Harvey I agree that teachers should try to reach every despite what is happening at home.
My experiences are mostly with k-4, I assume you are working with older children. And the children you work with choose to be in your program.
There are some realities. Home life heavily impacts student performance. When a parent goes to jail, leaves home, beats a spouse, dies... children bring that baggage to school. To suggest that a teacher ignore that or is not impacted by it is simplistic. I was working with a 6 year old when she found her mother dead in the bathroom. You don't think that effected her school performance? Or that a teacher shouldn't be concerned about that?
The school where I have spent most of my time volunteering and working does tons of social service work.
The collect clothes and food and sometimes rent for families on the edge. The provide food bank cooking classes, child care and free movie nights. On free movie nights the principle goes out on the steps where she can talk to the smoking parents who otherwise never respond to notes or phone calls home.
Beyond all that, there is no doubt, involved parents make for better schools.
Any teacher who does not try to involve the parent is not doing their part.
Another reality is curriculum. In NCLB schools reading and math is taught using "proven" curriculum. This means scripted lessons, which leaves teachers little room to gear the lesson to the students. At our school they had a federally paid "coach" whose job was to see that teachers were following the script. Teachers used to take a break in the middle of reading block to read a book out loud. The coach threw that out, because it was not in the script. The coach eliminated a program that the kids loved that rewarded them for reading, because she need to prove that her program was the reason for increased test scores. She tried to illuminate my program, but failed. Sadly, budget cuts did the job for her.
I saw a teacher crying because she had to pass up a great teachable moment because it meant leaving the script.
Shit is bad out there.
I agree with you 100% that no matter what is happening at home, or in the school, the teachers job is to engage and teach.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Harvey...the problem is that instead of changing the teaching style or methods they are just lowering the bar so the kids "pass" so that the school gets their tax dollars which are predicated on having kids "pass". I believe this is what Barack wants to change first and foremost.
Well, there are 2 issues at work there. Students gaining a worthwhile education is one. And unfortunately, school closings is another.
A lot of the lowering of the bar ish that goes on isn't even about the kids. It's about racist admins who only wish to bring in top-flight programs to ghetto schools once they've had the opportunity to close them down then reopen them as magnet schools that attract kids from more well-to-do communities.
It's about a bunch of finger-pointing whiners keeping their jobs. I'm sorry, but in this economy, starting at $40K for a 10-month-a-year job isn't something to bitch and moan about.
Barack Obama is a pathological liar who is as full of shit as anyone there has ever been and the sooner that everyone openly realizes that the better.
Hold these teachers to task. There are plenty of great one out there. Use them to train the less successful teachers. Use curriculum proven to keep the kids engaged and on the right track. When I was a kid, teaching assistants were practically unheard of. Now, they are all over the place and somehow with more people on the job, less teaching is getting done?
Man, I'm so close to just saying screw all of this boo-hoo myth about how hard teachers have it. Anyone in any given job has it hard. Now, I don't hear people singing kumbaya for garbage collectors the day after a holiday when they have to do double-work. Where is their summer vacation?
I dunno, I certainly don't have all the answers...but this country has become the master of not knowing the first thing on how to deal with a problem. These regurgitated conversations by people who aren't doing shit in teh first place get us nowhere. Yeah, eventually the president has got to chime in...but his bitch ass needs to make good on his promises to "immediately" bring home troops from Iraq before I even give a shit what he thinks about schools.
Sucks. That's why I'm applying for my administrator credential. That and the idea that I need to move beyond the classroom to make any real change.
Anna, Most of the complaints I hear about our local(corrupt) Dallas Independent School District is that we have one administrator for every 2 teachers. Good and caring teachers feel that they can make real change in the classroom on an individual basis. But most of my teacher friends say the administrators are overpaid and under used as far as actual teaching goes. I'm assuming that the reason you want to become an adminsitrator is to make changes in ciriculum, teaching methods, etc. But in reality do these administrators really have that much impact?? I'd think if they did we wouldn't have the problems we currently have. especially at that 1:2 ratio. Educate me.
well, that ratio sounds super high, at the district office we have administrators such as deputy superintendents, program managers etc, but many working there are teachers and support staff. My school is a small school, one of six on a campus, we have one administrator and about twenty teachers. Comprehensive high schools have one principal, three or so vice principals and about 80-100 teachers.
I know I make change in the classroom, but I am constantly running into ridiculous roadblocks and obstacles and that's why I want to be in a leadership position. It will take a while to get where I can do big things, but that's my plan.
Sounds like you're in a much better situation than what we have here in Dallas....I think 2 of our last 4 District heads is in jail.
The other 2 should be in jail too. No way should there be more administrators than teachers.
You should vote out the school board.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Harvey I agree that teachers should try to reach every despite what is happening at home.
