiences, I always have received above a 100%, but you couldn't receive the points above that.
I remember sitting in one of her classes and thinking..."If I ever decide to teach, I would use the same techniques for my students."
