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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 137
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 137 |
As the parent of a gifted 3rd grader, I'm disheartened. I'm tired of fighting the same battle every year, and losing.
As a high school teacher, I'm also disheartened. I'm actually a fan of the new Common Core. As they're written (at least ELA, which is what I teach), they're really focused, good standards that get to the heart of what kids should know. It's the scripted curricula and publishing packages, I think, that are giving it a bad name.
However, the focus in my state is more and more on rigid, data-driven processes that lead to standardized testing. I spend a lot of time crunching numbers and devising BS assessments, instead of going back to those Common Core standards and refining my curriculum and assessments in a meaningful way. I'm one of those teachers that tries very hard to relate to and address my students as individual human beings, so being forced to be so data-driven is difficult for me, especially when there are only so many hours in the day. Other than her critique of Common Core, which I don't agree with, I am really on board with what Diane Ravitch said in her interview on the Daily Show this past week.
I'm also disheartened as an educator and a former gifted student and the parent of a gifted kid because I know that when teachers are stretched too thin, it's the gifted kids who lose out. It takes time and effort (and, let's be honest here, intellect) to design good and meaningful extension work for gifted kids, but when I'm scrambling to meet the IEPs of my special ed kids (none of whom are 2E, by the way), and trying to crunch data, and working to refine my curriculum and lesson plans to meet both the Common Core and the initiative du jour as dictated by my state or my local administration, and grading all of those essays (I teach English), and oh yeah, taking care of my own small children, it seems that the gifted kids fall by the wayside. It's a constant source of guilt for me.
Stacey. Former high school teacher, back in the corporate world, mom to 2 bright girls: DD12 & DD7.
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 978
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 978 |
"How do you feel about the public school system?"
...meh.
Underfunded, with curriculum that's too broad and shallow. Unless your child gets the right teacher, it's kind of a waste of time imo.
Last edited by CCN; 11/01/13 11:20 AM.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 423
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 423 |
Disillusioned! Absolutely!!!! You would think educators would be better trained in dealing with both ends of the bell curve, and we naively thought they would be happy to work with someone on the high end - how fun should that be to really be able to challenge a bright kid; a kid that loves to learn? This may be one of the most largely ignored and unrealized truths about education, that we "assume" that teachers are well prepared by college to teach a broad range of learning capabilities and learning styles. Rarely if ever do I hear ANY talk about teacher education reform, only reform of educating our children. It's almost impossible to have the later without the former. I remember talking with my wife about this subject, she's a public school teacher with 31 years experience. She said when she went to college for education, they only were required to take ONE class on teaching methodology....ONE. They also had no education on how to involve parents in their own child's learning nor did they get any education / coaching on how to talk with parents who had concerns.....is it any wonder then we view the vast majority of teachers as unable to complete the work they're hired for in an acceptable manner?
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,007
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I remember talking with my wife about this subject, she's a public school teacher with 31 years experience. She said when she went to college for education, they only were required to take ONE class on teaching methodology....ONE. They also had no education on how to involve parents in their own child's learning nor did they get any education / coaching on how to talk with parents who had concerns.....is it any wonder then we view the vast majority of teachers as unable to complete the work they're hired for in an acceptable manner? Teaching is a currently low-status occupation that is perceived as a place where less intelligent people go to have a stable job because they have to go somewhere and do something.
Last edited by JonLaw; 11/06/13 07:24 AM.
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 1,228
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 1,228 |
My experience:
Positive: Ability grouping so that the top group (top 15%-20%) could reach e.g. calculus by grade 10. Classes in general were interesting and we were learning new things.
Negative: Violence.
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 2,157
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 2,157 |
Many of the elementary teachers (general ed) in our district are being paid close to $80k! We are not in NYC or California, we're in the Midwest. Considering the amount of vacation time and time off each year, I find this to be an outrageous amount of money. If people actually did a good job and were highly skilled and trained, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But that's not really what we're experiencing. I get the feeling teachers who are on top of the longevity scale know that it would take A LOT for them to lose their jobs. So after a while they relax a little too much. They DO have difficult jobs--I would not want to manage a room of 26 unruly children, many with disorders/special needs. But I have a problem even getting teachers to communicate with me or address my concerns. Everyone talks about how teachers are not paid enough, and if we would only pay more, our kids would get a better education. I think that we should pay GOOD teachers more, not the ones who have been around for 20 years and are tired and sick of it, and continue to do the job so they can collect their pension. The question is--how do we figure out who the good teachers are?