My experiences are mostly with k-4, I assume you are working with older children. And the children you work with choose to be in your program.
There are some realities. Home life heavily impacts student performance. When a parent goes to jail, leaves home, beats a spouse, dies... children bring that baggage to school. To suggest that a teacher ignore that or is not impacted by it is simplistic. I was working with a 6 year old when she found her mother dead in the bathroom. You don't think that effected her school performance? Or that a teacher shouldn't be concerned about that?
The school where I have spent most of my time volunteering and working does tons of social service work.
The collect clothes and food and sometimes rent for families on the edge. The provide food bank cooking classes, child care and free movie nights. On free movie nights the principle goes out on the steps where she can talk to the smoking parents who otherwise never respond to notes or phone calls home.
Beyond all that, there is no doubt, involved parents make for better schools.
Any teacher who does not try to involve the parent is not doing their part.
Another reality is curriculum. In NCLB schools reading and math is taught using "proven" curriculum. This means scripted lessons, which leaves teachers little room to gear the lesson to the students. At our school they had a federally paid "coach" whose job was to see that teachers were following the script. Teachers used to take a break in the middle of reading block to read a book out loud. The coach threw that out, because it was not in the script. The coach eliminated a program that the kids loved that rewarded them for reading, because she need to prove that her program was the reason for increased test scores. She tried to illuminate my program, but failed. Sadly, budget cuts did the job for her.
I saw a teacher crying because she had to pass up a great teachable moment because it meant leaving the script.
Shit is bad out there.
I agree with you 100% that no matter what is happening at home, or in the school, the teachers job is to engage and teach.
I didn't say that teachers should be insensitive to what's going on at home for a child. I said that their general effectiveness as teachers should apply no matter what is going on in the home. The scape-goating of parents by teachers has reached ridiculous levels. You can arrest a parent for hurting their children physically and emotionally. I'm not sure that there should be laws specifically governing how much time parents spend helping their kids with their homework. I mean, where do teachers expect this conversation to go? Dude up above wants to put half the parents of the kids his wife teaches in jail. How the hell would that help? Yes, we all want parents to be more involved. But noone's going to be able to force them to do so the way folks are fantasizing it. Shit just is what it is, leaving it up to schools to do the schooling. Plaese to focus on that teachers and administrators, because y'all aren't doing yourselves any favors by overblaming parents. Okay, I will stop repeating myself now.
Parents are so important. Unfortunately my parents are often missing from the picture or so overwhelmed themselves that they are at a loss about how to help their kids.
The saddest is when I call home and say, "Hi Mrs. *******, your son swore at me today and threw a chair across the room."
"Yeah, he does that to me too, what should I do?"
And speaking of social services, our district board voted on how to cut $100 million for next year, included in the cuts are
- program for pregnant teens and their babies (Cal-Safe) - our very successful program to make home visits to at-risk youth and families - English acquisition programs for families - school safety programs - all class size reductions - most elementary Art and Music programs - some teacher's health care benefits (San Diego Unified teachers are paid 33rd highest salary out of the 35 districts in the county)
Harvey...the problem is that instead of changing the teaching style or methods they are just lowering the bar so the kids "pass" so that the school gets their tax dollars which are predicated on having kids "pass". I believe this is what Barack wants to change first and foremost.
Schools are paid according to attedance mostly. The look at the number of students in the first two periods of school and than are paid according to that number. Under No Child Left Behind if a school gets bad test scores and doesn't improve them after put on a reform program than they can have their budget cut or be shut down. Whether kids pass or not is not part of the equation unless its NOT passing the NCLB test and then its a budget cut.
The news today said they're planning on firing 26,000 teachers in California.
The UC's and CSUs are also having massive buget cuts. San Jose State said they are going to turn down thousands of qualified applicants because they don't have the money to have classes for that many students.
P.S. - Vallejo unified, which has always been on of the most screwed up in the Bay along with Oakland, already gave out their pink slips to teachers a week or two ago. Oakland has also given out letters to teachers that may be up for firing.
Comments
My experiences are mostly with k-4, I assume you are working with older children. And the children you work with choose to be in your program.
There are some realities.
Home life heavily impacts student performance.
When a parent goes to jail, leaves home, beats a spouse, dies... children bring that baggage to school.
To suggest that a teacher ignore that or is not impacted by it is simplistic.
I was working with a 6 year old when she found her mother dead in the bathroom.
You don't think that effected her school performance?
Or that a teacher shouldn't be concerned about that?
The school where I have spent most of my time volunteering and working does tons of social service work.
The collect clothes and food and sometimes rent for families on the edge.
The provide food bank cooking classes, child care and free movie nights.
