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My name is Christina Costa and I am an eighth grade physical science teacher in Newark Valley Central School District. We are a very small, rural district. Science is not a big priority in this district as math and English language arts scores are low and absorb most of the resources.
With the new focus in teacher evaluation, state test scores become much more important in teaching. As much as we all dislike this, it's it’s something we cannot ignore. Having said that, it is very important to me that I retain as much inquiry-based learning in the classroom as I can while I prepare students for the assessment. Currently, the ELA teacher and I co-teach a research project in which students learn and share information about energy resources. This is not a subject that receives a lot of focus and is very new, overwhelming and intimidating for our students. I look forward to creating a project that will add depth to this topic.

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