WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
I’ll let you read the excellent post yourself, but I have to quote you this from Haberman: “Star teachers spend as little time as possible on tests and grading. Apart from particular school rules that must be followed, they are generally quite disinterested in the topic. Their evaluations are based primarily on students’ effort. … [T]hey have little faith in - and place little credence on - standardized tests of any kind.” There’s some other great quotes in there for the next time your Head of Department has a go at you for not slaving over marking books rather than actually teaching. (via dy/dan) 
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Hmm. Sometimes it makes you wonder if teachers should still be called by that name. Maybe processors, instead?
I think the term "facilitator" is a great way to describe a modern teaching approach. When I was completing my degree I had a personal "Learning Facilitator" assigned to me. This person worked with a group of students throughout the course as a kind of mentor/guide. This role, I think, is an important part of teaching.
Bless you, PaulWill, I totally agree, but I was being facetious (not a clever move in a written environment), and referring to the role that teachers are forced into by all the processes/bureaucracies other than actually teaching.
All the same, with all the information that is available to teachers atm, perhaps some Pre-processing is required, before the processing can begin!