On free movie nights the principle goes out on the steps where she can talk to the smoking parents who otherwise never respond to notes or phone calls home.
Beyond all that, there is no doubt, involved parents make for better schools.
Any teacher who does not try to involve the parent is not doing their part.
Another reality is curriculum.
In NCLB schools reading and math is taught using "proven" curriculum.
This means scripted lessons, which leaves teachers little room to gear the lesson to the students.
At our school they had a federally paid "coach" whose job was to see that teachers were following the script.
Teachers used to take a break in the middle of reading block to read a book out loud.
The coach threw that out, because it was not in the script.
The coach eliminated a program that the kids loved that rewarded them for reading, because she need to prove that her program was the reason for increased test scores.
She tried to illuminate my program, but failed. Sadly, budget cuts did the job for her.
I saw a teacher crying because she had to pass up a great teachable moment because it meant leaving the script.
Shit is bad out there.
I agree with you 100% that no matter what is happening at home, or in the school, the teachers job is to engage and teach.
Well, there are 2 issues at work there. Students gaining a worthwhile education is one. And unfortunately, school closings is another.
A lot of the lowering of the bar ish that goes on isn't even about the kids. It's about racist admins who only wish to bring in top-flight programs to ghetto schools once they've had the opportunity to close them down then reopen them as magnet schools that attract kids from more well-to-do communities.
It's about a bunch of finger-pointing whiners keeping their jobs. I'm sorry, but in this economy, starting at $40K for a 10-month-a-year job isn't something to bitch and moan about.
Barack Obama is a pathological liar who is as full of shit as anyone there has ever been and the sooner that everyone openly realizes that the better.
Hold these teachers to task. There are plenty of great one out there. Use them to train the less successful teachers. Use curriculum proven to keep the kids engaged and on the right track. When I was a kid, teaching assistants were practically unheard of. Now, they are all over the place and somehow with more people on the job, less teaching is getting done?
Man, I'm so close to just saying screw all of this boo-hoo myth about how hard teachers have it. Anyone in any given job has it hard. Now, I don't hear people singing kumbaya for garbage collectors the day after a holiday when they have to do double-work. Where is their summer vacation?
I dunno, I certainly don't have all the answers...but this country has become the master of not knowing the first thing on how to deal with a problem. These regurgitated conversations by people who aren't doing shit in teh first place get us nowhere. Yeah, eventually the president has got to chime in...but his bitch ass needs to make good on his promises to "immediately" bring home troops from Iraq before I even give a shit what he thinks about schools.
The other 2 should be in jail too.
No way should there be more administrators than teachers.
You should vote out the school board.
I didn't say that teachers should be insensitive to what's going on at home for a child. I said that their general effectiveness as teachers should apply no matter what is going on in the home. The scape-goating of parents by teachers has reached ridiculous levels. You can arrest a parent for hurting their children physically and emotionally. I'm not sure that there should be laws specifically governing how much time parents spend helping their kids with their homework. I mean, where do teachers expect this conversation to go? Dude up above wants to put half the parents of the kids his wife teaches in jail. How the hell would that help? Yes, we all want parents to be more involved. But noone's going to be able to force them to do so the way folks are fantasizing it. Shit just is what it is, leaving it up to schools to do the schooling. Plaese to focus on that teachers and administrators, because y'all aren't doing yourselves any favors by overblaming parents. Okay, I will stop repeating myself now.
Not for nothing, I find this pretty hard to believe.
The saddest is when I call home and say, "Hi Mrs. *******, your son swore at me today and threw a chair across the room."
"Yeah, he does that to me too, what should I do?"
And speaking of social services, our district board voted on how to cut $100 million for next year, included in the cuts are
- program for pregnant teens and their babies (Cal-Safe)
- our very successful program to make home visits to at-risk youth and families
- English acquisition programs for families
- school safety programs
- all class size reductions
- most elementary Art and Music programs
- some teacher's health care benefits (San Diego Unified teachers are paid 33rd
highest salary out of the 35 districts in the county)
etc etc. very sad.
Schools are paid according to attedance mostly. The look at the number of students in the first two periods of school and than are paid according to that number. Under No Child Left Behind if a school gets bad test scores and doesn't improve them after put on a reform program than they can have their budget cut or be shut down. Whether kids pass or not is not part of the equation unless its NOT passing the NCLB test and then its a budget cut.
The news today said they're planning on firing 26,000 teachers in California.
The UC's and CSUs are also having massive buget cuts. San Jose State said they are going to turn down thousands of qualified applicants because they don't have the money to have classes for that many students.
P.S. - Vallejo unified, which has always been on of the most screwed up in the Bay along with Oakland, already gave out their pink slips to teachers a week or two ago. Oakland has also given out letters to teachers that may be up for firing.