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 669
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 669 |
My dh is getting paid half of that here in FL as a teacher. We live in the wrong area. We qualify for reduced lunch.
...reading is pleasure, not just something teachers make you do in school.~B. Cleary
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513 Likes: 1
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513 Likes: 1 |
On how to separate the good teachers...
- Create an incentive structure that rewards ability, not tenure or compliance with unions. Don't include, or minimize, an automatic tenure elevator beyond COLAs.
- Allow variation in pay and bonuses at the individual level.
- Focus key performance indicators on both inputs to teaching (e.g. continuing education credits in teachable subjects, new curriculum development, etc.) and outputs (test scores, change in student rankings year over year)
- Use 360 degree evaluations that incorporate at least a small random sample of parents and students
- Incorporate cameras into classrooms to facilitate random observation by principal and school psychologist...an idea that I haven't fully decided I like, but it would reduce agency problems
Last edited by aquinas; 11/07/13 01:27 PM.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Here's my current gripe about the school system-- 2e-specific. In order to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to the school program, Section 504 requires that schools provide accommodations. So, if a student with a disability needed an accommodation or related aids and services to participate in the field trip, those services must be provided.
For example, in Quaker Valley (PA) Sch. Dist., 39 IDELR 235 (OCR 1986), a girl with a neurodegenerative disorder that affected her motor, sensory, perceptual, and language functioning was denied the opportunity to go on field trips and participate in a swimming program. Due to “safety concerns”, the school principal had unilaterally made the decision to exclude her from six field trips with her third grade class, including a trip to a television station. She was the only student excluded from the field trips. In school the girl was provided with accommodations, such as an escort to assist her when walking and holding her hand. But no consideration was given to providing similar accommodations on the field trips or in the swimming program. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined that the “safety” considerations were not justified and that the girl should have been provided with accommodations to ensure her participation in the field trips and the swimming program. Additionally, OCR determined the school district violated Section 504 because it did not notify the girl’s parents of the upcoming field trips, while the other children’s’ parents were notified.
On the other hand, OCR has found that there are times when schools, after individual consideration, may exclude a student from a field trip if the student’s participation presents an unacceptable risk to the student’s health or safety. But the school must be able to justify that determination. In North Hunterdon (MD) Pub. Sch. Sys., 25 IDELR 165 (OCR 1996), OCR determined that the school district was justified in excluding a student from a field trip when the student had several seizures on the same day as the field trip. Well, the above pretty much sums up why I think it is a ridiculous waste of time to teach pigs to sing. Clearly I'm merely annoying them, since I've been trying to wrestle this sucker to the ground for about 8 years at this point.  You know that they just don't get it when field trips are announced with disclaimers about your child's disabling condition making them "not a good idea" or with admonishment to "be careful" because hazards will be present. The latter with a sly, mocking tone, indicating that the teacher writing it thinks quite little of the legitimacy of my child's very real hidden disability... By the way, it's not even been five years since national counsel helped me put these people into a headlock over pervasive non-inclusive and dangerous field trip policies that were endemic and systematic. They (and we) introduced a VERY carefully crafted statement that went along with ALL field trip announcements, only this year, apparently, there is now a push to do an end-run around it. ONLY my child's disability is mentioned. ONLY hers. I've looked. And you'd better believe I've documented it. Niiiice. REAL nice. What is that? Is that retaliation because we told them no more using us for marketing?? Is THAT it? Because don't think that OCR isn't going to get print-outs of screenshots over this. I've HAD it with these turkeys. 
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 417
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Posts: 417 |
Our district's average teacher salary is right in line with what Blackcat is reporting. Yet my child cannot get an education from this system that we are heavily paying for. I agree that money does not solve the problem. It really frustrates me that poor teachers are promoted and retained in our current system and that I am left having to home school my child with none of the funds that should be spent on his growth.
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